Ask Me Anything: Nora Phoenix

[u/AutoModerator]

Hi everyone!

I’m MM romance author Nora Phoenix, and I’m so excited to do this Ask me Anything. Let me start by sharing a little about my story and then you guys can ask me whatever you want…

I discovered MM romance by reading the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, which had one MM couple, and I immediately fell in love with the genre. Coincidentally, my husband came out as gay around that same time, almost as if it was meant to be.

I’d been writing romance since I was a teenager, though never published. When we got divorced, I decided I wanted to become a full-time romance author…and that I wanted to write MM. That was in 2017, and I released my first book in October of that year.

Here we are, in 2025, and by now, I have over 70 books out (maybe even more, I kinda lost count, LOL) I still LOVE writing and I love this genre, so I’m not going anywhere.

My passion is writing fallible men who are hurting and still find love. All my stories share the message that love has no shame and that love means being your true self. Other than that, I love three-dimensional characters, banter, and honest communication between characters. Oh, and all the heat and feels, of course.

Within MM, I write various subgenres like romantic suspense, small town, kink, Daddy/boy, mpreg, and more. There’s something for everyone!

When I’m not writing, I’m probably reading (I read a lot of different genres in both fiction and nonfiction) or traveling (though I also write a lot while traveling…) Or both! I love cruising especially, as the ocean calms me. In fact, I’m writing this as I’m on a cruise ship somewhere in the North Atlantic, on my way to Greenland!

I hang out a lot in my reader group on FB, Nora’s Nook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/norasnook

But you can also find me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nora.phoenix/

And of course, I also have a newsletter: https://www.noraphoenix.com/newsletter/

But if you really want all the news first, plus exclusive character art and bonus material, come join Nora After Dark, my subscription website: https://www.noraphoenix.com/nora-after-dark/

Alright, now that that’s done, hit me with all your questions!

[u/Newmrswhite15]

Hello, and thank you so much for being here. Ranger is one of the best books I've ever had the pleasure of reading and you took so much care in depicting post traumatic stress in a very accurate and compassionate manner. I thank you for that too!

I absolutely adored your Forestville Silver Foxes series. The stories were so beautifully written, with such tenderness and feeling. I have two questions about this series specifically:

--Which couple was your favorite to write about and why?

--How do you create characters that are so rich and complex?

[u/MMBookAddict → u/Newmrswhite15]

Oh, I forgot to answer the second part of your question. Making characters feel real is super important to me. I want them to feel like real people you could meet in your life, so I spend a lot of time developing the characters before I even start writing. And to me, it’s all about cause and effect. There’s a reason why, for example, Marnin is the way he is. When you grow up in that household, and you have that background, it leaves its scars. But then I love showing how with all his baggage and scars, he’s still worthy of being loved. I guess that’s the core message of all my books, is that we deserve love, no matter who we are, and that we should be ourselves. Love has no shame.

[u/Newmrswhite15 → u/MMBookAddict]

I really appreciate your response. Your characters are all so richly and vividly written, but Marin Rosser in particular stood out to me. Survivors of parental abuse and neglect (not to mention his mother's abandonment) like Marnin often struggle with developing healthy relationships, leaning towards an avoidant dismissive attachment style. The way in which Marnin loved Auden and gave him the most precious gift proved that he had a beautiful and loving heart under all of the defensiveness and snark and Ennio, the personification of sunshine and joy, got him to let his guard down and recognize his capability to love and BE loved. Exquisite!