Nia Farrell
Golden Flogger Award nominee
shares about BDSM and life
Why did you begin writing BDSM novels?
I began writing BDSM stories when characters came who lived the lifestyle.
Do you participate in D/s activities or merely write about them?
I have friends in the lifestyle and a growing number of authors in my network who are active in D/s. Much of my writing (in this and other genres) is inspired by past-life memories that include D/s and ménages.
Where did you get your information on this lifestyle?
One friend (a pansexual married to a bisexual) uses BDSM as part of the healing process after being gang-raped. Another friend is a Dominant and a period reenactor who does scenes after hours at weekend historical events (we’ve been lovers in several lifetimes, but this time around, we pour our passion into music). I network extensively, read voraciously, and am not afraid to ask questions.
What does being nominated for the Golden Flogger Award mean to you?
It’s a huge validation that I’ve done my job as a writer. Something More is such a special story. The heroine has post-rape PTSD and is supposed to be dead. When her former lovers and Dominants learn that she’s alive, submission is an integral part of her healing process, learning to trust again when she doesn’t even know if she can stand being touched by a man.
Do you conduct any advocacy work in this lifestyle or is it strictly fiction base for you?
If so, what? I do a monthly hour-long guest spot on a radio show in Southern Illinois and have introduced area listeners to some really foreign concepts. Erotic romance, BDSM themes, ménages…I don’t believe those words had ever traveled the local airwaves before me. But it’s a conservative rural area, so I have to spoon-feed the masses in very small doses. Next month should be very interesting when I talk about the Golden Flogger Award.
Where would you like to see the BDSM genre head?
How will it get there? I’d love for readers to broaden their horizons and be willing to read BDSM (one of my author friends graciously declines any offer to read my BDSM books). That means writing great stories with engaging characters, with BDSM as an integral part of their makeup, at different levels for different readers. New readers may need gently brought into the fold. Readers in the lifestyle need more. As authors, we have a unique opportunity to promote understanding and acceptance.
What is the hardest part of writing your novel?
Something More (The Three Graces Book Three) was emotionally challenging because of the subject matter. The heroine Rachel has post-rape PTSD and a three-year-old autistic daughter, father unknown. Most likely candidates are the Colson brothers, her former lovers and Dominants. I have two friends who struggle with post-rape PTSD and two nephews who are autistic. The book just touches on some of the challenges they face. I still cry when I read it.
Tell us a little about yourself and your writing works.
I started writing romance years ago and am published (under another name) in nonfiction, poetry, music, and children’s books, and last year I wrote my first screenplay for a documentary soon to be released. My sister is a voracious reader with a fondness for D/s and ménages and got me hooked on the genre a couple of years ago. Soon story ideas and characters started coming, erotic romance with BDSM and D/s themes in several subgenres. My Three Graces are contemporary BDSM ménages with a paranormal twist, metaphysical and spiritual components with a psychic heroine, a bisexual American Indian musican who’s also a shaman, and themes of soul mates, reincarnation, and past-life healing. My next release Dark Moons Rising is a PNR otherworldly shifter novelette coming March 10th. I have a Daddy dom novella and a big (154,000-word) BDSM MMF ménage historical novel submitted, and another BDSM series being developed (mostly MF). Of my two WIP, one is my first angel BDSM book, with 8,500 words completed. The other is a BDSM historical with 13,000 words done so far.
Will you be attending BDSM Writers Con or other events we can meet you at?
I certainly hope to, but no concrete plans are made.
A little about the author:
Nia Farrell is the naughty side of a multi-genre author who is published in nonfiction, poetry, music, and children’s books, with one documentary screenplay under her literary belt. She’s an old soul and a period re-enactor who’s been into corsets for centuries, although she wears them more to Civil War events these days. Nia has been involved in the metaphysical community for over twenty-five years. She is a Reiki Master and crystal healer whose work encompasses this and other lifetimes. In her writing, BDSM is just one tool for healing wounded spirit.
Her debut books from The Three Graces Series, Something Else, Something Different, and Something More, are kink with a paranormal twist. Soul mates, reincarnation, karmic fallout, shamanism, and psychic abilities come into play. Personal experience and extensive research go into crafting her characters, but it’s her sense of whimsy that has made fictional Posey, Minnesota, the ménage capital of the United States with a Monty-Python-themed diner that’s central to the plotlines.
Nia was fortunate enough to meet her soul mate early on. She married her high school sweetheart, raised two children, and began writing at her husband’s suggestion. She has been published in erotica since 2015.