Weston author publishes fantasy novel

Natalie Brown says she might return to work as a veterinarian when her youngest goes to kindergarten, but for now, the Weston mother of three is enjoying her career as a writer.

Brown has been a stay-at-home mom for three years, and while she enjoys spending time with her children, she said until she started writing, her brain wasn’t getting much of a workout.

“I didn’t have anyone to talk to or anything to do with my brain – no cases, no patients and nothing to think about,” she said.

As she was going about her daily chores one day, she began to make up a story in her head, later writing it down.

“I enjoyed that process so much, once I had a draft I decided I wanted to learn how to do it properly, how to do it well,” Brown said.

She took an online writing course and refined her first novel, “The Unity Experiment,” a young adult fantasy published Jan. 17, 2025, by Evernight Teen.

Finding out she liked fantasy writing was a happy accident.

“I always grew up reading adventure and … that kind of thing. I tried writing it and it didn’t come as naturally as when I started writing fantasy,” Brown said.

To date, she has written seven books, three of which have been published.

Her second book “The Seven Souls of Esmerelda Black,” a gothic historical adult fantasy about a medium and thief who can possess the living and steal fragments of their souls, was published Oct. 21, 2025, by Foundations Book Publishing.

Brown’s latest novel, “The Bounty of Blood & Nails,” was published March 3, by City Owl Press. The story follows Tam, a female bounty hunter, who uses forbidden blood magic to capture her prey. She has been tasked to capture a prince but finds herself falling for him instead, Brown said.

“It’s a very dark fantasy,” she added.

Inspiration for her stories sometimes comes from a single idea or phrase.

“The Bounty of Blood and Nails” begins with a phrase she heard in passing, “It’s

fun to be the bad guy, until you develop a conscience.” That sentence helped add dimension to

Tam’s character, who, although supposedly ruthless, still needed to determine if her targets were guilty.

Women usually take center stage in Brown’s stories.

“They are always good, strong, badass women,” she said.

Tam, she said, is her favorite.

“She is quite outspoken; she is quite sassy. She doesn’t let anyone put her in her place,” Brown said.

Of her antagonists, she tries to make them slightly likeable, noting that it’s common for readers to fall for the bad guy.

That said, “I wouldn’t want to live with them or meet them in real life.”

Animals and family members often appear in her books. In fact, the characters in her first book are named after family members, although they are not true to their personalities. It’s also common for her to slip in family anecdotes.

“Usually, you make it worse, or you exaggerate it, but usually the core comes from something you’ve seen or experienced,” Brown said.

Finding time to write while caring for her family can be challenging, but she doesn’t hold herself to a deadline.

“So, I’ll write five minutes here, 10 minutes there. I’m very sporadic and that works for me. I’ll leave a chapter halfway through a sentence if I have to and pick it up the next day,” she said.

Growing up, Brown didn’t have much time for creativity, focusing instead on academics and work. Now, she can’t stop writing.

“I never did anything creative. Now that it has been unleashed, I absolutely love doing it,” she said.

She encourages anyone interested in writing “to just start.”

“Just get the words on paper. Just get the work down, see how it flows and then go back and make it pretty afterward.”

Brown’s books are available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. For information visit nkbrownauthor.com.