My name’s Nem Rowan and I’m originally from Bristol in England, but I’ve lived in South Wales for nearly 6 years now, so my friends count me as an honorary Welshman! I was assigned female at birth and began to transition to male at the age of 23 after years of knowing something wasn’t right about my identity. I started writing romance when I was about 10 – 11 years old; I invented a whole host of fictional alien characters (largely because I watched a lot of anime, like Tenchi Muyo and Dragonball Z) and developed an enormous crush on the shape-sifting space-man who was the love interest in my stories. After that, the romance genre was the staple for all of my somewhat embarrassing early works, and I began to explore LGBT+ themes in my mid-teens after meeting my wife-to-be at school. My work now is a celebration of what it feels like to be in love and an acknowledgment of the fact that even the odd-balls and black sheep deserve love too.

2. Can you share some of your favourite books and authors?

I’m a really slow reader so my choice of favourites is quite small, but I am a huge fan of James Herbert and J.V. Jones. Although usually depicted in a negative capacity because of the era they were written, I always liked that James Herbert included gay and lesbian characters in his novels. My favourite book by him is The Ghosts of Sleath because I simply adore his character, David Ash. J.V. Jones’s currently incomplete book series, the Sword of Shadows, is my all-time most loved collection of novels, ones that I keep going back to time and time again because I find Jones’s writing style so accessible and so vivid. I also enjoy work by Dan Simmons, Juliet Marillier and Diana Wynne Jones.

3. Who/what do you consider your writing influence/inspiration?

My biggest influence is my wife, April-Jane Rowan, as we have been writing together since we met, almost 15 years ago now. Co-writing with her changed the way I wrote in quite a big way, and perhaps vice versa. Her work is highly descriptive, darkly sinister and flows like poetry, and I often feel quite plain when I compare my work to hers, but she always keeps me striving to be a better writer. My greatest inspiration is the sensation of falling in love, which may sound rather cheesy, but it’s a feeling that is like no other and that is very important to me. Writing enables me to fall in love over and over again and I think that’s what has kept the relationship with my wife so alive for all this time because that feeling never goes away.

4. What kind of stories can the readers expect from you (contemporary/historical/sci-fi, adult/NA/YA, etc)?

Adult romantic urban fantasy with a side order of horror, although I would like to branch out into high fantasy and other speculative fiction genres. Currently I am in the process of writing a contemporary romance, but it’s not something I’m used to so I’ve made it as unusual as I can, to keep myself interested!

5. Please, introduce your latest/upcoming release.

My upcoming release is called Witcheskin, and it is the first novel in an urban fantasy trilogy. It follows a young transgender man named Owen, who has been documenting a series of brutal cattle mutilations surrounding a tiny village on the South Wales coastline. He meets an older man named Maredudd, who is originally from Iran, and Maredudd gradually introduces him to the secret world of witchcraft, which eventually enables them to solve the mystery. Along the way, they fall madly in love with each other. It is a dark urban fantasy coupled with a sweet, fluffy M/M romance, and will be released on the 28^th of February, published by Less Than Three Press.

Story blurb: