Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicola Harrison.
Hi Nicola, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember and always dreamed of publishing a novel one day. I grew up in England, moved to Orange County, California, when I was fourteen, went to UCLA, and studied English and Creative Writing. I then moved to New York, where I lived for 17 years and worked as a fashion journalist (I worked for various publications and was the style writer for Forbes). After going back to school to get my MFA in creative writing I published my first novel MONTAUK with St. Martin’s Press in 2019 at age 40. My second novel, THE SHOW GIRL, came out in 2021, and my latest – HOTEL LAGUNA – came out on June 20th of this year. I now live in Manhattan Beach California and am so happy to be living back on the west coast.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
I write historical fiction novels that generally feature strong independent woman who don’t want to be boxed into a predetermined role. So far, I’ve set my novels in Montauk, NY, in the 1930s, in New York City and the Adirondacks in the 1920s, and Laguna Beach in the 1940s, and my next book will be set on Balboa Island Newport Beach in the 1950s. I think what sets my books apart is that while you might be swept away to another time and place and wrapped up in the story, my characters are relatable. We all have universal desires to belong, to be loved and love, to succeed, and something that makes our soul sing, etc, and I love for my readers to be able to connect with my characters no matter what year it is. I also love to give some insight into the time period – what was going on in the world then? What were the social norms of that time? What were the boundaries? What was and wasn’t acceptable? – so that you walk away feeling like you’ve learned something.
In HOTEL LAGUNA we learn about the women who worked on the home front during WWII and the impact they had on helping to win the war. We also learn about the artists community in Laguna Beach and the California Impressionist movement, all the while getting swept up in a love story.
Can you tell us a little more about your latest novel?
My new novel HOTEL LAGUNA is set in 1946 and tells the story of Hazel Francis, a young woman who has left her home in Wichita, Kansas, for Los Angeles, California, to work at Douglas Aircraft as a “Rosie the Riveter” helping construct bombers during WWII. She loves the work and the sense of purpose it gives her, but when the war is over, and the men return to their jobs, the women are thanked and told they’re no longer needed. With no home or family to go back to, Hazel ends up in the bohemian town of Laguna Beach, where she takes a job as a model for a famous and cantankerous old artist, Hanson Radcliff, who is haunted by a decades-old scandal involving a Hollywood star. Hazel becomes deeply involved with the art world in Laguna Beach and precariously involved with bartender at the iconic Hotel Laguna, and she’s determined to uncover the mystery behind her bosses past. In the end, this is a story of love, friendship, perseverance, and how one small decision can change the course of your life in the most unexpected ways.
I first came up with the idea of this book in the height of Covid. We were still living on the east coast, I couldn’t travel to do any physical research, so I asked myself, “Where do I want to live in my imagination for the next year and a half or two years or however long it takes me to write this book” – and I kept coming back to Laguna Beach. It’s a place that I have a lot of fond memories – it was the first place I lived after college without any roommates, where I had my first real job and had my first real taste of independence. Also, Laguna Beach is an artists community, and my parents are both artists and have exhibited in the galleries and art festivals in Laguna, so I had some insight into the art world and how things worked, which I wanted to write about.
So in doing some research about Laguna and settling on the post-war 1940s, I found my way onto reading about women working on the home front during the war and how some of them really didn’t want to go back to their old lives of housework and cooking dinner after they had a taste of working a “man’s job” and that fascinated me. It turns out that my husband’s grandmother was a Rosie the Riveter! So I got on the phone with my mother-in-law to glean as much information about her mother’s life as a “Rosie,” and the story really took off from there.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
While I was writing my first novel MONTAUK, I was also going through a divorce, which is never easy. But something about that time in my life gave me the confidence and freedom to really go after my dream of becoming a published author. While it’s fiction, I really poured myself into that book, and I can’t tell you how many readers have reached out to me after reading MONTAUK to tell me how it resonated with them. From there I signed a two-book contract with St. Martin’s Press and am now working on my fourth (also set in southern California but in the 1950s). Publishing can be a tough business; you just hope that this book that you spend years working on will find its audience and stand out from the other books out there. So far, I’ve been very lucky and am so grateful for all the people who have bought my book and told their friends about it. Word-of-mouth recommendations are the best.
I think one of the hardest things about getting started writing HOTEL LAGUNA was not being about to travel (due to Covid), but as soon as I was able to spend time in the Laguna Beach Library the research and writing really took off. The Pageant of the Masters (an art show in Laguna Beach that recreates famous works of art into living pictures) plays a big part in this novel, and while at the Laguna Beach Library, I was able to get my hands on the original program from the 1946 Pageant of the Masters which listed al the works of art they recreated that year, articles and photos of the behind the scenes of the Pageant and advertisements from various businesses and restaurants in Laguna at that time. That was a gold mine for me. I was able to capture the sense of community at that time.
What do you love most about what you do?
As part of my research, I was able to interview and spend time with three “Rosie the Riveters” who live in a senior living home in Anaheim, CA. Phylis is 102, Helen is 90, and Rusty is 95. They were fantastic, sharp as a tac, and remembered so many incredible details about that time in their lives working in the airplane factory, doing jobs that were previously reserved only for men.
One thing I appreciate about my job as an author is once the book is complete is published, I love going on book tour and meeting with readers all over the country to talk about the book. It’s a solitary job, writing, so it’s lovely to be able to connect with people once it’s released. Often people will come to me with stories of their own family members working on the Homefront during the war or their own experiences in Laguna Beach. Making those connections is probably what I’m most proud of.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
I think there is some concern over AI and what will happen as technology becomes more powerful. Already there is an influx of AI-generated books on Amazon, but currently, they’re all terrible and lack any kind of human emotion, and I’m not sure that can be replicated, but there’s certainly a concern. I plan to keep writing novels for the rest of my life, and my hope is that nothing gets in the way of that.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.nicolaharrison.com
- Instagram: @nicolaharrisonauthor
- Facebook: @nicolaharrisonauthor
- Twitter: @nicolahauthor
- Other: https://bit.ly/OrderHotelLaguna
Image Credits
Yoshi Villarie
