Q1. Hello, can you please introduce yourself? Readers would love to know more about you.
A1. Erin Nichols grew up and still resides in the Sacramento area of Northern California. She loves the natural world, spending time outdoors, and is always looking forward to her next adventure. She graduated from California State University, Sacramento with a Masters in Speech-Language Pathology. Erin works as a health coach and believes in always striving to learn and grow.
Q2. What were the key challenges you faced while writing your book “No Matter What”?
A2. My biggest challenge was moving beyond recounting the events and digging into the emotions. Some of the events themselves were highly emotional, and had me typing through tears, others I had to dig deep to unearth my deeper experience and let the reader into my thoughts ad feelings.
Q3. What books or authors have most influenced your own writing?
A3. I found a great deal of help from reading Stephen King’s On Writing. I in no way write like him, but his writing process and tips in the book informed my own writing. While writing the book I read Long Litt Woon’s The Way Through the Woods, which inspired me to explore my own grief and how I was moving through it.
Q4. What’s your favourite spot to visit in your own country? And what makes it so special to you?
A4. I absolutely love the Marin Headlands, on the other side of the Golden Gate bridge from San Francisco. We spent a year there in Marin County at a hospital at the base of Mt. Tamalpais. I’ve returned over and over to explore the various terrains and views of the ocean, the bay, and the forest.
Q5. What inspired you to write the book ‘No Matter What’?
A5. People had been asking me to write a book for years, but I didn’t know what my angle was. It hit me one night when I awoke at 3am, it’s a memoir telling the whole story in a series of short stories. I wanted not only to immortalize Sam and our story but share my experience of moving through an incredibly difficult set of circumstances while striving to be positive and growing relentlessly.
Q6. How long did it take you to write your book ‘No Matter What’?
A6. Writing the book spanned over four years in total, but most of the writing took place over about nine months in 2022.
Q7. On what platforms can readers buy your books?
A7. The book will be available on Amazon and in Sacramento, Ca area bookstores.
Q8. Tell us about the process of coming up with the book cover and the title ‘No Matter What’?
A8. Originally, I’d crafted a cover on Canva with a black, red, and white color palette, featuring a bloody heart. When we got serious about needing a cover design, I knew I didn’t want to be on the cover myself, then I stumbled upon the graffiti picture from Fallujah. Sam looks amazing, and the love note says it all. As soon as I saw the picture, I knew that was the cover image. The Red Cliff team did an amazing of transferring a snapshot into a cover I’m in love with, and it just happens to be in the same color palette as my original design.
The title changed a couple of times. The original title was Let’s Stay Together, our song. It then became Our Promise, referencing a promise we made to each other as teenagers that reflects the central theme of the book. we (my publisher and I) wanted something a bit more intriguing though, and she came up with No Matter What. I loved it instantly.
Q9. When writing a book how do you keep things fresh, for both your readers and also yourself?
A9. Writing in different environments helped me. I had my regular routine, but I also took a couple weekend writing retreats where I stayed in an Airbnb in the woods and hiked and wrote. After the second draft I sent it out to a handful of beta readers to get their feedback which turned out to be invaluable.
Q10. What is the most valuable piece of advice you’ve been given about writing?
Just write. Even when you don’t feel like it, be disciplined to your scheduled writing times and get something down. You can always edit and polish later.
Buy No Matter What on Amazon
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