Please welcome back Zinna Kingsley! Who was gracious enough to not only provide yesterday's biography information, but also took the time to sit down and answer some interview questions.
1. a. Do you remember when exactly the idea for The Lord of Dream and Metal started in your mind?
b. Was there a particular event or moment that first sparked the idea?
c. How did it develop into the story it became?
When I was 15 or 16, my father and I decided to write a novel together. We had to figure out the best way to divide the work, and it seemed the most practical solution would be to create a villain and two parallel sets of heroes trying to defeat him. That way, we could each develop our own characters in our own settings without having to worry too much about writing scenes together. (Being hundreds of miles apart would have made that a bit difficult!) Plus, I was more interested in science fiction-y sort of writing, while he was into spiritual / theosophical subjects: this way we could each focus our attention where we wanted while still pursuing a common plot goal.
We would write chapters and send them to each other, and get together over the phone to make sure we were headed in the same direction. . . . It got a bit hairy at the end! I remember when we wrapped it up -- I spent a week or two with him during the summer, each of us in front of our respective computers writing. (Back then, there was no Internet to distract you, so when I was in front of the computer, by gum, I was actually writing!)
2. Some authors state the story is for them like an outline they follow, and others say the way characters develop alter the author's original vision as they write it.
a. Are you an author that knows from the beginning the path your story will take?
b. Or are you an author who lets the characters decide the direction the story will take?
c. Were there any surprises or bumps along the way that altered the story?
I never know. And in the case of The Lord of Dream and Metal, even planning it out together, we didn't really know where it was going. We had a basic plan, but it wasn't until the characters started forming themselves that we started to develop a vector of momentum. Our planning was only ever about a chapter ahead, since it was only after exchanging chapters that we would confer again on where to take it next.
It was probably a different experience for me than for my dad, however. It seemed to me that he was exploring some very specific ideas about the different "worlds," as he has always been a student of spiritual subjects. Myself, I was just a kid having fun, and I particularly enjoyed placing my characters in embarrassing or melodramatic scenarios and watching them squirm. Kind of cruel, but kind of funny, too!
3. Choosing a particular genre over the others seems to be a very personal decision.
a. What is it about the fantasy (or sci-fi) genre that made it the genre for you as a writer?
b. What do remember sparking that first interest?
c. Do you have authors that you credit as being an inspiration to you?
I think the speculative genres appeal to me because they offer an actual escape from reality. One gets enough of the mundane world in the actual mundane world, right? So it's something of a relief to read about magical or futuristic worlds where it seems almost possible that the mundane world could be left behind.
This will sound strange, but what comes to mind when remembering what "sparked that first interest" is Ramona eating the first bite of every apple in Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary! If only because that's my first memory of recognizing the written word as an act of imagination rather than just a recounting of events. I knew in my bones that even though it sounded plausible, the author was totally making it up, and somehow that made it even more alluring and dangerous. And that's the spirit in which I continued to read fiction in the years that followed, thus priming me for such delicious discoveries as Narnia and the Foundation novels. As I mentioned in the Author Spotlight, Isaac Asimov was my first formative influence, and Stephen King was my second. There were certainly others (maybe Lewis), but all branched out from that pair.
4. I'd love to share your latest release
a. What's your newest release?
b. Can you tell us about it (synopsis)?
c. Where can readers find it/purchase it?
My newest release is Conception, Book One of Voidum. Voidum is a very long novel, which I have decided to release as a trilogy because I think long books don't fare too well in the ebook medium. (I didn't really think about that when I coded The Lord of Dream and Metal for ebook formatting, but it is a pretty long book, and I'd probably split it in half if I had it to do over, at least for the electronic edition. Without a doubt, opinons differ on this topic, but I feel rushed when I read an ebook, whereas when I read a printed book, I feel relaxed.) In any case, here is a brief introduction to Voidum, Book One: Conception.
In the beginning there was Voidum. Beneath this novel lies that precept. Voidum is the fount of Creation, and although events, such as those of this particular story, occur, they are merely dressing on a nothingness which is the Voidum.
In Book One: Conception, we meet Kurt Silas, a teenager beset by questions and doubts, as so many teenagers are, but without realizing it, Kurt teeters on the brink of madness--he is having hallucinations (which may not be hallucinations), and his instability has led him to a dangerous place, a vulnerable one . . . for behind the scenes, someone with world-threatening plans has been jockeying for possession of his body in order to bring them to fruition . . . someone both alien and familiar, from a place beyond Voidum.
Kurt is hospitalized for a nervous breakdown, and while in the hospital . . . he disappears. His girlfriend, Sarah Browning, desperate to find and help him, enlists the aid of his doctor, Emerson Jeffries, but as it turns out, Dr Jeffries is not what he seems. His own sinister plans, in fact, are about to give birth to a world-threatening horror of a completely different kind. . . .
Voidum, Book One: Conception is available as an ebook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. The second and third volumes of Voidum should be out in April and May. After that, I will most likely prepare a print edition, as I did for the The Lord of Dream and Metal. Designing a book is actually quite a lot of fun!
5. If you have a current project that you're working, I'd love to share it.
a. Can you give us any sneak peek information?
b. When are you anticipating it'll be released?
c. Where can readers go to get more information on your writing progress and book releases?
Lately, I've been working on releasing some of my published (and unpublished!) work under the name, Shelley Altamont. I've got one book out so far, a very short one called Sane Asylum, which is a collection of mostly already-published pieces of flash fiction or prose poetry (or whatever you want to call it) in a very perverse and sometimes cruel mode. Don't look for plots or stories here, just language, imagery, and attitude. . . . Quite different from my Zinna Kingsley stuff! That's an ebook, but I'm designing a print version as well. And I would like to release at least one or two more Altamont volumes over the coming year.
I also do have plans for another Zinna Kingsley novel! All of this work I've been doing in preparing my earlier material for self-publication has done something to rekindle the desire to write genre fiction, and I would like to bring to bear other perspectives on the literary art that I've gained in the intervening years. I won't say anything about it, of course, because I'm very secretive about anything that's still in the creation stage, but I will say that I'm pretty excited. :)
1. a. Do you remember when exactly the idea for The Lord of Dream and Metal started in your mind?
b. Was there a particular event or moment that first sparked the idea?
c. How did it develop into the story it became?
When I was 15 or 16, my father and I decided to write a novel together. We had to figure out the best way to divide the work, and it seemed the most practical solution would be to create a villain and two parallel sets of heroes trying to defeat him. That way, we could each develop our own characters in our own settings without having to worry too much about writing scenes together. (Being hundreds of miles apart would have made that a bit difficult!) Plus, I was more interested in science fiction-y sort of writing, while he was into spiritual / theosophical subjects: this way we could each focus our attention where we wanted while still pursuing a common plot goal.
We would write chapters and send them to each other, and get together over the phone to make sure we were headed in the same direction. . . . It got a bit hairy at the end! I remember when we wrapped it up -- I spent a week or two with him during the summer, each of us in front of our respective computers writing. (Back then, there was no Internet to distract you, so when I was in front of the computer, by gum, I was actually writing!)
2. Some authors state the story is for them like an outline they follow, and others say the way characters develop alter the author's original vision as they write it.
a. Are you an author that knows from the beginning the path your story will take?
b. Or are you an author who lets the characters decide the direction the story will take?
c. Were there any surprises or bumps along the way that altered the story?
I never know. And in the case of The Lord of Dream and Metal, even planning it out together, we didn't really know where it was going. We had a basic plan, but it wasn't until the characters started forming themselves that we started to develop a vector of momentum. Our planning was only ever about a chapter ahead, since it was only after exchanging chapters that we would confer again on where to take it next.
It was probably a different experience for me than for my dad, however. It seemed to me that he was exploring some very specific ideas about the different "worlds," as he has always been a student of spiritual subjects. Myself, I was just a kid having fun, and I particularly enjoyed placing my characters in embarrassing or melodramatic scenarios and watching them squirm. Kind of cruel, but kind of funny, too!
3. Choosing a particular genre over the others seems to be a very personal decision.
a. What is it about the fantasy (or sci-fi) genre that made it the genre for you as a writer?
b. What do remember sparking that first interest?
c. Do you have authors that you credit as being an inspiration to you?
I think the speculative genres appeal to me because they offer an actual escape from reality. One gets enough of the mundane world in the actual mundane world, right? So it's something of a relief to read about magical or futuristic worlds where it seems almost possible that the mundane world could be left behind.
This will sound strange, but what comes to mind when remembering what "sparked that first interest" is Ramona eating the first bite of every apple in Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary! If only because that's my first memory of recognizing the written word as an act of imagination rather than just a recounting of events. I knew in my bones that even though it sounded plausible, the author was totally making it up, and somehow that made it even more alluring and dangerous. And that's the spirit in which I continued to read fiction in the years that followed, thus priming me for such delicious discoveries as Narnia and the Foundation novels. As I mentioned in the Author Spotlight, Isaac Asimov was my first formative influence, and Stephen King was my second. There were certainly others (maybe Lewis), but all branched out from that pair.
4. I'd love to share your latest release
a. What's your newest release?
b. Can you tell us about it (synopsis)?
c. Where can readers find it/purchase it?
My newest release is Conception, Book One of Voidum. Voidum is a very long novel, which I have decided to release as a trilogy because I think long books don't fare too well in the ebook medium. (I didn't really think about that when I coded The Lord of Dream and Metal for ebook formatting, but it is a pretty long book, and I'd probably split it in half if I had it to do over, at least for the electronic edition. Without a doubt, opinons differ on this topic, but I feel rushed when I read an ebook, whereas when I read a printed book, I feel relaxed.) In any case, here is a brief introduction to Voidum, Book One: Conception.
In the beginning there was Voidum. Beneath this novel lies that precept. Voidum is the fount of Creation, and although events, such as those of this particular story, occur, they are merely dressing on a nothingness which is the Voidum.
In Book One: Conception, we meet Kurt Silas, a teenager beset by questions and doubts, as so many teenagers are, but without realizing it, Kurt teeters on the brink of madness--he is having hallucinations (which may not be hallucinations), and his instability has led him to a dangerous place, a vulnerable one . . . for behind the scenes, someone with world-threatening plans has been jockeying for possession of his body in order to bring them to fruition . . . someone both alien and familiar, from a place beyond Voidum.
Kurt is hospitalized for a nervous breakdown, and while in the hospital . . . he disappears. His girlfriend, Sarah Browning, desperate to find and help him, enlists the aid of his doctor, Emerson Jeffries, but as it turns out, Dr Jeffries is not what he seems. His own sinister plans, in fact, are about to give birth to a world-threatening horror of a completely different kind. . . .
Voidum, Book One: Conception is available as an ebook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. The second and third volumes of Voidum should be out in April and May. After that, I will most likely prepare a print edition, as I did for the The Lord of Dream and Metal. Designing a book is actually quite a lot of fun!
5. If you have a current project that you're working, I'd love to share it.
a. Can you give us any sneak peek information?
b. When are you anticipating it'll be released?
c. Where can readers go to get more information on your writing progress and book releases?
Lately, I've been working on releasing some of my published (and unpublished!) work under the name, Shelley Altamont. I've got one book out so far, a very short one called Sane Asylum, which is a collection of mostly already-published pieces of flash fiction or prose poetry (or whatever you want to call it) in a very perverse and sometimes cruel mode. Don't look for plots or stories here, just language, imagery, and attitude. . . . Quite different from my Zinna Kingsley stuff! That's an ebook, but I'm designing a print version as well. And I would like to release at least one or two more Altamont volumes over the coming year.
I also do have plans for another Zinna Kingsley novel! All of this work I've been doing in preparing my earlier material for self-publication has done something to rekindle the desire to write genre fiction, and I would like to bring to bear other perspectives on the literary art that I've gained in the intervening years. I won't say anything about it, of course, because I'm very secretive about anything that's still in the creation stage, but I will say that I'm pretty excited. :)
Thank you for sharing, Zinna! I think it is wonderful that you wrote a story with your father. It must have been an amazing experience. Is he a published author as well? Your new series sounds great. Is it an adult or YA series? Congrats on your new and upcoming releases!
Thank you, Tina! My new series, Voidum, is YA -- the main characters are high schoolers. Probably 16 and up for sex and violence. I'd say any kid who's made it to Stephen King will do just fine with me! :)
I don't think my father's published anything, although I haven't asked, so I can't say for sure ... Fiction writing hasn't been a focus in his life, though, so I doubt it.
You're right, by the way, writing together is a great experience. I'd even expand that to include any impressive creative project ... Making a movie, for example -- that's such a do-able activity these days! I wish it had been so easy when I was that age, I would totally have made movies with my Dad!
I think the key to our success with this book was that we collaborated as true partners: as far as the novel was concerned, we were equals and we each carried our own water. :)
Wow! I wish my son and I were creative. Unfortunately, we are not. So, we stick to reading instead of writing and share that way. ;)
I think sharing a love of books with kids is absolutely vital! I feel successful in the fact that I've been able to pass that love down to my kids. Well 2 out of 3 is a majority, so I consider that a success. ;)
Zinna, I just wanted to take the time to make sure I thanked you for taking the time to answer all the information I requested from you. I know it was quite extensive, and you were so gracious about doing it all. And another thank you for taking the time to respond to the Books N Beans reader comments. It means a lot that you would do that. Best of luck with all your future endeavors!