An Interview with An Author: Nina Voss

Welcome to the second installment of our interview series on science fiction indie authors and their works! Today, we have the inimitable Nina Voss with us. She describes herself as a lifelong creative and avid gamer who lives for the thrills in life, and her debut novel, NEON NOIR is no exception. She writes cyberpunk (we love to see it!), and this first installment in her Cyber City saga was published last fall.

All righty, enough intro, let’s get into the details.

Cover image courtesy of Nina Voss

[Salena]: Nina, so good to have you here to chat all things publishing! Let’s start with the following: what was your first memory of writing?

[Nina]: Like many writers, it all began with the constant daydreaming in class. It got to the point where I would look forward to certain classes where I could zone out and not get in any trouble, because that was prime story time!

[Salena]: How has your relationship with writing evolved since that first memory?

[Nina]: What a beautiful question. In the beginning, it was all half-baked ideas that barely fleshed out on paper. A scene here, then that was scrapped for a new world with a new character. I became much more disciplined in high school and, also like many other writers, wrote fan fiction! Now that required an actual full fleshed plot line, so that helped me hone the actual craft of telling a true story. Then in college, I was able to work on the more technical side of writing–whole lot of college essays! By the time I graduated college I felt I had improved enough that I could actually draft a novel, which I did about two years after. (Which is currently an untouched Google Doc, but you know, it still exists.)

[Salena]: What was the first book you read that made you fall in love with reading?

[Nina]: The Nancy Drew series. The fact that they were so satisfying and there are so many of them… that series was practically a drug for me. I would read one a night. That’s also how I learned about ghostwriting.

[Salena]: A kindred soul! I was obsessed with Nancy Drew (including the computer games). What’s the most recent book you’ve read that made you fall in love all over again?

[Nina]: I am going to shout out another indie author. Last year I had some health issues and struggled with some pretty bad depression. The anhedonia was unreal; absolutely nothing could bring me a whiff of joy. All my hobbies were dead to me. Video games, books, music. I’d never experienced anything like it. To partake in things that had always, at the very least, brought comfort, and usually brought me significant joy…only to feel nothing? Awful. I tried to read different books and it was this odd juxtaposition of objectively recognizing that I like the book, but not getting any true joy out of it. Then I read Offerings to the Flower Moon by J.E. Erickson. THAT book brought me an actual thrill, one I hadn’t felt in months. If I weren’t a mom and a writer with deadlines (AKA, I’m a busy bee), I’d have read all of his books by now.

[Salena]: You write, as your website says “thrilling things” (LOVE IT). Your most recent novel, NEON NOIR, the first in THE CYBER CITY SAGA, was published last fall. Tell us a bit about the book.

[Nina]: I’ll give the spiel I’m used to giving when I table at book events: Welcome to Cyber City! A post-apocalyptic neon metropolis where sex and tech reign supreme. Don’t like it? Well, that’s too bad, because you’re trapped inside due to the plasma dome enshrining the city…It’s for your own good, of course. The outside world is a barren, radioactive wasteland. The safe place to be is inside the city.

Right?

Xia, an assassin freelancer, finds that may not be the case! She discovers that the Virgins, the group of people in the city who reject body modification technology, are going missing. As the secrets she unveils grow more sinister, she teams up with Mai, a Virgin prostitute (little play on words there) to help the Virgins escape the city.

It’s very cyberpunk, but definitely a good starter to the genre, in my opinion. I’ve gotten wonderful feedback from readers who don’t normally read sci-fi or cyberpunk that they loved the book. “Reads like a movie” or video game has been a consistent, wonderful feedback for the novel.

[Salena]: What a great pitch! What was the inspiration behind NEON NOIR?

[Nina]: Both my partner and I are huge fans of synthwave music and cyberpunk. And like many cyberpunk fans, I’ve been enthralled by Japan ever since I played a samurai video game at the age of 5 that was absolutely too bloody for a young child to play. I specifically remember being fascinated by the game’s cherry blossom trees. They were just so beautiful. I never actually got really into anime, but I always found many aspects of Japanese culture to be very beautiful. Anyways, I was listening to some synthwave music on a long car ride and a scene just came to me. On that 5 hour car ride, I fleshed out a solid plot line. I had just written a mystery novel draft and decided to scrap any efforts in publishing that to focus on this cyberpunk story. Then I got to work, and based “The Virgins” on a combination of samurai culture/Bushido, Shintoism, and Zen-Buddhism.

A lot of sci-fi fans’ first love is Star Wars. Want to hear something terrible? I don’t care about Star Wars. I always found it boring, and I’ve never been a huge fan of space operas. (I like some, don’t get me wrong. Although this probably explains why I love the first Red Rising book, but lost interest as the series progressed.) I’ve always preferred science fiction that was a bit more grounded here on Earth. Post-apocalyptic, steampunk, and of course, cyberpunk. Blade Runner over Star Wars for me, I’m afraid. So when I was to write science fiction, it made sense that this is the course it took.

[Salena]: Honestly, I’m the same way when it comes to science fiction and its subgenres. What do you want readers to be left with after reading the novel?

[Nina]: A hunger for book 2. (Ha.) But not just that; I want readers to feel a connection with the characters. Characterization is the most vital part of any book to me, and it’s the part I enjoy most in writing. My absolute favorite review is from a fellow author who spoke about several of the characters and the relationship between the two leads. I cannot tell you how that made my heart SING. Much more than any compliment on the writing ever could.

[Salena]: Which, speaking of book two, when can we expect the next installment?

[Nina]: Well, if it weren’t for two dang kiddos, it would definitely have been out by now! Originally I had planned for a trilogy, but decided to condense the second and third book together, which pushed back my release of the second novel. So we’re looking at the second half of the main plotline coming out Fall of 2026.

[Salena]: Walk us through the publication process for NEON NOIR. What’s something you know now that you wish you knew when you first started?

[Nina]: That you have to keep the momentum going after you publish, too. I had planned on self-publishing from the beginning, and I did my research. I knew my limitations and what I was willing to do, and what I was not willing to do. (I knew I did not have the time or desire to create video content for marketing, for instance, so I did not even bother with Tik Tok.) From January of 2024 to October when I published, I gathered a small, solid following of people actually looking forward to the release of my book. I had even surpassed my goal of preorders. Then, without going into boring detail, health issues hit just a few weeks before my book release. I barely handled packing the preorders, and once my book released, I basically went M.I.A. on social media. Ideally, this is when you really push your book. It’s out, it’s got reviews, you’ve got to keep the momentum up. I lost that momentum, and picking back up almost a year later has been hard. At the time, I didn’t even care. But now I’m happy and healthy and I care very much!

[Salena]: What’s a day in the life of a writer look like for you? How do you maintain balance? What rituals or habits do you bring to your work?

[Nina]: I thrive on routine, which is kind of difficult when you two very young kiddos! My son started preschool and on those days, I’m very strict about making sure I write during that time. I’ve also managed to line up their naps. Nap time for them is writing time for me! I’m also big on rewarding myself. A good writing day makes me feel great in the evening, and I often “celebrate” with some wine or a cocktail. And while I do have discipline, I will absolutely take breaks from writing in order to keep it fun. I’ve taken weeks and even months where I don’t type a damn word. And that’s absolutely okay. We can’t all be Stephen King.

[Salena]: How and where do you find your writing community? What advice would you give to someone who hasn’t found theirs yet?

[Nina]: There are so, so many amazing people on social media. I detest social media as a whole, but it is a very useful tool. With a little digging, you can find some wonderful and kind writers on Instagram, Threads, etc. Those are the two primary ones I use. A lot of writers I know on there are active on discord as well, but I don’t use Discord much. I abhor Facebook writing groups, though. Had a lot of bad luck with those.

[Salena]: What’s next for you for the rest of the year and 2026?

[Nina]: I am diligently working on wrapping up Neon Noir’s story in book 2. When my brain is fried from its flashing neon tech but I still need to write, I’m working on a dark fantasy romance with heavy Lovecraftian elements and blood magic. Like you noted, I’m an author of thrilling things!

[Salena]: Put me on the list for that Lovecraftian dark romantasy! Nina, this has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you for participating in this series - I can’t wait to share your words with the rest of the world. Anything else you’d like to share before we head out?

[Nina]: One note on writing in today’s world, if you are looking at self-publishing. The woes of having to market yourself in a sea of books are absolutely real. And marketing is a completely different skill than writing. Most writers hate having to sell themselves, and we lament about it all the time. I am not trying to discount that. Shouting into the void sucks. But, it’s to be expected, because we live in an age where we have the opportunity to simply put our work out there at no cost. That’s amazing. The fact that we don’t need a publishing house? How great is that! View it as the incredible opportunity that it is, and that a single person reading your work is a marvelous feat, and you will be a very happy writer.

And as for this genre, Cyberpunk needs more love. Space Operas are all the rage in the sci-fi world, and I want Cyberpunk to have its shine!

Nina is the coolest, and I’m so happy she could join me today on the substack. I appreciated her candor, especially when it came to the reality of carving out time for herself and her writing among all the other commitments she has in her life. Also, it’s so cool to see how the ideas for novels come to authors - you just never know when your next car ride might spark inspiration. If you are curious about cyberpunk, give Nina’s book a read; you can check out different options to buy it here!

Thank you again, Nina, for the fantastic Q&A. Please get yourself over to her website.

Up next, tune in for an interview with indie author, Ashley Peters, and the year end wrap up!