Noble Romance Authors' Books

Introducing Erika Gilbert

Hello, I'm Erika Galpin, paranormal romance author, writing under the pen name Erika Gilbert, with a psychology degree, accidental poet and most importantly mother to a very intelligent, beautiful boy who is a joy to both parents. The greatest influence on my writing was my father, who took me to see the original Star Wars movies—when I was probably far too young, and raised me on Startrek and had me watching Doctor Who from when I was four. So a paranormal flavor to my writing was probably inevitable. Dad unfortunately died before realizing his dream of becoming a writer. I hope he’s proud of me.


I started writing seriously after the birth of my son over five years' ago. Well, after the why-won't-he-stop-crying-and-just-sleep? stage—which lasted eight months. Anyway during those insane days, where I was so tired that my vision blurred I started writing seriously. Because I was so tired what I wrote didn’t always make sense but I’d been bitten by the writing bug, and it’s been with me ever since. If I’m honest actually, the ideas first started coming—in a vague sort of way—when I was pregnant. It could have been the hormones, but I like to think it was the beautiful soul living inside me, but being pregnant seemed to boost my creativity. So, in more ways than one, I have my son to thank for making me put pen to paper.


A strange thing happened recently. My mum found a folder marked writing amongst some of dad’s things. Writing in his virtually illegible scrawl, the folder was filled with story ideas, all of them science fiction. The interesting thing was that the writing was done while he was a travelling salesman. I can imagine him on the long nights away from us comforting himself by, and filling his lonely hours, writing. The spooky thing was that a couple of decades later, while my son was the same age I was doing exactly the same thing! I don’t know why but it’s comforting to think that at exactly the same stage in my life I was following in his footsteps, and even though he’s no longer with us I can hold that same folder he wrote in all those years ago. I was born in Kent, England but I don't remember much because by the age of two I was on my way to Australia. I stayed there just long enough to cuddle some koalas, meet a snake in the bathtub, and find a family of red backs under a log (I got in so much trouble for looking under that!). Then, when I was four I came to New Zealand. I bunny-hopped to a few cities (there's more than a drop of gypsy blood in my family) before coming to a stop in Nelson.


A couple of years’ ago I stumbled across the Nelson Poetry Society’s International Haiku competition. I’d always been good at Haiku when I was at school so I thought, why not? So I entered. Again, it was my son who influenced me. I ended up winning that competition, which had drawn over seven hundred entries from around the world. And the winning poem was about my son. Many years later, I started a story about a witch who walked into a bar and cast an alcohol nullifying spell on a glass of bourbon, so she could taste the alcohol but keep a clear head. And so Blood Talisman was born. At the time I was shopping around for publishers to submit to when I came across Noble Romance. Because the submissions called for kink I was torn. But something about Noble Romance drew me. I thought adding a bit of spice wouldn’t be too hard. I had no idea what a huge influence this change would have to my story. My skin-walkers would merely have been annoying creatures who entered people’s bodies uninvited. With the kinkiness they could do a whole lot more. I tell you, adding spice lifted the story to a whole new level, and I’m just so glad I stumbled across Noble Romance, because it changed my writing forever—in a good way!


If you like vampires, skin-walkers, witches and a touch of druid magic then check out my book here. I hope you enjoy it.

5 comments:

  1. Great post, Erika! I love the title of your book too. Funny how our children change our lives, but always for the better.

    Best of luck!

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  2. Wow. Interesting story about how you came about writing kink into your book. Nice. Much success in all your writing, Erika.

    ~Bryl

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  3. Thanks for commenting, Gracen and Bryl. I thought I answered you Gracen but it doesn't seem to be here. Yes, children change everything. I have no idea where I'd be today, or if I'd even be writing, without him. And Bryl, it would have been a completely different story without the spice!

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  4. What a wonderful thing to find out about your dad....now you know you were meant to write.

    Heather.
    H.C.Brown

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  5. Thanks Heather, I know, it makes me feel like I'm finishing what he started. My son is showing signs of being a good story teller too!

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