Nikki Lee Taylor

Nikki Lee Taylor is a long-time newspaper journalist turned fiction writer. She is also a dreamer, a doer, a storyteller, coffee lover, and fur-mum to two golden retrievers Max and Sam. She loves to write stories about women finding their inner strength and reminds herself every day that what we see as flaws, are really just the cracks that allow our light to shine even brighter. INTERVIEW WITH NIKKI LEE TAYLOR Q: How do you even begin to explain what this book is about? A: I know, it’s a big question to answer. In publishing you’re supposed to have an elevator pitch, otherwise known as a 30-second explanation for what your story is about. I’d have to say overall it is about that moment when you are faced with what you believe is the worst moment or the hardest decision of your life and finding out what you’re made of. For the characters in the book this happens more than once, and so part of it is also about finding the courage to change and grow. I think despite the chaos of the plot those are universal themes that we all face at some time in our lives and that’s why it resonates so well. It’s also about love, betrayal, families, motherhood, lies, secrets, pain, plotting, murder, mental illness, and pretty much everything in between! Q: The book touches on child abuse which is an extremely emotive and almost taboo subject. Why did you choose to include it in the story? A: According to research, in Australia 18 per cent of women and 4.7 per cent of men report having suffered sexual abuse before the age of 15. International analysis suggests the rates are even higher, reaching 19.7 per cent for girls and 7.9 per cent for boys. Even more alarming is a survey carried out in 2016 by the Australian Bureau of Statistics which reported only 10 – 15 per cent of Australian cases included a stranger as the perpetrator. These are horrific statistics. While this kind of abuse is not a major theme of the book, it does play a role in highlighting the importance of shining a light on child abuse. All characters and events are fictional in The Secrets We Keep, and as the author I have paid careful mind to tackle this subject with the most delicate of care and consideration. There are no graphic abuse scenes in this book, however I do hope the references make the reader uncomfortable enough to realise this is an ongoing problem and one that should not remain behind closed doors. While ever we shy away from things that make us uncomfortable, evil will continue to find its way through the cracks. Q: What gave you the idea to have dual protagonists and do you have a favourite? A: The truth is, at the beginning the plan was to have one protagonist – Sophie, and a supporting character in Madelyn-May. While I think there’s a little of my personality in both, at the start Sophie was closest to my heart because we share the same affliction when it comes to anxiety. But as the novel progressed, I fell in love with Madelyn-May’s strength and resilience. I came to really admire her courage, and I have to admit, I think she won my heart in the end. Q: Some of this book is hard to read in that it’s extremely emotional. How were you able to give your characters such raw emotions? A: Like many writers I am an emotionally driven person. Whether I’m writing or just living my life day to day, most of my choices are based on emotion rather than logic, which can be good and bad. While this is completely a work of fiction, I have had my own struggles with anxiety and sadness, and like Sophie my golden retrievers have many times played the role of unofficial support dogs. It wasn’t a stretch for me to imagine the pain these characters were feeling because when you live in emotional proximity to things like anxiety and sadness they’re never hard to reach, which again can be a good and a bad thing. Good in that it allows for things like empathy which assists with the writing process, and bad in that sometimes it can become temporarily debilitating. Q: For much of your career you were a news journalist. How did that help or impact your ability as a fiction writer? A: If you knew some of the stories I have covered, you would think they were the fiction. People do things you can never imagine, and as fiction authors we can only try to catch up when it comes to the bizarre things people do out in the real world. But I think my experience as a journo had a lot to do with the decision to write about topics as difficult as child abuse, anxiety, and trauma because unfortunately those are issues people deal with out in the real world – as much as we hate to think about it. It also helped me as a writer in terms of being able to craft a narrative and having a handle on basic grammar, which can be a lot harder than beginner writers sometimes think. Q: Reviews for The Secrets We Keep have been overwhelmingly positive. One even stated it was the best book the reader had enjoyed all year. As a first-time author that must be a welcome response? A: To be honest I did write a paranormal romance a few years back that got the exact opposite response. Everyone hated it which was an eye-opening moment for me because I thought it wasn’t too bad. But they hated the characters and didn’t like the plot, and I had no choice but to look at my work and figure out where I went wrong. In the end I think it was as simple as I didn’t write from the heart in that book, mostly because of the genre, and this time I put my heart and soul on the page. Readers know when writing is honest, as in, from your heart. Q: What’s something you like to do aside from writing? A: The obvious things an author would enjoy I guess like reading and watching movies or TV series shows, but I also really enjoy playing in poker tournaments which might be a little unusual. I play a lot with my dad and we have a group of friends who all play in local pub or club games. I used to enjoy going out a lot at night, but as you get older, and I’m in my late 40s now, it’s good to have an option for being out without being ‘out out’ if that makes sense? I love live music, but nightclubs are definitely not my scene anymore.