Meet the Author: Marc Nobbs

It’s not common to find a male in the halls of romance writing. Marc Nobbs is prolific and romantic too. He’s also a Brit from across the sea which makes him more fascinating to me somehow. Here is a brief interview. I encourage you to go by to see his website and check out one or two of his books. http://www.marcnobbs.com Nobbs

marc@marcnobbs.com

PBDiva: Give us a brief intro to you

Marc: I’m a 33 year old husband and Dad of one. I’m originally from Wolverhampton (hence my sad devotion to the football team there who, surprisingly are doing quite well this year) but moved away for university and never really went back.

I work full time and write as and when I can – when my son isn’t demanding my attention (which I’m more than happy to give most of the time) and I’m not dead on my feet or falling asleep on the sofa. My job is really very dull, which is why I write erotica. It helps keep me awake at my desk. If I didn’t write, I’d need a pillow.

I’m very opinionated and I’m told I can occasionally be quite entertaining. My wife thinks I’m good looking. At least, I assume she does, or else why did she marry me? It certainly wasn’t for my money, as I don’t have any.

I call myself The Known Unknown. I don’t know why, it just sort of sounds a bit cool. Or at least it does to a middle aged married bloke like me.

When I get around to redesigning my website I’ll be claiming to be “Turning Romance on its Head”. Again, I just think it sounds cool. I guess it comes from the belief that I’m one of the few people that tell romance stories from the male point of view. After all, I’m a man, and I’ve been failing to understand women my whole life. Men I understand – so it makes sense to write about them. And who knows, maybe a few women will read my work and it’ll help them understand their men a bit better.

PBDiva: Where do we find you on the web

My website – http://www.marcnobbs.com

MySpace – http://www.myspace.com/marcnobbs

The Blog – http://marcnobbs.blogspot.com

Twitter – http://twitter.com/marcnobbs

Flickr – http://flickr.com/marcnobbs

The Britwriters – http://wulfwaru.wordpress.com/

Phaze – http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=Marc+Nobbs/exact_match=exact

I think that’s it.

PBDiva: What’s your current project?

Marc: I’m currently working on a second draft of a story which has had many titles, but I’m currently calling “England’s Rose.” It’s about a young British actress who decides to take time off from making movies to go to University and get educated. Naturally she meets a young man, falls in love and has lots of sex and stuff. But, as we all know, the course of love never runs smooth. Otherwise the story would be just very dull porn.

I do have two books on current release. Lost&Found is about an English chap who crosses the Atlantic to visit his cyber-lover after her brother is killed in Iraq. It’s a passionate story and in some respects a love triangle. By that I mean that two men are fighting for the heroine’s love – her lover and her father. It contains one of the best scenes I’ve ever written, a confrontation between the anti-war ‘hero’ of the story and the heroine’s father who is pro-war. I also think that the heroine’s father is one of the best characters I’ve ever created.

Charlotte’s Secret will surprise you. I won’t say any more than that – You’ll have to read it. But it will surprise you.

PBDiva: What’s your genre and how did you choose it or have it chosen for you

Marc: I suppose it’s Erotic Romance. I didn’t set out to write romances. I just wanted to write dirty stories that people liked to … you know.

Then I got interested in the craft of writing. I learned all about style, plot, and characterisation and started writing about relationships between people. I still wanted to write sex scenes and they sort of only really fitted in if the relationships were romantic ones. So I ended up writing Erotic Romance.

Perhaps I could write spy novels and leave the sex in those too. That might be fun.

PBDiva: How did you get started in writing?

Marc: I’ve always been a big reader, ever since I was little. And I’ve always wanted to write. When I was eighteen I started a novel about six teenagers who had to save the world from aliens after a different alien gave them super powers. But I never finished it. Then I started writing a novel about a group of kids at University. Not much of a plot to that one really, just a series of things they did. It was based very much on my first year at University. Again, I never finished it, but you can read what I did write on StoriesOnline.net. It’s called “College by the Sea.” My intention is to set about re-writing and finishing it one day.

I started writing sex stories about ten years ago. I’d just got my first internet connection, I was twenty-odd, single and so I did what any twenty-something single male does when they discover the internet – I went in search of porn. Of course, back then (back then? It was only ten years ago, for God’s sake) there wasn’t very much ‘visual’ porn that was worth the time it took to download, but there was plenty of ‘written’ porn on the Usenet. At lot of it was really poor quality, but some of it was very good – it was well plotted, good characters and well written.

After reading a lot of it, figured I could do that too and gave it a shot. My first effort was a short piece called “Housewarming Party”. It was about a guy who moved to London to start a new job and throws a housewarming party to get to know his neighbors. And he got to know two of them very well indeed, if you take my meaning.

I carried writing shorts but, if I’m honest, they were lacking something. I think I was too young to realize what. I also wasn’t able to spend as much time writing as I would have liked because there were a lot of changes going on in my life.

It wasn’t until about 2004 that I realized I need to learn a bit more about how to write as well as what to write. I joined a group called “The Fishtank”, made a group of friends and learnt what not to do – which is just as important as what to do.

The “tank” led me to submit stories to the website “Ruthie’s Club” and eventually to Phaze books.

PBDiva: What kind of activities do you do to clear your head?

Marc: Actually, writing is my way of clearing my head. As is reading. I love to be taken away from the problems of this world, even if it means joining the problems of another. And creating those other worlds – even if they are the same as this one on the surface – is even more fun.

I have an allotment too – you know, a big plot of land where I can grow veg. There’s something very relaxing about digging, and very satisfying in seeing your hard work pay off with some tasty veg to take home and cook. You should see the crop of spuds I had this year. It was a good year for spuds.

I enjoy cooking too. I’ll normally cook for the wife and kid when I get home. It relaxes me. But, strangely, I hate cooking for myself. I think I was supposed to be a chef.

PBDiva: What is this romance writer’s idea of the “perfect romantic evening”?

Marc: For me, it has to be a truly special night out somewhere. A good meal, good entertainment, maybe dancing or a show, followed by going back to the hotel (preferably an expensive one) where it’s into the hot bath together, drinking champagne and eating strawberries, then to bed where …. You fill in this bit yourself. Or read one of my books, that’ll give you a clue.

 

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