Nicole Zoltack's Road to Publication

I write lots of genres - fantasy/paranormal, historical, horror, YA, romances, and combinations thereof. My favorite to write in is fantasy romance, like my Kingdom of Arnhem series.

Why? I have always been a hopeless romantic. I couldn't wait to fall in love. I had to wait until I was 18 years old to be kissed, but I ended up marrying him. So it's no wonder that I love to write romances.

As for writing fantasy, I love how wide open the genre is. Literally anything is possible. Magic exists. So do mythological creatures. Pegasus. Centaurs, some with dolphin tails (known as icthyocentaurs). Dark elves. Dwarves. Trolls.

I guess I should say high fantasy romance because my fantasy novels take place in a medieval-like setting. Knights, magic, and romance. What more could you want?

So now you know why I write fantasy romance. But how did I get published?

I first learned about Desert Breeze through a publisher chat on a yahoo group. As the chat was winding down, Gail Delaney (the EIC) mentioned that she loved series, especially for fantasy and a few other genres. I mentioned to her that I had an unfinished manuscript that would be part of a series and briefly described it to her. She said to send it to her when it was finished.

The story I had mentioned was a Nano story (National Novel Writing Month when authors around the world try to write a 50K in November). I abandoned all other side projects and focused on the novel until I completed it. After finishing it, I submitted to Gail and waited. Shortly thereafter, she emailed me an acceptance for Woman of Honor.

Desert Breeze is a non-erotic romance publisher, which is perfect for me. My novels tend to have crossover appeal. Woman of Honor is a coming-of-age fantasy romance, so it's definitely for YA and adults.

Anyhow, I had mentioned to Gail about the series during the yahoo chat, and we worked together to figure out the direction that the series could take so that the entire series was fantasy romance, each book centering on a different couple.

Woman of Honor is the tale of young Aislinn, a girl who wants to become a knight and finds love along the way.

Knight of Glory is about Geoffrey as he travels across the continent to find allies for Arnhem, while he tries to decide between two very different, mysterious ladies.

Champion of Valor focuses on Selliki the selkie and Gabrael the mage amidst the finals battles between Arnhem and Speica.

And that's my publication story!