Author Natasja Hellenthal Shares Their Story

About the Author
Although a writer for most of my adult life, I am now a published author with my debut Fantasy novel. Born in The Netherlands 38 years ago,I have traveled, lived in Norway, Wales, Northern-Ireland and now living near Manchester, UK, with my partner, two small children, two dogs and a cat.

‘The Queen’s Curse’ was launched on Amazon Kindle on the first of May this year.
I have written two further Fantasy novels and a trilogy which I am currently in the process of getting them ready for publication.

What inspires you to write romance books?
‘The Queen’s Curse’
This novel has been in the making some twenty years now, so basically whilst I myself was struggling with a lot of things that happened in society affecting me as a very sensitive person such as justice and injustice, what it’s like being powerless, freedom or the loss of it and of course my coming out and experiencing romance. Waking one morning with one line in my head, I started to build the story around it. The characters are all based upon different aspects of me, so it came natural to write and the story soon came to life. Although originally written in Dutch, once moved to the UK and mainly reading in English, it became clear it had to be translated to English and it had to be good enough to be able to reach a very competitive market. Hence the twenty years!

I like to think it a original heroic spiritual Fantasy with a lesbian sub-theme, because I don’t want to be labeled as a lesbian writer or this a lesbian novel. The main theme is not about lesbians; the two main characters just happen to be just that. It makes it even harder for them to live their lives with the curse around, so the story becomes more interesting. I wanted to steer away from the cliches so often found in main stream Fantasy. Reaching out to a broad audience I hope that both male and female, straight and gay can relate to this story as it has many interesting elements such as: justice/injustice, power/control, romance, freedom,adventure, magic, immortality, intrigue, soul searching, love, life, loss and near death experience.

In this book I explore the ancient battle between good and evil so common in Fantasy.
What is evil and how does someone become bad; a question that has always intrigued me. In my work I deal with all elements of life, love and loss and try to build strong characters as realistic as possible, for even though the genre is Fantasy I want people to feel connected with my heroes and villains as they would with their friends.

Tell us about how you write:
My writing is based on my dreams and I work from there. I just let it flow.

Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I listen. Only when I’m really stuck or cannot understand their actions I talk to my characters. I might not get an answer right away, but we get there in the end.

What advice would you give other writers?
Be yourself. Keep writing, rewriting and read through your work. Also read the best and create your own voice. You have to stand out from the masses.

How did you decide how to publish your books?
As I’m a bit of an environmentalist it only came natural to go the e-book route. I would recommend it to others to help save the trees (-:

What do you think about the future of book publishing?
There are so much more books out there and your book can get lost and there is no quality control on it, so it has to stand out to interest the crowd and get noticed among the rest.Be a gem. E-publishing is the way forward.

What genres do you write?
Fantasy, Lesbian,Romance, Spiritual

What formats are your books in?
eBook

Website(s)
Author Home Page Link
Link To Author Page On Amazon
Link to Author Page on other site

Your Social Media Links
http://www.goodreads.com/natasjahellenthal
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Natasja-Hellenthal/379200808864872?bookmark_t=page
https://twitter.com/natasjahellenth