I was lucky to get an interview with Alice E. Johnson, the author of Little Secrets, one of this year’s #SPFBO9 entries.
Please, tell us a bit about yourself…
I live in Nottingham, England with my husband and 3 children. I began my writing career back in the early 2000s as a ghostwriter, I used the national press as a gateway, but it was never meant to be. My heart belonged to the world of darkness.
As I say I love grimness, and there’s nothing grimmer than our own sordid history. My writing career in self-publishing truly began with The Hangman’s turn, which propelled me forwards, publishing The Rose of Nottingham and The Witch’s steps, all part of the grim Nottingham series. My first dabble with fantasy was with The Darkest Night, a retelling of the Roman invasion of Britain, this was very low fantasy with just a few bits of superstition thrown in. Freshwater was also a dark fantasy and a very short story, set in Scotland about salty sex pests, or Mermaids, it can be read in a day or less.
When it comes to Little Secrets it has been a journey, it’s not only the biggest book I’ve ever written but also the longest, by this I mean the premise of the book is around 20 years in the making. Having young children and trying to start an author career has been challenging but very worth it. I love the community I’m a part of and I would never give that up. Although I often find myself pointing out typos in kid’s books to their teachers, yes, I’m that person.
Why should I buy your SPFBO9 entry?
Death, chaos and war ravage the lands. Harris, a warrior of Xencliff and stepson of a king has seen worse, what he brings sets fate in stone. This is not war, this is a massacre.
Little Secrets sits on the fence of sub-genres, it can be enjoyed by those who enjoy the battle scenes, those who want to see a character face ungodly challenges, but also, it’s a good read for those who enjoy the lighter side of humanity, with a bit of humour and romance thrown in, it has a taste for most pallets.
“No newspaper wants to buy a story by a thirteen year old little girl, so I often claimed I was twenty two, I managed to sell a few, by the time I left school I started ghost writing for a family friend who had a publishing business...”
Subgenre: Epic Fantasy
Pages: 418
Self-published: 2023
What got you into writing? And how long have you been doing it?
Honesty is the best policy here, reading was never something I did on a massive scale when I was younger, although I wanted to, I was desperate to read a Nancy Drew story. I remember sitting in my tiny box room as an eleven-year-old, clutching the pages of a book, any book, desperately trying to find enough focus to read it, but I never could. It wasn’t until I was in my teens that I started reading with passion, I stole my mum’s copy of The Lord of the Flies and refused to allow myself to leave the room until a chapter was read. My room was so tidy that day and I always believed something was wrong with my wonky brain. I struggled to read it, but I loved the story, I went on to read Animal Farm which really hooked me in. Crossing genres, I took to reading Great Expectations as my third book ever, before I knew it, I had stolen my mum’s entire library of books and had them scattered through my room.
It was in my English class, while watching Let Him Have It, that I started to get a real interest in the impact of writing. It was then I wrote a short story, something to do with the wild west being open to dragons and werewolves, I passed it to my teacher and asked him to let me know his thoughts. It was the following day that my teacher, Mr. Thompson, told me to ‘never stop,’ so I didn’t. I lied, a lot, about my age. No newspaper wants to buy a story by a thirteen year old little girl, so I often claimed I was twenty two, I managed to sell a few, by the time I left school I started ghost writing for a family friend who had a publishing business, when his father died he sold the company and it subsequently closed, it was then I started working for a publishing company in Devon, but when my agent passed away I was again on my own and gave up for a while.
When I met my now husband, I fell pregnant quickly, oops. He has a daughter from a previous relationship who is my world. Being the stepparent of a disabled child does give you a different outlook on life. I couldn’t work full time due to childcare, so my husband told me to shut up going on about writing and just do it. He’s the right level of abrupt I needed and before I knew it, I was a published author. I’m now on the high side of my thirties and having been told I have ADHD the struggle with reading when I was younger makes so much sense. I still haven’t read that Nancy Drew, but it is on my to do list.
Have you participated in the SPFBO before and where did you hear about the competition?
I’ve followed Mark Lawrence for what is possibly a creepy amount of time, it was during a conversation with one of last years competitors that I decided, why not? I honestly can’t remember ever not knowing about SPFBO, but I’ve never passionately followed it as I’ve always been busy with writing, mothering or wifing.
Why did you choose to write fantasy?
The simple answer is why not? Fantasy crosses so many different sub genres, I chose grimdark as it contains more realism than most, however low fantasy also has many elements of realism, so writing The Darkest Night gave me a chance to discover all these different sub-genres. I love superstition and cultural differences with mythology, the research into different creatures really gets my blood flowing, discovering a new mythological creature, known to some cultures but unknown to western society really makes me try to find a way to crowbar it in there.
Research is in my blood, world-building takes a lot of research for me when trying to create an accurate world for your characters. Personalities change with these worlds as well, so having a warrior show compassion isn’t realistic in our known history, but creating a different world can make it so much more believable.
Taking a reader on a journey and keeping their interest is my main focus, but creating deep and relatable characters really makes any story come to life. I love writing historical fiction, too, with dark and sordid characters, but sometimes you just need dragons.
Which other author has had the biggest influence on your writing?
George Orwell. It was the only time I didn’t feel like I was forcing myself to read. Too often we forget about those childhood reads which helped form our love of reading and writing, so John Steinbeck was also one of the greats for me, his portrayal of an unforgiving culture in Of Mice and Men, really pulled at my heartstrings, his characters forming a deep yet delicate memory for me.
I can’t leave out Tolkien either, The Silmarillion, a masterpiece.
Some of Robin Hobbs as well, although I can’t remember when I last read anything from her, I really should do something about that.
If you were to win the SPFBO, what impact do you think this would have on your writing career?
I would like to say it validates me, but that is the wrong way of looking at this competition. Not everyone will love Little Secrets, they might not even make it past the first line, and that’s fine. But, it puts it out there further to a community I’ve been desperately trying to reach for years now. Plus, who wouldn’t want a shiny coin?
“Taking a step back, breathing, giving yourself a break, those are the things that really help.”
What challenges did you face during the writing or publishing process, and how did you overcome them?
Every. Single. One. I’ve possibly made every mistake possible in the past 20 years or so. I’ve published too soon, I’ve made my own covers before, never again. I’ve taken my manuscripts to editors who have destroyed it. I’ve paid uncomfortable sums of money to people who don’t really care about publishing. I’ve taken advice from those who have never published, and advice from those who earn 20k a month, only to discover they’re in a completely different genre. I’ve done the wrong kind of ads on Facebook, amazon and all kinds of social media platforms. I’ve unpublished because of a single bad review.
I. Have. Suffered.
It isn’t easy to admit to your mistakes, and it isn’t easy to undo them. But what you can do is learn from them. I’ve made mistakes repeatedly, but now I dedicate my spare time to trying to teach other authors, new authors about those mistakes. Taking a step back, breathing, giving yourself a break, those are the things that really help. Realising that not everyone will enjoy your work, it all helps. But what really helps is believing in yourself, taking your own advice and carefully selecting who you work with. Time is your best friend in this.
Do you have any tips or an author app, tool, or resource that you can really recommend we try?
I have a lot of advice. Firstly, don’t get carried away, take your time when publishing, not everyone is there to help, sadly, a lot of small companies are there to take your money and run. Never pay to publish.
Always pay for a cover. Get covers is my go-to cover designer for font and ENV studios for image, he works on every element and goes through the process while I’m on the phone and sends every file in detail getting it perfect.
For marketing I’m in Bryan Cohen’s ad school which is an amazing resource for authors new and old, the team there are just superb, and the community really helps with setting up ads and getting your sales page polished to perfection.
For editing, I used to send my manuscripts to a top editor who was recommended by several authors in the same genre, however, I also use Pro writing aid, don’t always listen to the computer though, google helps with common errors in grammar and style. After speaking to several editors, they suggested I try to self-edit. After doing that I sent my manuscript to my mailing list who had a 96% agreement that it was polished enough to publish and that I should save the money for marketing and covers. I had 746 people vote on that which is way more than I ever expected from a 2k mailing list. Honestly though, always go with your gut.
Mailing list, a touchy subject as people aren’t always sure how to go about getting one. Joining groups such as ad school or 20booksto50k can really help with starting you out. Creating a short story and sending it to places such as Reedsy, bookbub, and bookfunnel will help you collect those email addresses and help promote future sales. Be careful though, a lot of people are out there for free books and a lot of people don’t want those weekly e-mails, keeping it short and rare helps.
Websites- says me whose website has several cobwebs forming. I’ve heard they are vital; however, it all gets too overwhelming. Take your time. Social media is an animal who consumes your vital writing time. Choosing a select few such as Facebook and twitter can help when it comes to time management. Set up a floating website which will take your readers to your sales page, give a bit of information about you and that’s it. Make it so you don’t need to keep going back to every platform to make regular changes. If they like you, they will find you! Don’t panic about maintaining every page, every day, week or even month. If you go off grid it makes you more illusive and mysterious. So don’t panic. Keep it simple.
So much great advice, Alice! Thank you.
And now it's time to yank out your Palantir! Let’s talk about the future. What new projects are you working on?
All of them! This month I’m making some improvements to The Hangman’s Turn, next month I’ll be going back to Into the Shadows, part 2 of the Bound by Blood Series, and the month after that I’ll be looking at The Rose of Nottingham. After that I’ll be going over The Witch’s Steps, publishing Into the Shadows and starting the full edit of The Brotherhood, Part 3 of Bound by Blood. Also, cat videos on Facebook and probably an embarrassing amount of time playing Jurassic world alive and playing on TikTok.
Apps that are based on artificial intelligence (AI), such as ChatGTP and Midjourney, along with apps aimed specifically at authors, have caused quite a stir. Do you expect these new technologies will make your life as a self-published author easier or harder, and do you expect that they’ll mean you’ll earn more or less?
I love watercolour and acrylic paintings still. When people started making digital art, I didn’t stop enjoying certain art, AI has been around for longer than we realise. How many times have we called a company to be met by an annoying robot who can’t work out your accent? Or been to a shop and get served at self-service? AI is here to stay, having an entire book written by AI means it still has to be looked at and published by a human, there will be and are companies who do that, I don’t think it will take away from artist or writers much, if anything it will give us a chance to polish our work better and get a greater understanding of our readers wants and needs.
Do you have any dreams you’d like to share?
I really want a winner or even finalist coin! My goodness is there any award better? I was given a title back in 2015 for services to my community and honestly, the certificate, the title, I would give it all up for that coin.
Seeing The Grim Nottingham series in the hands of Shane Meadows would be an ultimate dream of mine, I’ve tried the obvious stalking but to no avail. Any ideas welcome, not kidnapping, that didn’t go well.
I think, like most, seeing my book on TV or in a movie theatre would be the ultimate goal, but just seeing reviews from people enjoying the books gives a buzz I can only compare to seeing an extra 2k in your bank account! People really don’t understand how exhilarating good reviews are. Reviews are basically author crack, give us author crack.
Anything else you would like to say before we close?
The words, Ne’er-do-well and narked, we need to use these terms more in our writing, please, and also moist, moist is a great word.
Totally agree! One of my editors introduces me to ne’er-do-well, and I liked it so much that I ended up using it in the blurb of one of my books.
I wish you the very best in the SPFBO, Alice! I hope a lot of readers discover your writing. Thanks for doing the interview.
