K. K. Nikolaou is the author of “The Nokka”, which is an enchanting and magical children’s and young adult fiction story following the adventures of Jenifer and Jory.
K. K. Nikolaou
1: I am a complete technophobe and I type with two fingers.
2: It took me over five years to write The Nokka and it was only in the last year that I treated myself to a proper office chair. Prior to that, I suffered a numb bum sitting on a hard wooden fold up one from my garden.
3: I still have to pinch myself when I think that my editor for The Nokka has worked with Philip Pullman and Michelle Harrison. His Dark Materials and The Thirteen Treasures trilogy are some of my all time favourite books.
4: Im an introvert. I spend hours in my writing cave with my boxer dog Betty ignoring the phone and avoiding all contact with the outside world.
5: I did all of the illustrations for The Nokka myself. I originally commissioned an illustrator but things didn’t work out. It was very fulfilling to bring my characters to life in charcoal.
6: I am an early bird. I’m at my most creative at the start of the day and often wake at 5 am with an idea or a solution to a plot line I’ve struggled with. I don’t write at all in the evening and am usually in bed by ten.
7: I learned to read at a very early age. My dad would take me to WH Smith each week to buy a book and by the time I had reached five I had pretty much read the entire collection of Enid Blyton. The Magic Faraway Tree trilogy was my absolute favourite and some people have commented that they can see elements of this in The Nokka.
8: A complete draft of a previous story was eradicated when my house was struck by lightning and all my electrical devices were taken out. Had it not been for that lightning bolt The Nokka may never have come to light.
9: I can be impulsive. At the age of forty, on the spur of the moment, I sold my house, my car and all of my possessions and with only a suitcase to my name went to live in Spain.
10: I can also be indecisive. I changed the title of The Nokka four times. It started out as Entwined then became The Legend of Gilangelly. But at that time there were lots of books around about legends so I changed it to The Mark of The Fyglia. The Nokka was a last minute decision, which only came about after signing my publishing contract.
The Nokka is available to buy from Amazon and from www.bookguild.co.uk