Nikki Clarke on Black Women in Speculative Romance

Why settle for a boring reality when you can have a Space Daddy who is actually obsessed with you? This week on We Read Smut, Alesia sits down with MFA poet and speculative fiction author Nikki Clarke to discuss her mission to center Black women in the stars. We dive into why Nikki trades contemporary drama for expansive alien worlds, the anthropological roots of her unique world-building, and why her heroes are unapologetically soft and in love.

Nikki Clarke has always loved a good love story in books and on film. Her favorite on-screen love declarations, in no particular order, are Darius and Nina under the viaduct, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth in the field (Knightley and MacFadden version), and Dwayne and Whitley at the wedding. Nikki doesn't mind a little weird (or raunch) mixed in with her romance and hopes to contribute to more Black women love stories. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing.

Key Takeaways

• The Flexibility of Speculative Fiction: Nikki prefers speculative worlds over contemporary ones because reality relies on drama that can feel boring; speculative fiction allows her to focus on culture and linguistics as the primary drivers of the story.
• Grounding in Tropes: Nikki uses fated mates as a grounding concept ,which then gives her the freedom to improvise and explore complex character dynamics.
• Unique World-Building: Nikki’s aliens are anything but stereotypical; they feature unique physical traits like gold wings and long, gray tongues.
• The "Soft" Hero Requirement: Nikki is incapable of writing a hero who doesn't immediately adore and want to care for the female main character, ensuring her books stay cushy and sweet.
• Creative Sovereignty: A proponent of writing the stories she wants to read, Nikki often changes established genre rules—like allowing her vampires to walk in the sun—to better serve her specific romantic plots.

"If aliens come down here and they’re fine, it’s for us. We deserve it." This week, we challenge you to step out of the real world and pick up a speculative romance that centers Black joy and otherworldly love.

Connect with Nikki: 

Website

Instagram

Alien Reading Order

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

I love alien romance, but I especially love alien romance when the main characters, the female main characters, are black. This is something that I felt was missing and I did not see until I went out and searched for it. So today I'm talking to one of my favorite black alien romance authors, and that is Nikki Clark. I was so excited to hear more about her story, how she navigates, writing what she wants, putting her own Nikki Clark spin on a genre that has typically been predominantly white. Nikki writes across quite a bit of speculative fiction, so including aliens, vampires, werewolves, and more. There is so much to Nikki Clark's universe. And I had so much fun chatting with her in this conversation. Listener discretion is advised. This podcast contains mature content intended for adult audiences only. Hello, Nikki. I'm so excited to have you on the podcast. So if you could start by telling us a bit about your art journey.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

So I have a background in creative writing. I have an MFA and I actually started as a poet. I mean, I am still a poet, but my regular life, I write poetry, and I've always been a reader. So I've been a reader my entire life, obviously. And when I started gravitating toward fiction, it was really more of like a need for a desire to see otherworldly romance with black people. I started publishing in 2017 or 16, and there weren't a ton of blackers who were writing like aliens or, you know, I mean, you have like some older stuff, like, you know, the LA Banks stuff. That was like from the 90s, but there weren't a lot of like my, you know, right now writers. So that's where I started. And I am generally not a great contemporary writer. I already, I already know that. I have skill in writing, but I'm not a good contemporary writer. But I think my background in poetry lent itself to weird things. And that just pushed me more towards speculative or like sci-fi. And that's just kind of where I landed. And, you know, Tony Morrison said, and I know every like brighter of color repeats this because it's so true. If there's something you want to read and you haven't read it, you have to like write it. And so I did. And it's been great.

SPEAKER_02 2:32

Oh, that's so cool. So I'm curious when you say that you have a hard time writing contemporary, what do you find is easier with sci-fi than writing contemporary? Like, why do you tend to gravitate towards that?

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Yeah. Contemporary r relies on reality. And effects. I know, right? It's it gets kind of boring. It relies on reality, which to me automatically, like the only way to make reality interesting is drama.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Right.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

And drama can be boring for me. I don't know how to write good drama. It just ends up being dramatic, which is not always compelling. I've written maybe like two contemporary novels, maybe two. It's like, no, I've written two novellas and one like full length. And the full length is actually the first thing I wrote, and it was terrible. And I still say it's terrible. I never recommend it. It's not bad, it's just boring. And I don't mind saying that. Like if someone ever reads it and like this was boring, I'm like, you're right. You are a good reader. You read that accurately. I will say that I do better in short form because there's less space to make things unnecessarily dramatic. So I could write contemporary short form, but I just love the flexibility of speculative, right? I like that it can rely more on culture. I was an anthropology major when I first entered college. Like, and I wanted to be basically, I was in college in the 90s. I'm old. So I wanted to be bones before there was bones, right? I was an anthropology major, I was a pre-med, I was a pre-med concentration. I was taking like anthropological linguistics, like that was my thing. And so I love that speculative can it can rely on culture for the drama and not just, you know, you have like another baby mama, so something I don't know. I don't know. Whatever, I feel like that's the most dramatic thing I can think of, or like you cheated on me, right? Or I thought you cheated on me, but you didn't. Right?

SPEAKER_02 4:31

So-and-so said they saw you, but so-and-so, that was even my hair color. What are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 4:36

Exactly. And plus, I grew up in the 90s, so that's like the drama I was trained on, right? Like the only real drama you have is a secret baby that's not mine, and another girlfriend or something. Right.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

So, you we've used this term speculative a couple times now, and I don't think it's used as much in the romance space. So, what is really like the difference between speculative fiction and sci-fi?

SPEAKER_00 5:06

That's a good question that I'm probably gonna answer wrong. That's a thing.

SPEAKER_02 5:10

So I don't know. So, like, I'll just be like, yes.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

I think speculative, it tends to sort of encompass, I think, all of those, right? Like, I look at it as sort of an umbrella term for things that have scientific and fantasy and you know, all of those elements, otherworldly type elements, kind of wrapped in one, where it's not as cut and dry as, you know, vampires and werewolves, right? Which tend to always sort of be grounded in this sort of like medieval, I mean, unless it's contemporary, but you know, the ideas are grounded in these sort of like medieval medievally concepts. I think speculative opens it up more for just other worlds, like the co complete creation of another world.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

I think in the romance space, because speculative feels very masculine, right? And may and maybe that's just me being like from what I've seen. Like, no, dudes read that when you know the romance space is predominantly female, that that might be why we don't use that term as much, even though it is accurate for a lot of the books we're probably reading, or maybe we just classify them as alien romance or alien smud.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Just gotta leave it there. Yeah. And I think too, it's like the you know, the sort of grounding of things in the world that exists, but in less, I don't know what, more, I don't know, I want to say real ways, but yeah, maybe. Yeah.

unknown 6:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:38

Because like I'm thinking Elizabeth Stevens, we've had her on the show, we'll have links for her episode in the show notes if y'all want to listen to that. But she writes, she has the Zaviri Mate series where it's like thousands of years in the future, humans are on a planet out in outer space, right? So like that would definitely be more like sci-fi, whereas what you're talking about, like you have black women who are living on Earth now, right? Like nowadaytime, who either get taken or meet somebody who they think are just fine black men who are actually not their aliens. But one thing that I love that you tie into your books is this faded mates aspect. At least the ones that I've read, you might have some that don't, that I just have not come across yet. But of the ones I've read, there is this faded mates element. Why was that imprint for like incorporating in the story?

SPEAKER_00 7:34

Honest answer because it's easy. So sometimes I'll incorporate like a trope, and it's just because it's a good grounding trope. And then you could do really interesting things with it later. And it's like, I mean, I can't play a lick of jazz, but if we're talking about like jazz improvisation, you know, if you can play a saxophone, great. And you know, you learn all the basic notes, right? And then you just do other things. Faded mates is an easy thing to ground your work in, or for me to ground my work in. And then, you know, I like the idea of playing with the idea of faded mates, mostly because, like, as a person, I'm not sold on the idea of, you know, my ideas of like love and attachment are very loose. I think when I was like a kid, I was probably like saying, like, you could throw a rock and find somebody you could be with forever. I think that's actually true. Like, it's millions of people on this planet, throw something behind your head.

unknown 8:31

Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

And so I like playing with the different just I like playing with the idea of faded mates as like a grounding concept, and then you know, exploring how that can change or be altered in some way from there.

SPEAKER_02 8:44

Yeah. Oh, that's so interesting. So I am, and I've talked about this briefly on the show, a romantic. I don't know that I feel romantic-y feelings towards people, and they're like, Yes, I love you and I care about you, and I would do X amount of things for you, even to the detriment of myself. Right. Love in that kind of aspect, but not like the lovey dovey, I'm thinking about them and I'm kicking my feet, and I'm so excited to see them today. It's like, no, I get to see them, cool. And we'll spend time together, and that's gonna happen. Like, don't feel that kind of those kinds of feelings. And so I think the idea of like a faded mate is so reassuring. So I love to read them, but one thing I love about, at least from the ones that I've read, is that kind of one-sided faded mates where the otherworldly individual will say feels those feelings and the other person does not and has to, well, usually it's like, yeah, I'll totally bang you. Go from there. Why not, right? I mean, it's an alien. Hello, of course.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

And you're gonna take me away from here. Let's go. Let's do it.

SPEAKER_02 10:03

But I love that aspect of kind of like that push pull of well, like I feel these feelings, and this is just a fact, and this is like almost that miscommunication. No, you know what I'm feeling. Don't have no clue.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

Yeah, yeah. That's just me projecting my life, right? Which is so funny because I'm I love romance and I'm in love with love. I think love feels so lovely, but I can love not love someone very quickly. Like it's a very tangible and it's tangible and has requirements.

unknown 10:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

So if at any point it's not meeting the requirements, in my mind, it automatically becomes not love. But romance is great, right? There's so many, I think I I categorize it and I like to explore those categorizations in my writing where there's like romance and then there's love, and then there's in love, and then there's like caring, and there's, you know, like all these sort of like different ways that I think in the human experience, we can sometimes blend together, but are interesting to view separately. So, you know, I I don't generally have a lot of this may not be true, but I don't have a lot of like conflict. I think I think the conflict generally is not between the characters, right? Like this character did something to this character. It's usually between like how people are interpreting feelings or understanding feelings. And maybe that's just my own like way of working through how I understand or interpret feelings, but I think it's interesting to explore that in the different ways. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

Okay, so now I'm thinking there was one of your books where she gets taken and brought to his planet and I oh god, I really hope I'm not like meshing all of the alien romances that I've read in my life together. This is actually your book. I hope so. I'll let you know if it's not. The ex shows up and they like kiss cheek or mouth or something. Okay, so yes.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

Thank goodness it is your book. I would have won there.

SPEAKER_02 12:17

It's like the very like cultural differences, right? She's a black woman who is not gonna take no shit from this alien dude. Like, first of all, you were like, everything's fine. I didn't, I like you could get pregnant. I didn't know I could get pregnant, I just thought I was banging this black dude who was hot, right? Like, come on, and not only that, now I gotta get taken because this is gonna be an accelerated pregnancy, and I don't know what's gonna happen. Now I come to your home where everybody lives together, just like completely different, and then your ex shows up and you kiss them.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

Excuse me, with long slippery gray tone. Like I know. I mean, they had to have one flaw.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Like getting them pregnant was not the flaw. I mean it works out. Right.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Yeah. So I mean, I think that was that's like the cultural aspect of like, you know, just exploring how different people interact that I think is really interesting, and that's what's like speculative can kind of allow you to do because then you're taken out of the rules of how I would respond as a human person if this were another human person doing this, right? It gives you leeway to incorporate something very strange, like watching your current partner like tongue kiss their ex, who isn't really their ex yet. Like technically, they're her, you know, their exes, but she doesn't know that. So she's just like, hey, well, this is aren't a big deal. So he's just like, yeah, we kissed. Okay, yeah, we've done it before and we'll do it again, but that happened. And how one would navigate that. I can a hundred percent forget that I'm writing about romance and just get totally lost in culture. Like sometimes I've most of my editing is me like drawing, like pulling back on the culture because I'm like, girl, this ain't I don't know, Avatar or something. I don't know. Like, this isn't you just like making up some world and you're supposed to have a romantic story happening here. Then I have to go back and be like, oh yes, and they liked each other. After I'd taken out 40 pages of describing the food, they ate and they like each other.

SPEAKER_02 14:34

I didn't love that variety though in your books, especially that and I am gonna butcher the name of that series.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

Which one? Leica?

SPEAKER_02 14:44

Leica, okay. I'm like, it's L-Y-Q-A. I don't know. Perfect. Okay, so the Leica series. Like you had one of the books where I think it made up but might have been the second one where the female main character is teaching the aliens ebonics. That was the first one, so oh, it was so much happens, and like I I'm someone where I read smut for the smut. Like I read romance for them to be banging. And I can appreciate a really good story that pulls me in. And I feel like, yes, you do have the smutty smut the smutton, but I feel like the rest of the book, like it doesn't take away from that, and maybe that's your editing and going back in and be like, oh yeah, they like each other. But I feel like like so much of what you write is so interesting, and like the world that you build and the cultures that are interacting just makes it gives it so much variety. Now I'm curious. One, have you done a lot of like traveling personally where you're able to pull from different cultures to like kind of mesh them together and make your own? Or is it like, I'm just it's all in my head?

SPEAKER_00 16:02

I've come from a multicultural family. That's one. I'm from Chicago, and I don't know if people one thing people don't realize about Chicago, Chicago has like everybody. Every person that you could think of is in Chicago. And it's very segregated and terrible but wonderful ways where you can like go to an area and then like everything's in Arabic, and everybody's Muslim, and you're you that's your corner store and you go there, and eventually you're gonna learn to say something in Arabic. Or you go, you know, you go to another, another area, and everybody speaks Spanish, and eventually you're gonna learn how to introduce yourself in Spanish. And so I just come from really multicultural background. My father's from Jamaica, my mother is American, but she's like her family's from Virginia. She was raised in Chicago, she converted to Islam when I was 10. Like, you know, you get all of these influences. When I was in my 20s, I lived in Korea. I was a teacher in Korea back, it was almost 20 years ago, and I can't even, every time I think about it, I was like, ugh, back in the day. And I traveled a bit when I was there. But then also when you live, you know, when you live in Korea, there's teachers who come from all over. So I have like a ton of South African friends. I obviously have a lot of Korean friends, and you just, you know, I just kind of take all of that. But I also, again, was an anthropology major. So I've always been super interested in people's cultures and language, and a lot of that is just stuff I make up in my head. So I don't know if you've read outside of the alien series, but I have written like uh vampire novellas and then I have a series of horror.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

Yes. Yes, that one's good.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

And I don't be following none of the rules of vampires. Like everybody walking around. I don't even think about the sun. You know what I mean? Because I don't, it's just like, oh, I think of vampires, and then I just start kind of making things up. I think that's the fun thing about writing is that, and it's not even on purpose, it just doesn't occur to me to think about the rules that have already been established. Like sometimes I'll be like, oh, I wonder if anyone's gonna question that this vampire's out in the sun, and then I'm just like, nah, but maybe they're just sleepy all the time because the sun makes them a little lethargic, and that's it. That's the only message.

SPEAKER_02 18:11

It's just like the secret that they tell people is that they are like, oh, yeah, it's definitely not a vampire if they're out in the sun. We'll make this work.

SPEAKER_00 18:19

Yeah, I just make it like that. That character just casually naps, you know. And it's just because the sun makes them a little tired. But I don't have time to be having this person coming out only at night.

unknown 18:29

No.

SPEAKER_00 18:30

I won't do some things I need to happen in the day. So I need to change the rules so he can be in the daytime.

SPEAKER_02 18:37

So true.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

Was that I didn't even know if I answered your question, but yes, I did, I did travel a little bit when I was younger. I have a multicultural background and I just be making stuff up.

SPEAKER_02 18:46

That's a variety. I love that. So now I'm curious. I know you write quite a bit. Do you also read, like in what kinds of books do you read, and how do they maybe influence how you write your stuff?

SPEAKER_00 18:59

Yeah. So I read everything. I mean, I've always read everything. My grandfather was a doctor, and I used to go to his office after school when I was in grammar school, elementary school, and I would just like read all of his medical journals, right? And I have a I have a pretty good memory. So, like this, like imagine sitting and reading, like, you know, 20 pages on like ocular function or something, and I'm just like, yeah, this is great. So I read everything, and somehow I retain some of these weird things and they'll pop up later. And I'm like, how do I know that? Oh, that's right. I read that in Ocall's office. I read everything. I read romance. I will say, romance is actually not the genre I read the most. I read a ton of nonfiction. Like recently, I was reading the collected writings of Martin Luther King Jr. I read, you know, nonfiction. I love nature books, I love like social science books, so you know, like those kinds of things. Yeah, I just read everything. I read anything. I'm also a professor. I'm like an adjunct occasionally. I can't teach anymore, but when I was teaching, you know, you end up reading a lot of, you know, creative nonfiction, a lot of articles. I read everything. And then, you know, sometimes I'll go on a freezy like romance binge where I'm just up till five o'clock in the morning going through somebody's entire catalog when I have my own things to do. And I was like, actually, gotta read everything that's personal.

SPEAKER_02 20:22

I love it. How do you find time, right? For likes, for all these things. I mean, to write, right? Like, so like you enjoy writing. It's something that you like want to put effort and time into, but you also a parent, you also like have a job, you do all these things, read also, and like read heavy stuff, right? But then it takes a different part of your brain to be like, I'm gonna write about a black woman getting digged down by an alien. Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

It doesn't take a different part of my brain, though. That's all the same part of my brain. I'm like, this is very interesting. I'm reading about, you know, like the gardening habits of people 300 years ago. And then also now we're gonna talk about, you know, an some woman getting digged down by an alien, but she's gonna be in a field of beautiful flowers and it all connects. But the truth is, I and I actually I've tried to do better about this. I was a very late mom. I had my daughter at 38, which means that I had almost two decades of unrestricted writing time, which means that I could sit and just whip up my laptop anywhere or my notepad. I'm still a very heavy like paper writer. So I always have like five notepads on me or notebooks, and I could just do that anytime. Now my child will be like, feed me. And I'm like, oh sorry, yes. Let me do that. Feeding things.

SPEAKER_02 21:43

I'm old enough to take care of yourself by now.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

Yeah, that's four. Get it together, girl. I write when I can. I also have notepads where I just jot things down. I have so many stories, like just completely out. lines and I just have to get to them. But I also I don't see writing as pressure. I'm not, I don't pressure myself to write. I don't feel I don't feel pressured to publish either, which is so weird. Like I love sharing stories, but it just doesn't feel like a a thing I have to do or else. And because of that, I can kind of just write when I feel like it. I've been doing something new with my daughter because I I work on a laptop for work. I work remotely so I'm always on the laptop during work hours. And then after I will immediately close it and I just get away from my computer so my kids not like you stare at a screen all day. And then at night she gets like two hours of screen time a day. So I will like when she wants to do her screen time then I'll go write and I'll write at my desktop so I'm not mobile. I have a staying on spot then I gotta eventually leave. But recently she's been my co-writer. So I'll just let her I mean not the naughty words but I'll let her check out the sanitized sentence and my fingers get a break and I get a little extra writing time in by incorporating her. So that's what I do. I just do it whenever I can and if I don't want to do it I just don't I don't ever want to feel like writing is a chore or something that I don't like because I really do love it and I write every day. There's not a day that goes by that I don't write and sometimes I can sit and crank out 1500 words and sometimes it's like a sentence and I'm fine. I'm just like they that was a great sentence. I did a good job.

unknown 23:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 23:33

So for people who have maybe never seen your catalog you have quite an extensive one. Can you give us like a breakdown of some of the series like maybe where to start if they're interested in hearing more because y'all come on it's so good. But if someone's thinking about starting like where should they start and kind of what can they expect from each of your series?

SPEAKER_00 23:56

Sure. So I write Aliens, shifters and vampires. So I have my main series is the Like a Planet Lovers series. That's like my first that's my OG series that has six books. The recent one just came out Bear that is a good read if you like you know very sort of cushy soft everybody loves everybody. There's no like you know nothing is going to touch this woman at all type love. I have a wolf shifter series that is good. If you like wolf shift shifters, I don't really know how to categorize that one. I mean in terms of the feels of it I think it it's meant to be slightly I guess tougher than what I normally write because everything I write is so soft but it still just ends up being soft. I am incapable of writing a hero who does not automatically just like love and want to do all the things for the female character. I just can't. And I have another alien series called Black Girls Off World and that is three books I believe and that's like this kind of the Thresher people are like these like kind of mercenary assassiny type people. So the heroes have that vibe still very lovey dovey though. I have a mermaid novella series which I think is a really I always push people toward my novellas first. I always say readaste because I don't know something about that book was like it was just such a sweet write you know like sometimes I'll write something I'm like oh that was so sweet to write you know and I like that one as a first read and Nora and Valau is like also one of my favorites which is it's like a Christmas novella but you read it anytime and it's super short. That's a contemporary and then I have a I have the vampire novella series which is taste and lick lick just got recovered so they're both nice and pretty I probably have more and I can't think about them. But I was mainly aliens vampires shifters and some of them I think the novella series are a good place to start. So if you want to you know something short and sweet and yeah it's always shortens.

SPEAKER_02 26:08

Yeah taste and lick are primo so good I have not read Nora and Bilal that one I have not read that one yet I actually own it I was looking at my thing. I'm like which ones do I own and then I recently read it was a short one where are you my alien captor Neo yeah Neo Neo that one was good I don't expect any once in that explain it alien insert alien names here that one's Soulmates of so my so that one was really good and it has like a backstory happening the side where you gotta read the other book to like see what's going with the side characters. And I just I love those kind of interconnected where you don't have to know too much about the other characters if it's like maybe the second book in the series but it's like oh wait no I actually kind of want to know what happens with this other couple so let's go back and read that too and those are so good just like bite-sized ones.

SPEAKER_00 27:12

You have genies gin as well do you no you're right I have I don't have gin you're thinking of Jessica I have thirsty conjure boys which is reincarnated deities and I don't know why I always forget that one.

SPEAKER_02 27:28

Okay and I mean it has your name on it.

SPEAKER_00 27:30

It does have it's just like I'm staring at the book. No that's another Nicky Yeah Thirsty Conjure Boys. You know in my mind I low key characterize that as contemporary and I don't know why. Probably because I mean I it's not contemporary but because there's no aliens I just forget about it. And also sometimes I'll write things and it's just because I had the idea and it came to me very quickly and then I will a thousand percent percent forget I have a road like that. You have to say the whole title oh yes that entire series I wrote right yeah so Third Street Conjure Boys is a reincarnated deity. So I probably had a dream or something and then I said oh yes I'm gonna do that for sure an entire series I will forget about. And I really actually love that series but I try to incorporate I'm not religious and I don't poo-poo on anyone's religion but I like the idea of not religion but like the idea of like all of these deities that people have believed in or do believe in and just how you know what they do, right? They're like little superhero not little but like they're superhero characters, right? You know, they have like all these powers and all these connections to like nature and all these things. And I just had this idea to write us you know love stories that are where the main characters are just reincarnated deities. And I will say there's something about how I write is that I will think up these really what feel like grand like ideas like ooh reincarnated deities and it has nothing to do with like I don't care about the deities. Like that it's just a regular love story but everyone just happens to be like ocean reincarnated right and that's it. Like there's no special thing we're not like trying to like stop the gods from coming to the earth and take over I don't care about none of that right it's like do you love me? Do I love you?

SPEAKER_02 29:16

Oh really you have a rainbow goddess in you that's great wonderful but that one's really fun I feel like the themes are a little like maybe more dangerous but yeah that one I did not even realize that you had the wolf series so now I'm gonna need to go back and look at those because I definitely read the vampire ones and I started the alien one and I got a few into that one I also started reading more of that the like because you have like a read the in a certain order and so I started like kind of crisscrossing zigzagging however the heck I wanted to so reading them in specific order might help me remember exactly where I was in this series but I'm pretty sure I got to the third book with the dude with the king dude with the gold wings and they have to like traverse this whole like planet and carrying an egg and that one was really interesting as well I think that was that the third one for people who can't see Nikki's nodding I was correct I'm nodding that is true that was the third you've been on point so look you're more on point than me I mean I see genies the reincarnate gods my bad I did not read that one I just saw conjure and thought genies oh and I don't know why yeah no I get it because like you're conjuring something so you you know probably what's being conjured but I was thinking more like they're the conjurers. That makes sense all right so people are like okay yes we want to get more of Nikki's books and I know you have quite a few you're working on like you said no release dates because they will come out when they come out and you have quite an extensive backlog for new people to go check out what is one book that you think like go start with this one first absolutely and then where can they find it buy it etc and then where can they connect with you on socials?

SPEAKER_00 31:24

Yeah so the I would say start with taste.

SPEAKER_02 31:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 31:28

The sweet little bite size three no pun intended is about vampires you can find all of my work on Nikki Clarkromance com. I'm mostly on Amazon but I do like sold signed copies on my website if people are into that and all of my socials are at Nikki Clark Romance. Keep it all the same.

SPEAKER_02 31:47

Yeah we'll have links for that in the show notes for anyone who's going about doing other things as they're listening or watching us. So show notes for the podcast and YouTube description you can just scroll right down there and you will find all of this stuff. And I will also try to find the link to your post on the order of reading so that way people can also check that out if they're like all right I see this series but is at the middle of the extended series of the other series make it simple for everybody. Nikki thank you so much this has been so much fun chatting with you, getting to know you and it makes me even more excited to go back through more of your backlog because now I know the person behind the story.

SPEAKER_00 32:30

So thank you so much. This is great. I love to laugh and chat about you know aliens digging down people especially black women of course because we deserve it we deserve it if aliens come down here and they're fine we it's for us. We deserve it