We chat with author Shelby Nicole about Metamorphosis: A Grove Hollow, which follows a teen girl who is swept into an opulent world of love, lies, and ghosts after she moves in with the wealthy, mysterious family she never knew she had in book one of the Grove Hollow series.
Hi, Shelby! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Sure! I’m a single mom in Pennsylvania, raising two amazing kids in a haunted Victorian house. My background is in graphic design and illustration, but I’ve always had a wild imagination and a love for daydreaming, storytelling, and bringing ideas to life.
Growing up in the countryside, I had a childhood that was anything but ordinary. My sisters and I played witches in the old chicken coop, brewed potions from leaves, berries, and water from the dog’s bowl, and built forts where we pretended to be foxes exploring the woods. I was always journaling, sketching, and dreaming up stories that felt larger than life. While listening to 80s music, these stories played out in my head like movies, and I was constantly coming up with ideas for books, comics, and imaginary worlds, especially in my creative writing classes in school.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
Growing up, my parents encouraged my sister’s and my imaginations. While neither of them is an author, they’re both phenomenal storytellers, and I think that’s where my love of storytelling began.
My dad had these tales he called Jimmy Stories. He’d lower his voice, cup his hands together, and blow through them to mimic the sound of wind before beginning: “This is the story of a boy named Jimmy…” It was always the same Jimmy, but each story was a different horror adventure—Jimmy in the Cemetery, Jimmy and the Black Car, and so many others. The room would become so quiet you could hear a pin drop as my friends and I leaned in, terrified to find out what would happen to Jimmy this time. Of course, Jimmy always ignored the warning to never take the shortcut through the cemetery, or talk to strangers. But he did. He’d look into the freshly dug grave or talk to the mysterious man in the black car. And just as the suspense reached its peak, my dad would suddenly shout. We’d all scream every single time!
My mom had her own kind of storytelling magic. She wrote short stories on our old word processor and created wonderful plays for school, but my favorite stories happened outside. She’d take us hiking through the woods and tell us about a wizard who had captured a princess and turned her into a tree in the middle of a field, while every knight who tried to rescue her was transformed into a Christmas tree. By the time we reached the Christmas tree farm with the lone cherry tree standing in the middle, we completely believed her. For a little while, that tree really was an enchanted princess waiting to be saved.
My parents absolutely influenced my love of storytelling, but I remember that love becoming something of my own around fourth grade. If I wasn’t writing, I was daydreaming while listening to music on the bus ride to school or lying in my bedroom with headphones on. I was obsessed with Sailor Moon—and I mean obsessed. I would invent my own Sailor Guardians for my friends and me. I’d draw comics and spend hours imagining them playing out like movies in my head.
By eighth grade, that imagination had evolved into writing an epic romance with my best friends. We wrote the same love story from three different points of view, each following the same cast of characters as they fell in love with us during a class trip to New York City. I became so consumed with writing and illustrating that story that I barely passed school that year. I wasn’t taking notes or paying attention in class because I was too busy thinking about what happened next.
It wasn’t until my later school years, when I started taking creative writing classes, that I really fell in love with writing. Having an entire class devoted to storytelling, learning about story structure, character development, dialogue, and the art of building a great narrative, only made my passion for writing stronger. Although I was always pushed to pursue art and graphic design, as they were talents that came naturally to me from the time I was sitting in a high chair and seemed like the safer path, that daydreaming part of me never disappeared. I’m grateful I finally chose to face the fear, trust my imagination, and embrace the storyteller I’d been all along.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox!
- The one that made you want to become an author: I have to say To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han. I finished the series after just having my son and immediately began writing my first draft of
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: I would have to say His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. It’s one of the few series I remember reading that made me think beyond the story and the words on the page. It had me thinking about theology, parallel universes, and the possibilities that more exists beyond our own reality. The ending, especially, has stayed with me all these years.
Your latest novel, Metamorphosis: A Grove Hollow, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be? An atmospheric, twisty 80s ghost romance!
What can readers expect?
Readers can expect a gothic, dark academia atmosphere infused with an ’80s new wave-mysterious twist, a love triangle between a rugby captain and a Victorian ghost, a slow-burn, fated romance built on a deep emotional connection, a cast of lovable misfits, an eccentric aunt readers will absolutely adore, and a unique, cinematic story that plays like a movie in your head.
Where did the inspiration for Metamorphosis: A Grove Hollow come from?
The story was born from my experiences growing up in a haunted house. In 2011, I was out for a walk with my sister when she told me she’d seen a shadow man standing at the top of the stairs the night before, just staring at her. My childhood home had its share of ghost stories with creepy children, an old woman, and even the spirits of two horse thieves. After years of living with spooky things, I was so tired of being scared that I joked, “I wish our house were haunted by a handsome Victorian ghost… like Mr. Darcy. I’d wake up every night just to see him.”
As soon as I said it, I knew I had to write a story about a girl who falls in love with a Victorian ghost.
When I began writing, I tied in many of the things that have always loved and fascinated me: the music and movies of the 1980s, the Gilded Age, ancient Egyptian mythology and theology, mysticism, healing, and, of course, the supernatural. Somehow, all of those unrelated passions found their way into the same story, creating the world that became Grove Hollow.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I would have to say almost all of them! I really enjoyed giving each character their own personality and struggles. My favorite to write was Aunt Ruth. She’s a mix of my grandmother, Mimi, who was a brilliant, sophisticated, woman who smoked like a chimney and drank like a fish, and my mom’s eccentricities, like tarot cards and pet crows. I always pictured her as someone like Sharon Stone or Jessica Lange, with a life story that feels a bit like Gloria Vanderbilt.
I also loved writing The Misfits. Each one represents a different kind of social challenge, and I found a lot of joy in exploring those layers. Brad’s character arc, in particular, surprised me the most.
But most of all, I loved developing Jade and Will. Their individual challenges were important, but what I was most drawn to was their love story and the idea of a fated, deeply connected love that feels like it could exist across time. I loved writing their dialogue, and the way they become different versions of themselves when they’re together. It’s a beautiful thing to witness as an author, I think, because they feel like real people to me.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
I would say my biggest challenge while writing this story was learning to believe in myself and in the vision I had for it. I was balancing very little free time as a stay-at-home mom with a newborn who had colic and a two-year-old son on the spectrum, while also running a graphic design business and an Etsy shop called Touch Her and Die that paid the mortgage and helped with bills.
I wrote whenever I could: during naps, late at night, on weekends, and in whatever small pockets of time I could find. In many ways, it became a form of healing for me and a way to reconnect with myself in the middle of everything.
I poured a lot of my soul into this book and ultimately decided to self-publish the first one, designing everything myself: from the cover and interior layout to the typesetting and illustrations. There were many days, weeks, and months of doing everything myself and sacrificing a lot of downtime, pushing through burnout and exhaustion along the way.
But I’ve always been a bit Type A, and I had a goal to create this story and make it the best it could possibly be.
What’s next for you?
Right now, I’m developing the third book in the series, Mimicry. I just finished the manuscript at the end of May, and I’m really excited to be working on it with my editors, who are so talented and have been incredible throughout the process!
Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up? Any you’ve read so far this year that you’ve enjoyed?
I’m really excited to finish reading The Talisman by Peter Straub and Stephen King, especially since the third book in the trilogy is set to release on my birthday this year on October 6, 2026!
