Author Spotlight: Nick Spalding

Nick, it’s truly a pleasure to have you here! As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a huge, huge, fan of dramedies, and your stories—with their perfect blend of humor and heart, not to mention your signature cheeky style—offer exactly the kind of escape we all need these days. Please keep on writing.

For those that don’t know you, Nick, can you tell us a bit about yourself and an overview of how you got started writing in the first place?

I’ve been writing all my life, but only got to the stage of being good enough to have anything published about 15 years ago. That’s when the great Kindle self publishing revolution got going, and I was able to ride that wave with Love From Both Sides into a career that’s lasted me ever since.

Henlit Central is all about celebrating women 40+ embracing new chapters. In your books, you often write female characters who are strong, funny, and beautifully imperfect. How do you approach writing women so authentically?

Honestly, I have no idea! I just try my hardest to write all of my characters as real people, rather than as archetypes or cliches, and I guess that helps. I think sometimes male writers tend to forget that women are human beings with just as many good points and bad points as men. There’s a lot more we have in common with each other that the stuff that separates us.

A lot of your characters deal with love, dating, and self-discovery later in life — something our Henlit Central readers definitely appreciate. Was that a conscious choice, or did it just evolve naturally with your writing?

I’d say that definitely evolves naturally as you gain more experience, and get older. I think people with more history make for better characters a lot of the time, and I like to explore emotions and attitudes that develop over a long period of time.

What inspires you to write ‘dramedy’?

Ultimately, you can only write laugh out loud comedy for so long, before it starts to become a bit repetitive and the challenge gets lost. I wanted to push myself to get into more serious topics, to keep things interesting for both myself and the readers. The balance can be quite hard to maintain, but that’s what editors are for! I will often go back and forth on a scenario until that balance is right. You can never be 100% sure you’ve got it spot on, but in the end, you have to just put the story out there, and hope it hits people in the right way. That certainly seems to have happened with Grave Talk, and I’m hoping for the same with my next book, which is largely about men’s mental health.

If readers could take away one feeling or message after finishing Grave Talk, what would you hope it would be?

Love the people in your life as hard as you possibly can. We all only get one go around.

You’ve published both independently and with big publishers like Amazon’s Lake Union. What have you learned from each experience, and would you recommend one path over the other for aspiring authors in midlife?

I don’t think I could say definitively which method is better. Both come with advantages and disadvantages. It’s really down to the individual choice of the author. For me, self publishing was the best start I could have possibly had, but times were very different back then, so I wouldn’t know whether it would still be right for me today.

Are any of your books and cast of characters based on your family members or friends?

Too many 😊

If you had to pick one of your characters to have a pint (or three) with, who would it be and why?

Probably Red from Old Boys. I think he’d be a lot of fun.

Which book of yours do you think would make the perfect Netflix series or movie for the “over 40 and fabulous” crowd? (And who would you cast?)

Old Boys would be a visually interesting story in live action. Everybody who’s read it says Bill Nighy would make the perfect Red. I think Grave Talk would probably do well, as it’s similar to both One Day and After Life, both of which have been made into very successful TV adaptations.

What feelings does writing evoke for you?

I’d like to give you an ultra cool, lyrical answer like ‘it’s makes me feel whole and better as a human being’ … but the truth is that while writing I mainly feel anxiety, and when I’m done I mainly feel relief.

It may be too difficult to choose, but do you have a favorite novel you have written? Or perhaps a novel that you are most proud of? And what are the reasons for your selection?

I don’t think there’s one that I love above any of the others, to be honest with you. Fat Chance has made me the most money, so I guess that one? 😊 Your books are weird things to think about, when you’re a writer. You go through stages of loving each and every one of them (usually at the development stage) and despising each and every one of them too (usually after the seventh or eighth round of edits). It always feels much more up to the readers which ones are good and which ones aren’t.

When did it dawn on you that you wanted to be a writer?

Can’t nail down a specific age, but I was very young. Maybe twelve/ thirteen. I devoured books at that age, and started to wonder what it would be like to write one…

Tell us what a typical writing routine looks like for you and how long does it take you from idea to the time you finish your final edit on most of your books?

My daily routine when writing is generally to finish 2000 words in the morning, before moving on to all the boring admin stuff after that. It’s generally about four or five months from coming up with an idea, to finishing a first draft. The final version of the book takes about 10 months to a year, give or take.

Besides getting lost in your writing, what else do you love to do? I’m a big nerd, so I play video games, and paint Warhammer miniatures 😊 I also go for a lot of long walks with my wife, and consume a great deal of coffee in the form of the greatest drink ever invented: the flat white.

Who are some of your favorite authors and why?

Terry Pratchett remains the greatest author of humorous fiction in history. But also shout-outs to Douglas Adams, and Bill Bryson in the same category. Otherwise, I have loved Stephen King since I was a kid far too young to be reading his stuff, and there’s a sci-fi author called Dan Abnett whose work I also enjoy a great deal. Obviously Tolkien too. I have read Lord Of The Rings an unhealthy amount of times.

Any advice you’d like to give to aspiring writers in today’s world?

This is such a difficult question! Pursue it as hard as you can, as well as you can, but don’t be afraid to move on to something else, if you feel you’re not getting anywhere. Writing to a publishable standard is really, really, really hard. Always be 100% professional. Never bad mouth anybody, ever. Be as polite to people who dislike your work as the ones who love it. Don’t try to self edit, unless you are already in a profession that requires editing as a skill. Remember that story is character, and character is story. The three-act structure works for a reason. Stories are always about people, even when they’re not. Omit needless words.

For your loyal fans, is there anything in the pipeline you can tell us about?

I have a new book coming out in October that is about men’s mental health and the ways we deal (or otherwise don’t) with the problems we face in life. It’s called ‘Totally Fine’ and is about a guy who most definitely isn’t.

Do you think there’ll ever be a day when you’ll want to stop writing stories and why?

Maybe? When I’m really old and out of ideas. Or if I write something that sells ten million copies. Mind you, at that point, I’d probably want to write the sequel.

Thank you again for joining us, Nick. Looking forward to your next book regarding men’s mental health. A very important topic today so I cannot wait to share with my hubby!