Hello Everyone!
Welcome to another edition of the Meet the Author series! I am very excited and honoured to have Nicole Louie, the author of Others Like Me: The Lives of Women Without Children, on this Q and A.
Nicole is a writer and translator based in Ireland. I first came across her work a few years ago on social media, after reading her evocative and hopeful essay on Childfree Christmas traditions in Childfree Magazine. Her piece exuded warmth and left a lasting impression on me.
Over the past couple of years, I have interacted with Nicole many times, discussing everything from book and show recommendations to our mutual admiration for Jane Austen. She has transitioned from being an online acquaintance to a good friend. Nicole is funny, wise, and full of compassion. When she’s not working on her book, she’s creating beautiful posts about libraries and reading, and curating reading lists on Goodreads.
I am incredibly grateful to have met Nicole and to have been a part of her book launch. It is an absolute pleasure interacting with her.
Lets dive in and get to know the person behind the book.
Usha: Welcome Nicole , why don’t we start with two fun facts about you?
Nicole: Hi I am Nicole and two fun facts about me are
- I collect books signed by female authors.
- I am allergic to alcohol.
Usha: What genre do you prefer reading and do you have a favourite genre?
Nicole: I am drawn to nonfiction. You’ll find biographies, memoirs, diaries and books of letters all over my house. I also read poetry a lot – I write poetry compulsively, so one thing feeds from the others. Growing up in Brazil, I mainly read Brazilian fiction in my teens and twenties. Then, I got a degree in Brazilian Literature. For the past months, since I finished writing Others Like Me, I’ve been taking a break from research and books that will make my brain overthink what’s on the page and turning to Irish and Japanese fiction authors “for fun” – I’ll read anything by Clare Keegan, Nuala O’Connor, Sara Baume and Sayaka Murata. Mieko Kawakami is next.
Usha: What do you prefer, paperback, hardback ,e books or Audio books ?
Nicole: It depends on what I’m reading and why I’m reading it. I’m not attached to any format in particular and can see the benefits in all of them. If I’m reading for pleasure, I’m happy to bring the paper version (be it hardback or paperback) to bed or the audiobook version for a walk. If I’m doing research, I’ll probably stay in the audiobook lane and take short notes on my phone, then get the paper version afterwards to write down quotes and references. If it’s a book I want to quote a lot, I’ll get the e-book version to select the quotes and download it through my Kindle account. If I’m in the middle of an editing phase (for a book or piece I’m working on), I’ll gravitate towards paper versions because I want to see the words, highlight, take notes on the page and think more about structure, word choice and cadence so I can keep polishing my draft.
Usha: What was the first book you read that you remember?
Nicole: I don’t remember the name, but my best guess is something by Agatha Christie because my mother had this phase when the house was full of Agatha’s, Edgar Allan Poe’s and Sydney Sheldon’s books. Because I always revolved around books by or about women, I’d imagine I read Agatha first. When my interest in books started, crime novels were all I could find in the house, so that’s what I read. After that, my mother went through a historical fiction phase, and I followed her reading steps again.
Usha: What can we find in your writing space /desk? What is your ideal writing space?
Nicole: Ideally, it’d be a quiet and bright space. I’m lucky to have a writing room like this now, but I wrote in many dingy spaces before that. At the moment, I have a wooden desk with a second screen, a reading rack, a panda mouse, an old cup filled with highlighting markers, a stack of sticky notes and two wooden boxes with pens my husband gave me as a wedding gift – one adorned with my favorite colors and the other made with stones from Wicklow, a very special place for us.
Usha: Pen or computer? What do you prefer
Nicole: Pen for brainstorming ideas and collecting sentences. Computer for drafting and editing. I use both regularly.
Usha: If you could pick one literary figure from past or present, to meet and chat / to interview, who would you choose?
Nicole: I’d love to interview Nellie Bly, an American journalist who, aiming to investigate reports of brutality in women asylums, feigned insanity, committed herself to an asylum for ten days, and wrote an exposé about it (“Ten Days in a Mad-House”). That was in 1887. Two years later, she turned the fictional Around the adventure novel World in Eighty Days (by Jules Verne) into fact by circumnavigating the globe in 72 days and becoming news everywhere. What a woman! What I’d not give to go for a long walk and chat away with her.
Usha: How important was it to write this (Others Like Me)book?
Nicole: Very. It was where I put most of my energy for the past 14 years, and it felt like giving birth to myself. I feel like a weight has been lifted now that it’s in the world and no longer only a file on my computer. Now that Others Like Me is in bookstores, I look forward to actually living and not thinking only about my life as a woman without children.
Usha: What are your favourite literary journals?
Nicole: Write or Die Magazine is my absolute favourite. It’s from the same creators of Chill Subs and that small group of people is saving writers worldwide a ton of time and giving them so much hope by creating a tool filled with opportunities and resources for the community. I went from not submitting my poetry for years to submitting dozens of pieces the week I found their platform. They are superheroes.
Usha: Is there a literary journey you’d love to embark on or have envisioned for yourself?
Nicole: Yes. I’d like to dip my toes into fiction, but I think this will be later on. Maybe book 3 or 4, as book 2 is presenting itself as nonfiction in my brain, for the moment, anyway. I’d also like to write a book for children and edit a book with essays by other women. Find a common theme, the right women to chime in, and make the best of it. I can only wish to live to a hundred to get all of this and more done.
Usha: Any upcoming projects
Nicole: Always. Book 2 mentioned above will be about women’s bodies. This is my second year researching the theme, and it’s coming fast—much faster than anything I’ve ever experienced in my writing projects. I’m keeping my eyes and ears open to all related subtopics and gathering the pieces wherever I go until the puzzle is solved. Wish me luck!
Best of luck to you Nicole from me and the readers. That’s brings us to the end of the Q and A. Thank you very much for your time on this Meet the Author and giving us an insight in to the Author’s world.
Find out more about Nicole on her linktree with links to her website, and her work
Do give her a follow on her Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/bynicolelouie/
That’s all from me folks on this edition of Meet the Author. Until next time, Happy reading.
Le Coin Des Bobby 