As many of you know, my alter-ego is E.M. Tippetts, an indie chick-lit author. This means I do my best to stay on top of the indie publishing scene. Most people think of the English speaking markets when it comes to indie publishing, but Germany actually had more market penetration early on by the self-published set. Up to half of the Amazon.de top 100 were indie at any given time in 2012 (as opposed to a quarter on Amazon.com). One such success story is Emily Bold, who I had the privilege of meeting online via my German translator.

When he suggested I try cross-marketing with her, I first looked up the one book of hers that was available in English at the time, The Curse, and was dismayed to see it was paranormal romance. This is not my favorite genre, but I downloaded it and began to read…

…and finished it about a day and a half later. It was that good. Forget everything you thought you knew about paranormal romance. Payton, the male lead, was cursed with immortality along with the rest of his clan hundreds of years ago, and has been in emotional stasis ever since. Not everyone in the clan considers this a curse; what could be better than living for eternity and never again feeling any form of pain?

Enter Samantha, an American exchange student who has no idea about her ancient, Scottish bloodline, nor the prophecy that she alone can fulfill.

Because of the wealth of background research in this series, and Emily posting on Twitter that she sometimes finds herself swearing in Gaelic without even thinking about it, I assumed Emily was a historian. But no, detailed background research is just another of her many talents.

She has also seen success writing in multiple genres. I couldn’t cover them all in this interview, so consider this just one small taste of the fiction of Emily Bold.

First off, tell us about your latest release.

My latest release in German is a humorous novella, but I think it is more interesting for your readers to hear more about my latest translation into English. In February Manilla released One Summer Night, my latest romance novel translated into English. It´s the translation of Lichtblaue Sommernächte, a book published by Ullstein-Buchverlage. The novel is about [a woman named] Lauren [and her] fight against cancer.

Her life seems perfect. But then tragedy strikes and she’s diagnosed with a brain tumour. Lauren wants to fight: to survive, to not give up. But the illness is stronger than she is, and her condition worsens. Lauren feels incredibly powerless and struggles with her impending fate. Even the most beautiful moments in her life are tarnished with pain.

But what if she could decide for herself? Decide when to die? Could that be an option? Piece by piece, Lauren realises that life is what you make of it – and so is death.

Let’s talk about your Curse series. I absolutely love what I’ve read of it so far. Can you tell us more about those books?

I spent my honeymoon in Scotland, and since this time I love Scotland so much. This land is so incredible beautiful and the Scots are very, very friendly people. The Curse series is inspired by them. A centuries old curse is „perfectly placed“ in a mystic landscape like Scotland’s. I thought the story of a modern girl who falls in love with a more than two hundred year old, cursed Scotsman would be great – and this way I created three books. The last book Piece of Infinity has available since [April of this year.]

You’ve got such detailed and comprehensive knowledge of Gaelic history and culture. Is this something you’ve got a background in?

No, but I did A LOT of research for this project. And this research made my love to Scotland more intensive. It is hard to find someone today who can translate into Gaelic.

I loved your take on immortality in The Curse books. It was quite different from anything I’d seen elsewhere in fantasy. What was your inspiration for it?

I was a little tired of vampires and monsters. I was fascinated by the idea of a “simple” curse, and finding a way to break it. At the beginning Samantha didn´t know anything about fate, but she had to learn, that her own and Payton’s are connected with each other. They had to find a way to change their destiny against all resistances.

What projects are you working on now, and what can we expect to see next?

I actually released a new book-project with Amazon Publishing a romantic novel with a chocolatey background. The release was in October 2016 at the Frankfurt bookfair.

Finally, is there anything else you’d like to share?

Yes, of course! I hope you will love my new book The Curse: Piece of Infinity! I would love to connect with readers on facebook @ facebook.com/emilybold.de! If you are interested in more information about Payton and Sam, I would invite you to visit them at thecurse.de

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Emily Mah is a writer and the owner of E.M. Tippetts Book Designs, a company that provides formatting, cover design, and editing services for independent authors and publishers. Her last interview for Black Gate was with author Patrick Samphire.