First of all tell us about the start of your professional career?
Hi! Thank you so much for having me, I am very enthused about doing the interview with you. Just to give some background: I am a published novelist and poet, with the bestselling Amazon novel ‘Addictarium,’ and SIX poetry collections to date. I am publishing the sequel to Addictarium in early 2019, as well as two more poetry collections. I am a very dedicated writer and artist, and practice art in almost all its facets!
Aside from that I own my own magazine network, creative services small-business, and am a former published art model. So I have been a dedicated muse as well as artist, because I love all aspects of creativity!
What attracted you to begin a career as an author? Why do you feel this is the ideal profession for you?
What attracted me to being an author was my drive for poetry from the time I was small. I then decided to turn the poetry into a full length novel / memoir, so my account of addiction in my memoir was definitely approached from a poetic angle!
I’ve always written and have always been creative. It’s in my blood, it’s who I have always always been.
How do you like to be managed? What sort of management style gets the best out of you professionally?
I like working with the new press I’ve republished with because they allowed me a lot of creative control. The main reason I initially felt apprehensive about signing the rights to the book over, is because I had a very detailed and non-commercially-motivated vision for The War Stories Chronicles.
What advice would you give to beginners who are nervous?
Just be cool, be you. Relax and have fun too. You can take the profession–the art of it–seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously.
What’s your motto or the advice you live by?
My motto is honesty. My closest friends, family & confidantes will all say the same thing: whatever you say about me you cannot say I am not honest, sincere OR un-apologetically me.
As a reviewer stated – “the draw with this memoirist is that she is un-apologetically herself, no matter the flaws. She can answer why she is the way she is and why she thinks the things she does.”
I really enjoyed that. And this was unbiased. This reviewer pulled no punches, she critiqued ME thoroughly and sincerely herself, so I was really feeling her explanation.
So that’s my thing – be honest. You don’t have to be vicious, brutal, to be honest. Some folks misinterpret ‘brutal honesty’ for being brash and insensitive. That’s not honesty, it’s inauthentic because it’s a pose.
My thing is ‘move through life with honesty as well as grace.’
Since beginning your career tell me about a situation that has made you proud. Why was this, and what was the outcome?
I was proud when I one my first award. That was so refreshing. I didn’t want to feel as though I’d pursued something impossible; writing in a complex and in-depth manner for a world which no longer cares about literature.
I was also proud when I was able to relate to a lot of young women. That was really amazing and refreshing.
Who is your role model and why?
I have never liked the term role model. It insinuates perfection. It sets you and that person up for disappointment and failure; unrealistic expectations.
There are most definitely muses who’ve inspired me greatly though; visual artist Matthew Goodsell, writer Anais Nin, poet Sylvia Plath, musicians KoRn and Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, so many more. I definitely look up to these artists and that in a way makes them my ‘role models.’
How can we follow you on social media ?
@AuthorNDSettemi on Twitter
@NICPublications for business, on Twitter
@poetnicoledsettemi on IG
@StarvingArtista & @nicoledsettemi on FB
@addictarium & @witewaytobookit for business on FB
