Mind on Fire Books

🎙️ In this edition of Authors & Allies, I had the absolute pleasure of catching up with my longtime Twitter friend and romance powerhouse, Ophelia Dickerson. We’ve been cheering each other on in the indie writing trenches for a couple of years now—proof that genre differences mean nothing when mutual respect and creative vibes are strong.

Ophelia invited me into the world of her Camo Heels universe, where southern grit meets fearless fashion, dark humor, and heroines who don’t flinch. We talked about the real-life stories that inspire her characters, the southern lore woven into her plots, and how she’s turned book vending and “date with a book” ideas into festival gold.

She even once sent me a short story about alien chickens—yes, really—and it was every bit as wild and wonderful as it sounds.

Getting to spotlight her work is more than just fun—it’s the heart of why I started this series in the first place: to connect, uplift, and celebrate fellow indie writers doing bold, brilliant things.

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Background & Inspiration

Willy: What sparked the idea for your Camo Heels universe, and how did you choose its defining aesthetic?

Ophelia: My Camo Heels series all started with a pair of heels, camo heels to be precise. I’d gone my favorite shoe store at the time, and I’d been eyeballing this pair for a couple weeks. They went on clearance and I finally broke down and bought them. Shortly after, that shoe store went out of business.

In the meantime, life was changing with kids. It was in this time period I asked myself, what it’d be like if everything I did was actually a front to hide something. What if I was actually interesting, sexy even? Because let’s face it a lot of women feel like they lose their sex appeal after kids and life gets into the grind of same thing day in and day out. The whole spy thing is overdone. (Don’t get me wrong, I did write a spy type sexy book too, but we’re not there yet.)

I have a cousin who was a teacher. We would talk about wild stories we heard from kids she had, or things we heard on the internet, or the weird things she saw growing up that her parents were into. Somewhere in there the character of Ashley was born.

Along the way, as I wrote the books, many of the people the character of Ashley met, were people I met in real life, observed from a distance, or heard gossip about and created an interesting story for them.

Camo Heels Series by Ophelia Dickerson on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4orAH9x

Background & Inspiration continued

Willy: Your leading ladies are fearless and unapologetic. Which life experiences helped you write their grit and resilience?

Ophelia: I grew up extremely shy and sheltered, but my mom would always try to force me to do my own business. When I went to college, things began to change. Of all majors to pick I chose journalism. Yeah, the shy, I-don’t-want-to-talk-to-people girl was looking at a profession whose job it was to talk to strangers. Granted, I was thinking sports journalism. I’d always been an athlete. It was what I knew. I figured eventually I could get to where I talked to people easier. It was also the time era where cell phones were just getting to the general public. I had to do most things in person.

At the end of my bachelors, I still wasn’t sure what I was doing with my life. I got married, only to change my mind within months and worked to get divorced. I went back to school for my masters, but I had no scholarships left. I had to work. I lived on my own and worked my way through my masters, in restaurants and waitressing. Those jobs will make you grow thick skin and a perverted sense of humor. I lived a lot in those years. Made a crap ton of mistakes and somehow lived to tell about it.

All of that to say that behind my shy exterior is a sarcastic smart ass with a terrible sense of humor. Often my own personality peeks through my characters, or at least what I’d like to do if I had guts, especially my female characters.

Book by Ophelias Dickerson on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4ma4v9b

Crafting Story & Style

Willy: Your titles promise sass and suspense. How do you strike the right balance between romance, danger, and dark humor?

Ophelia: Excellent question. Not sure if I have, I just kind of throw it all in there together and hope for the best.

Willy: Fashion elements—heels, camo, bold colors—run throughout your books. How do wardrobe choices reveal character arcs?

Ophelia: Wardrobe choices probably don’t reveal as much as you’d expect. In the Camo Heel series, the camo heels were the signal that the MC was going on the hunt for a new paramour.

Willy: Southern settings feel alive on the page. What local myths, places, or family lore did you weave into your narratives?

Ophelia: I’ve lived in the South all my life and have always harbored a love of history. There’s never a shortage of haunted places or stories of horror from the past. Out of all my current books, Legend of the Sparks probably has the most lore, but it’s all make-believe. I used what I knew of the Trail of Tears, took a few fictional liberties to suit my purpose, and rolled with it creating a new special type of people, the Sparks.

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Writing Process & Emotional Depth

Willy: Walk us through your day-to-day writing routine. How do you keep momentum when tackling intense, emotionally charged scenes?

Ophelia: There is no routine. There is only chaos and an intense urge to write at times that bugs me until I figure out a way to squeeze in an hour here and there to write until the story is done.

Honestly, intense, emotionally charged scenes slow me down horribly. At which point I’m prone to cover it up with snark and sarcasm. If I actually have to write it though, I usually lock myself away like a hermit or go to my favorite pizza place to eat and write.

Willy: What techniques do you use to ensure your dialogue crackles with authenticity and attitude?

Ophelia: Don’t tell anyone but I’m a terrible eavesdropper. I’m definitely a people watcher and only in certain instances am I a talker, so I listen, a lot. Then there’s always this lewd drunken pirate wondering around in my head that always has something snarky to say about everything. That’s who writes the good dialogue.

Reader Engagement & Indie Journey

Willy: How do you gather and interpret reader feedback—reviews, social-media reactions—to shape future installments?

Ophelia: Feedback? What’s that?

Willy: As an indie author, which self-publishing lessons were the toughest to learn, and which ended up fueling your success?

Ophelia: One of the hardest things early on was listening to my beta readers, and learning to decipher the feedback. Being able to cut the parts that need it despite how much I love it. Understanding that not every reader will take the same thing from the story or pick up the same things.

Then there’s always kinks in the formatting learning. Thankfully I’ve always been able to find people to ask questions too.

Advice & Looking Ahead

Willy: What’s the single best piece of advice you’d give someone writing romance with a darker edge?

Ophelia: Don’t hold back, but make it feel real.

Willy: How has your Twitter community influenced your marketing strategies or even story ideas?

Ophelia: Like I said before, I’m a people watcher, even online. I see what they do, where they go, etc and see what I think would work for me.

Story ideas… maybe not quite as much influence. Only when my sexy writers start asking questions and bring up things I have to google, then sometimes I get ideas. Otherwise I pull ideas out of nowhere, or so it feels.

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Willy: What can fans expect next from Ophelia Dickerson—new worlds, series twists, or completely fresh genres?

Ophelia: I’ve been working, slowly, on a couple of projects. Eventually I plan to come out with a “diary” style book from Ashley in my Camo Heel series. After I wrapped up the novella series I got more ideas about adventures she could have had so that will cover those, post series time era.

Another project that’s in its infancy is a Robin Hood style messed up sexy story. That’ll probably be the next thing I release. Pretty excited about this one, but I have other projects on my head that need attention first.

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Thank you for joining us for this deep dive into Ophelia Dickerson’s creative world. Keep an eye on our Authors & Allies series for more conversations that spark inspiration and reveal the craft behind your favorite stories.