Welcome Caroline! Thanks for joining us.
Tell us a little about yourself. This is Love is your first published novel. Have you always wanted to be a writer?
CN: I think at first, I wanted to more of a reader than a writer. I’ve always liked reading but when my husband and I started working opposite schedules, I had a lot of down time. It’s then that I fell in love with reading. I would go through a book a day! Then I found myself creating my own endings or creating scenes I’d hoped to see in the book. After that, I thought, ‘hey, why don’t I write my own story?’ That’s how this all started…
Where did the idea for your book come from?
CN: I get ideas for books constantly. Sometimes it’s just a line by a character or a scene I picture. I write them all down and work a story around it. The idea for This Is Love actually came to me while I was watching a rerun of Criminal Minds..strange for a contemporary romance I know, but I like to think I can find romance in almost anything!
Are you a planner or a pantser when it comes to your writing?
CN: I think I’m more of a planner.. I’ll have certain arcs or plots in the story line I know I need to get to, I usually can picture the epilogue way before I even write Chapter 5, BUT, I usually surprise myself on how I get there. My fingers will write faster than my mind I think sometimes. But then I’ll sit back, read what I wrote and go with it.
Do you have another project on the go right now?
CN: I just finished the first draft of my second novel Everything Unexpected. I call my first drafts the poopoo drafts. I’m terrified to go back and read what I wrote, lol. This Is Love went through about a dozen rewrites.. I expect the same to be true with EU. But I’m lucky to have a great editor and fantastic BETA readers to help guide me when I’m having issues or in general want to shred everything I wrote!
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
CN: I’m so new to this that I really can’t give much advice. I’m still the one asking all the questions!!! Come back to me in one year and ask me the same question. Hopefully I can give an inspiring answer!
Bonus Question (I have to ask)…Is it true you know Ryan Gosling
CN: HAHA! I haven’t seen him in years!!! But we are from the same small town! He left when we were still in grade school to do the Mickey Mouse club. He came back from time to time and we’d see him around town. He used to be friends with some girls I was friends with back in the day. I remember when the Notebook came out, my best friend and I went to the theatre to see it thinking it was the funniest thing to watch Ryan in a movie. After we saw it, we never thought of Ryan the same way (wink, wink).
Caroline Nolan writes stories about love and all the beauty and ugliness that comes along with it. She lives in Toronto with her husband and their fur baby. She is currently working on her second novel.
Visit Caroline on Facebook and Goodreads
This is Love
Rachel Miller had love, life and happiness…until she didn’t.
Uncertain of how to cope and move on without him, Rachel’s life comes to halt as she mourns the loss of her fiance Ben. Then one night she discovers it doesn’t have to.
By way of dreams, Rachel and Ben continue to live the life they had planned together. It’s unconventional, it’s not even real, but it’s enough for Rachel. For the first time since Ben’s death, she’s happy…whole. That is until she runs into someone she barely knew from years ago and suddenly real life is just as great as her dream one.
Now Rachel doesn’t know what to do. Will letting someone new in threaten what she has with Ben? Or will their love story threaten her new happiness? Is it crazy to chase after a ghost while being caught up by someone very real?
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