Droids & Dragons Author, S. Marie Nemo

S. Marie Nemo

Pub 518 welcomes back S. Marie Nemo. She's from Albany, NY/USA and has been writing seriously since October 2020.

"My inspiration to start came from my day job at the time (I worked at a school). One of my responsibilities was to edit text submitted by alumni for publication in the class notes section of their alumni magazine. I had so much fun reading their stories that I decided to write one of my own, and I've never looked back."

S. Marie's first published story was 'Lucy, Take the Wheel' in Pub 518's 6th anthology, 'Cold & Crisp'. She hasn't published her full novel yet but is diligently working on the manuscript.

When asked which author has influenced her storytelling style the most, S. Marie's response was, "Golly, that's tough. I study every book I read, thinking about what the author does that I like and don't like and considering how I could improve my own work as a result. My reading list is full of potential comp titles for my own manuscripts. If I were to pick one author, I would say Hannah Nicole Maehrer, the author of the Assistant to the Villain series. Her prose is amazing. Each chapter keeps me on the edge of my seat, begging for more. I would probably lose my mind if I ever had the chance to tell her how much I love her work in person."

S. Maries' short story in Droids & Dragons is 'Axel's Heart Problem'. "It was inspired by a local house where I live whose inhabitants go all out for Halloween each year. The displays bring joy to the neighbor kids, so they keep doing it, and I hope they never stop. I'm also a huge fan of medieval fantasy stories with princes."

'Axel's Heart Problem', is a fun story about a reluctant dragon. You're going to fall in love with Axel. Here's a snippet from S. Marie's story.

"Axel gaped at him, his rich, deep voice doing strange things to his insides. Humans weren't supposed to demand that they be taken, particularly not handsome ones."

S. Marie has multiple favorite authors, but if she was allowed only to pick one, it would be Ali Hazelwood. "I love her nerdy romances because I'm a database geek. She is another person I would probably squeal at if I ever met in real life and told her how much I love her work."

Superpowers are important to writers and with S. Marie, it's perseverance. "I'm a mom to a toddler, and my days are exhausting since I work a full-time job on top of that. I think it's an amazing superpower to be able to drag myself to my computer every single night after my son goes to bed, no matter how much I'd rather be sleeping, and write. My goal is 15 minutes a day, which I started doing when he was five months old, and I have not missed a single day for the past 3 years."

To find out more about S. Marie Nemo, check out her social media and author website.

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S. Marie Nemo's short story, 'Axel's Heart Problem' is featured in Pub 518's 8th anthology, Droids & Dragons, dropping 09/25/2026.