PHOTO: Zelly Jordan, radiant and grounded, captured amidst her writing space where creativity and curiosity thrive.
A Visionary Storyteller Blending Romance, Suspense, And Paranormal
Discover Zelly Jordan’s unique approach to storytelling, her inspirations, and her thoughts on navigating creative challenges while crafting emotionally resonant and genre-blending narratives.
Zelly Jordan is unapologetically herself—a blend of gritty determination and tender humanity, qualities that radiate through her writing. Born in Croatia and raised in Australia, her journey to authorship emerged not from privilege or ease, but from an unexpected pause in life’s chaos. A forced change in professional direction led her to uncover a deeply buried passion, one that has since proven transformative. Her characters, much like Zelly herself, are multifaceted beings stitched together with flaws, dreams, and strength, making the worlds she creates pulse with authenticity and emotion.
Her work is a testament to creative resilience, blending elements of romance, suspense, and the supernatural to tell stories that defy singular categorisation. In Fractured and Unveiled, Zelly explores relationships, identity, and courage with a distinctive and layered voice. She crafts tales not only of love and longing but also of survival and self-awareness—her narratives unearth truths wrapped delicately in tension and complexity. Few writers immerse readers in such bold and atmospheric terrain while remaining grounded in relatability.
From Melbourne’s laughter-filled evenings with friends to the spiritually infused calm of tarot decks and crystals, Zelly finds inspiration in both the extraordinary and the everyday. Her choice to step into the shoes of her lead characters, to experience their dilemmas as her own, paints her writing with a vibrant realism few authors achieve. Her stories are not just escapes for readers; they are explorations of the human spirit, crafted with dedication and deep care.
In Fractured, your portrayal of Sgt Kellan O’Ryan balances brutality and vulnerability—how did you navigate developing such multi layered traits in your lead character?
My approach to developing Kellan was to honour his multi-faceted character. He’s a man, a beast and a soldier/assassin all in one. None of us are black and white and neither should he be. The human in him is just as layered as we all are. His inner Beast and work as a soldier/assassin only adds to his complexity and is one of the reasons I chose to write from his POV – the aim being to show the confusion and sheer anomaly of his existence. Seeing events through his eyes gave me the chance to delve deep into him – the strong, the vulnerable, the hunter and the hunted all within one chaotic Being. Beneath his fierce rage lies a fiercer humanity that needs exposure and I felt the only way to write him was to be him.
The series introduces Detective Charlotte Alistair and deeper paranormal suspense—what inspired blending romance with thriller elements in this sequel?
Charlotte Alistair is first introduced in Fractured, (Book One) which was always planned with romantic aspects but never as only a romance. I saw their story as a wildly passionate tale of illusion and mystery – a woman involved with someone that is part beast is surely not going to have a mild sweet romance, is she? It’s going to be thrilling, intense and complicated. But what kind of dynamic could they have? What challenges would they face? Charlotte needed to be strong; capable of holding her own against any threat, including and especially Kellan.
The quote “She brings out the animal in him…” captures raw chemistry—how did you craft the tension between primal desire and emotional depth in Fractured?
I’ve always enjoyed a spicy romance but never gratuitous sex scenes – it HAS to have emotional connection and depth; a consequence of development between two characters. Kellan sees his “monster” as a separate entity to himself and when he first encounters Charlotte, he’s intrigued by the beast’s response to her. The phrase “She brings out the animal in him” references the fact that she stirs both human and animal in a primal way along with an instinctive possessiveness he doesn’t yet understand. He’s mystified and intrigued and their story traverses all the chaos of emotional discovery.
Both Fractured and Unveiled resonate strongly with readers—how did reader feedback shape the direction of the Unbreakable series?
To be honest, it didn’t. I had the characters fully fleshed out, the story written well before the two books were published. When the first reviews came in, they were mainly positive which was lovely but as I’d already written the sequel, it didn’t influence my story. Perhaps it should have? Perhaps I was naive? At that stage, I had no publishing guidance whatsoever and was working things out all alone. (In fact I edited both books myself because I thought all self-publishers did!) I knew readers would either love my characters or hate them but I’d be satisfied as long as they felt something.
You mention a favourite TV show as inspiration for your novels—can you reveal which show and the specific spark that led to your plot?
The show that sparked my idea was the 2012 TV version of Beauty and the Beast, a modern take on the classic fairy tale. During one of its seasons, there was a time the beast character had amnesia and it thoroughly intrigued me; the idea of a part man/part beast not knowing who and why he was. I wondered how the heck he would cope mentally in that cesspool of confusion. And suddenly I could “see” myself in him, see the turmoil he experiences and I had to write it down.
Your interests in angels, crystals, and healing—do these things influence your narrative and how do they inform your world building or character development?
This might sound odd but my writing is completely separate to my interests in crystals, tarot and the like. Most people would think that would dictate an interest in writing fantasy/paranormal but it actually doesn’t. Not at this point of my life, anyway. Who knows—in the future I may try my hand at those genres more fully and perhaps incorporate my personal interests into them. My books have an element of paranormal in them but they’re not set in a paranormal world; in fact they’re set in current day New York, very far from fantasy.
What is your current writing project? Will you continue the series or produce something new?
Right now, I’m working on the third book in the series, a book that I have started and stopped countless times since the pandemic. I released Unveiled just before the worldwide crisis began and I found my life completely unravelled; at times stalled—like many thousands of others at the time. My inspiration and motivation was utterly destroyed and I faced some disheartening developments on several personal fronts. It took a very long while to get all that sorted, far longer than I ever intended. Fans of the stories have been extremely patient, I must say! But hopefully the wait will be worth it.
What key piece of advice would you offer aspiring authors hoping to write compelling paranormal romance like yours?
I still consider myself a newbie in the book industry so I don’t have the years of experience that other authors may offer but I can truthfully say that if you have aspirations of writing, then do it! Don’t worry about all the ins and outs of the publishing world—you’ll learn all that as you go along. But if there’s a story inside of you, go for it. Share that story. Make it your own style. Don’t try to fit it into any one mould or type—if you want to write a mix of genres, go ahead—don’t let anyone tell you any different! It’s YOUR story. I describe my books as “sexy-smexy suspense thrillers with a twist of paranormal”—definitely not ONE genre! Above all that—write for your own enjoyment.
