Author Bio:
Nicole Walsh (she/her) is a cat enthusiast from the east coast of Australia who loves fern gardens and long dresses. She writes short and novel-length speculative fiction and urban fantasy that span from a little bit dark, a little bit amusing through to a little bit steamy. Her work features in 40+ magazines and anthologies. Her second novel, sci-fi-fantasy mashup novel The God-Wife Reborn is OUT NOW. Visit Nicole at: https://nicolewalshauthor.com/ and www.facebook.com/nicolewalshauthor
MetaStellar Magazine - interview (video)
MetaStellar Magazine - interview (video)
MetaStellar Magazine - interview (video)
My first EVER interview. I try and keep my image and voice out of the social media space, so this was TERRIFYING. A big thank you to MetaStellar Magazine, for all that they do for writers and readers and how kind and professional they are!
FantaSciiCon Author Article
MetaStellar Magazine - interview (video)
MetaStellar Magazine - interview (video)
Organisers of the FantaSciiCon event (December 2025) wrote this lovely article about my work.
https://www.fantasciicon.com.au/post/nicole-walsh-spinning-dark-steamy-and-imaginative-tales
Dragon Soul Press (publisher)
MetaStellar Magazine - interview (video)
Dragon Soul Press (publisher)
Dragon Soul Press has been doing blog interviews with contributors - including me!
Check it out here: https://dragonsoulpress.com/2024/12/22/author-interview-with-nicole-walsh/
Non-Binary Review Magazine
MetaStellar Magazine - interview (video)
Dragon Soul Press (publisher)
My first ever written interview :-)
Zoetic Press' Non-Binary Review Magazine #35, Old Friends published my short story Sparkle. They also published these interviews of all their contributors - including me!
Check it out here: https://www.zoeticpress.com/issue-35-old-friends (scroll down, I'm at the end - authors are in alphabetical order!)
Latest News:
October: A few months ago I sat down with MetaStellar Magazine's Grace Kielstra to chat reading, writing, inspiration and... generative AI, privilege and trad vs indie publishing. Twas my first ever interview. Initially I was going to turn my camera off (I don't use my voice or full image on social media) but I got super brave and had a go with the old 'lamp behind you' look. This interview is now LIVE! Whoot!
September: Comic-con Brisbane 2025 was amaze-balls! OMG such a big event, so many people and amazing authors. One of my all time favourite authors was just a few tables down. I think I maybe mostly did not behave too weirdly (lol). A fabulous two days, chatting to readers and writers. I will never tire hearing about other people's projects, and what they love to read!
September: was lucky enough to have another acceptance for publication, in Metastellar, which is a favourite space of mine. I also popped off the waitlist for Comic-Con Brisbane, which is a very big event, and which I did not think I had much hope for. EEEEE! Very excited. Working on improving my signage and promo items for this events.
August: I attended Roma-Con and Capricon (Rockhampton). Lots of driving and writing time in motels and thinking time as I drove. Also, amazing conversations with young creatives and fellow writers and readers! I had THE best month!
July: In July the thing that every writer dreams about happened. A publisher asked for a "Full Manuscript" read on one of my novels. You fling anything from 5 pages to three chapters into a publisher slush piles who hold them 3 months, six months, a year... then you and get form rejection letter (or it times out with no response, which is their response).
It is (in my experience) incredibly rare to get a request from one of these publishers to see the whole piece. I know all the resources and training information says you SHOULD be getting full requests regularly (or there's something wrong with your submission) but as someone who has been submitting very enthusiastically for years now, that is simply not my experience.
This month, a publisher said, "send me the full thing and I'll have a look". It very possible this will not lead anywhere (I have had this happen to a different piece before, and it ended in an eventual nope). BUT I am going to take it as a win. Regardless of whether they take it or not, at least I know this bloody thing landed in the actual ball-park and not the car-park, of the block over. This is a newer piece fresh to publishers in 2025 and this full request came from the SECOND publisher I sent it to! Fingers crossed!
July: perhaps it was all the focusing on creating new material and doing what I love, or the universe giving me a twinkle of hope, but the season has turned when it comes to pieces being accepted. After a very grim first half of the year quite a few acceptances have come through in the past few months, resulting in six... that's SIX anthologies coming out Aug-Dec 2025 that contain one or more of my pieces!
July: June July were insanely creative months for me. In June a brand new novel length piece blasted in out of no where. I finished this piece (120k as a messy first draft) inside a calendar month. This was a sci-fi adventure story with reverse harem and monster romance elements. In July I launched in to a pre-planned challenge with friends which was, of course, writing a whole novel in a month. This has been more of a struggle as this is an attempt at humour, which needs to land on the page in a certain way and I do need to be in the right headspace, so I am struggling to push through this. I am going to make one final big lunge for the finishing line in the final days!
June: Tidal Bones was republished in Crow & Cross Keys (I am in awe of the work of some of these small presses and magazines, so beautiful!). I was lucky enough to get a story included in a more local project (more to come!). AND I had a longer piece (12000 words) accepted into a Dragonsoul Press anthology: Beyond the Veil. This 12k piece was one of the 15 Nanowrimo 2024 stories. I was a bit worried for it, that the steam/sex scene may make it wrong for a lot of places. It FOUND a home!
May: Inkd Publishing accepted a humorous, YA /dark academy satire pieces for an upcoming horror anthology. Very excited about this. Whilst I have always had stories linked inside the Hell-Colony world, this year (2025) I have been pushing a bit harder to create stories linked in other worlds. Different characters, but the same world/war-setting or in this case, school. This piece Necro-Mantic Troubles is cutely linked to the same humour/satire feel of Bumps in the Night. Hopefully Bumps in the Night will one day be in print, beside its quirky cousin Necro-Mantic Troubles.
April: I enjoyed Warwickcon so much I signed up for the Toowoomba con event: Comic-Geddon! And... they accepted me!
April: I attended Warwickcon 2025. This was my first visit to this part of the world and my first Warwickcon. Wow! What an amazing place and amazing people. I had such beautiful chats with young creatives and readers. Thank you for having me, Warwickcon!
What's in the pipeline?
Novels:
Five completed novels in the submission (ie publisher slush pile rejection dance) stage. These include:
- Sci-fi fantasy adventure following a mismatched mercenary team led by a confident but unskilled demon bounty hunter in an inter-realm war.
- Fast-paced sassy new adult spin on a chosen one trope featuring a unconventionally attractive demon princess kicking ass with her pregnant side-kick, rescuing beautiful imperiled males.
- First ever attempt at full-length fantasy comedy adventure featuring satirical spin on tropes/popular themes. A psychopath professional henchperson leads a mismatched group of villains and ex-minions into the Hell-Colony to set up a new business: a school, in Hell!
- Enemies to marriage-of-convenience adventure , featuring a competent 40+ protagonist partnering with her enemy and his family, attempting to survive a Hellishly dangerous world.
- Short, quirky cosy fantasy adventure featuring a 55 year old swamp witch forced out of comfortable retirement, saucepan and chickens in tow, battling Templars and Reavers.
I am editing two BRAND new pieces written in 2025, intending them to be skimming off to agents or publishers in 2026:
- Sci-fi adventure, alien romance featuring a 30 something year old female hacker uncovering dangerous secrets in a universe that is supposed to be without secrets.
- Humorous/satire adventure fantasy featuring a battered elderly solider type ex-minion attempting to "avoid" the heroes and the "story".
I have multiple other novel length pieces in various states of completion, wheels off in the back yard, weeds growing around them, giving me sultry looks.
Short stories/Novellas:
- Multiple short stories/novellas chasing publication in webzines, anthologies and magazines. The plan is to have 20-25 pieces (shorts, novels and reprints) out chasing opportunities at all times. Does this happen? Nooo. It was a slumpy first half of the year, but I am trying. I plan to increase what I have out by making my Nanowrimo 2025/November Writing Challenge the creation of more short pieces!
- My goal is to continue to create new short stories, dabbling outside humour and urban fantasy into lit fic, fantasy, horror, romantasy/smut and fantasy/adventure. I really enjoy exploring characters, genres, worlds and practicing new things through short stories.
- This includes producing and seeking publication for 'teaser' or taste-tester short stories based in some of my novel-length story worlds. I am already doing this for the Hell-Colony world, but I have a heap of other short stories that relate to one another or a novel: https://nicolewalshauthor.com/linked%2Frelated-stories
- I am attending a heap of 'cons this year. My stories are for adults. I have started to dabble in 'zines (small paper print book) to hand out for free. I am also handing out writing and creative-inspired free gifts to young people and children to inspire them to write, draw or imagine their own stories :-)
What will 2025 bring?
Let's see!
Other places to find me:
- Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/nicolewalshauthor
- Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/23449871.Nicole_Walsh
- Australian Authors, profile here: https://australianauthors.net.au/author/nicolewalshauthor/
- Medium (archived blogs): https://nicolewalshauthor.medium.com/
- My YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@nicolewalshauthor4552