creativity | Helle Gade

Please give a warm welcome to

Tell us a bit about yourself

Oh, gosh, I’m terrible at this. My author bio is legit biscuits and crazy, so I suppose I should mention that I’m straight up kookie-dukes. On top of being an author, I’m also an artist and blame most of my quirks on an excess of imagination. And narcolepsy!

Have you always wanted to become an author?

Nope! Like all things in my life, I seem to have just stumbled blindly into it on a whim and am having a blast. True story, I legit wanted to be a fire truck when I was a kid and don’t think I’ve ever come up with anything better than that, since. Curse and blessing of the multipotentialite, eh? The good news is, since I’ve had a HUGE list of jobs and interests over the years, I’ve already got a lot of background knowledge for character building!

What was your inspiration for your current book/series?

I literally have no idea. I was actually in the middle of outlining a RH about griffin shifters, when Dizzy and her men very suddenly came crashing into my life and demanded I listen to them. Since meeting them, I’ve been introduced to a couple dozen characters that live inside the same universe and have inter-connected stories, so it’s been one heck of a ride!

What are you working on now?

Oy. I’m not sure. Logic tells me I SHOULD be working on book two of the Disaster Zone Jones trilogy, but Whisper, a connected character, has been tempting me. So has Danika. And I’ve got a half-finished ménage short that I kind of want to release as a sort of mental palette cleanser. Plus, my “main hustle” is as a youtuber and artist, so there’s always a ton of stuff to do for that. Moral of the story? I’m doing a lot of stuff, but it’s all gonna get done!

Do you have any quirks while writing?

I actually run a FB group called the RH author’s accountabiliteam challenge where we set goals each week and if they aren’t met, we have to do punishments. So far, I’ve never failed, but there have been a couple of close calls. How did I force myself to overcome? Aside from just being personally too stubborn and competitive to lose, I bribed myself! I’ll often sit with a bucket of raisinettes or a bowl of popcorn or something like that and only allow myself to snack once every hundred words or so. When the words are being terrible and refusing to flow? This works a treat!

What are your hopes for the future?

I hope to meet a couple of milestones. I already made someone cry, so that’s like big #goals there, too, but I think I’d also like someone to say I’m their favorite author at some point. And I’d like to generate enough interest in my writing that it becomes a self-sustaining lifestyle. Currently, I am my own writer, editor, illustrator, cover artist, book formatter, and social media team because I honestly can’t afford to pay anyone to do these things. If the books generate enough profit to make it so I can hire an editor, cover artist, and PA, I’d be able to focus more on getting the stories out even quicker. And given the 30 other ideas in my writing folder right now? That would be fantabulastic.

Do you have any advice for new authors about the publishing world?

Do it. Don’t not do it. You WILL fail. You’re going to fuck up so hard on your first book, and probably the next couple after that as well. DON’T LET THAT STOP YOU. It will never be perfect, and at some point you have to accept that you’ve done the best you can right now and use the experience to learn and grow the next time. But that first step? The first step is just doing it. I know it’s scary, but I also completely know that you have greatness inside of you that someone else has been waiting their whole life for you to share.

Do you have anything to say to your readers?

Thank you. Thank you for taking a chance on someone you may not have heard of yet, on a book about a character whose first name is literally Disaster (full name Disaster Zone Jones). You didn’t have to, and yet you did anyway! That’s amazing, and you’re a total rock star! I hope we get to grow and watch this world expand together for years to come. Thank you for telling people about “I’m Cursed,” gushing to me about your theories, sharing pics of your pets in the reader group, and being an endless source of inspiration and enthusiasm. It’s honestly one of the biggest things that helped me write this first book, and has kept me excited to write the many to follow. I love you, be kind to yourself. 🖤