Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicole Scott.
Hi Nicole, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I have been an avid reader for as long as I can remember. Even as a child, I enjoyed reading to earn personal pan pizzas from Pizza Hut for reading on my own. I’ve also been in a book club for over twenty-five years. It seems only natural that reading would one day lead to writing. However, my journey has not been an easy one. At first, writing was working for me because it was helping me ease a broken heart. So I jumped right out the gate trying to get a literary agent while I was in the beginning stages of writing. But I didn’t have thick skin yet. After a couple of rejection letters, I was heartbroken and quickly gave up on my dream and moved on to something else while raising my children. Later on, I found out that rejection letters were very commonplace. Many years later, something was still missing from my life. So I began writing again. This time I was determined to take it seriously and not give up so easily. Encouraged to do more, I took workshops, joined a writing group, and wrote freelance articles for magazines all while working a full-time job. When I sent out a query, I got a book deal right away. Life got in the way though. The timing of this couldn’t have been more wrong. I couldn’t concentrate on writing because of the stress from the breakup of my marriage. So my publisher dropped me while I was going through my divorce. Once again, I decided a writing career must not be meant to be and I pushed it to the side.
A couple of years later, a good friend who wrote several books decided to start her own publishing company. She asked me if I wanted to sign with her and I understood why things hadn’t worked out before. Everything happens when it is supposed to. My debut novel The Best in Me was published June of 2021. Father, Can You Hear Me? is my second novel and will be released March 15, 2022. I am currently working on my next novel and I am happy.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No, it hasn’t been a smooth road, but they say nothing worth having comes easy. I am learning that life is about perception. If you see something as being a bad thing, then it is. If you figure out how to use the lesson, you can turn any situation into something good. If I had given up on myself after those rejection letters in the very beginning, then I wouldn’t have published books in readers hands today. At the time, I probably wasn’t ready anyway. If I had stopped when I couldn’t concentrate on writing because I was going through a tough time, something would still be missing from my life. The bumps in the road may have slowed me down, but they didn’t stop me.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I write faith-based family dramas to entertain and inspire women. I grew up in Cleveland and my mother took me to church every Sunday. God is a big part of my life. So I wanted to make sure that He was a part of my work. But church people make mistakes and like everyone else. When I’m writing, I make it exciting and helpful so my readers keep turning the pages and I throw in a plot twist here and there too. I am always proud when someone tells me that they loved my book, when I see that a reader gave me a great review online, or when people tell me that they are anxiously waiting for my waiting for my next novel to come out. Those compliments keep me going.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
I think everyone should have someone around them that inspires them to do better. If you have someone that you look up to, you should ask them to be your mentor. I have met famous authors whose books have been sitting on my bookshelf for years. At first, I was apprehensive about asking questions, but they ended up giving me advice about writing that was very useful to me.
Contact Info:
- Email: Nicole@authornicolescott.com
- Website: www.AuthorNicoleScott.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/thenicolescott/
- Facebook: facebook.com/authornicolescott
- Twitter: twitter.com/thenicolescott
Image Credits:
T. Denise Photography
