Heather Hayden's Blog, page 13

Release Day: From the Stories of Old!

The anthology’s release date is finally here. You can purchase your copy today! From the Stories of Old: A Collection of Fairy Tale Retellings is now available for Kindle and in paperback.

In this international collection, new life is given to fairy tales, both classic and obscure.

Mythical creatures put the fairy in Fairy Tale. Mermaids, selkies, and ocean guardians experience the best and worst of humanity; sisters encounter an unusually friendly bear; a brave bride meets a silly goose; and a spinner of gold sets the record straight.

Urban fantasies modernize classics: a Frenchman learns the truth about magic, his past, and his girlfriend; a girl sets out to find love but receives a curse; and today’s naughty list makes Old Saint Nick not-so-jolly.

New worlds bring a fresh sense of wonder! In the future, a young woman fights for her people and herself; a bastard son finds acceptance in a world ruled by women; and a farmer’s wits win the heart of a frosty king.

Discover unexpected twists on old favorites, and fall in love with new tales and worlds to explore!

 

Want to learn more about the thirteen talented authors of this anthology? Here’s a list of interviews with them: JL Anthology Author Interviews.

Santa Dragon Holiday Extravaganza: From the Stories of Old!

Today I’m hosting a blog stop for the Santa Dragon Holiday Extravaganza! One lucky winner will be gifted an ebook copy of From the Stories of Old: A Collection of Fairy Tale Retellings.

All you need to do to enter is comment below what your favorite fairy tale is.

Thank you for stopping by!

In this international collection, new life is given to fairy tales, both classic and obscure.

Mythical creatures put the fairy in Fairy Tale. Mermaids, selkies, and ocean guardians experience the best and worst of humanity; sisters encounter an unusually friendly bear; a brave bride meets a silly goose; and a spinner of gold sets the record straight.

Urban fantasies modernize classics: a Frenchman learns the truth about magic, his past, and his girlfriend; a girl sets out to find love but receives a curse; and today’s naughty list makes Old Saint Nick not-so-jolly.

New worlds bring a fresh sense of wonder! In the future, a young woman fights for her people and herself; a bastard son finds acceptance in a world ruled by women; and a farmer’s wits win the heart of a frosty king.

Discover unexpected twists on old favorites, and fall in love with new tales and worlds to explore!

 

Other stops–and prizes!–for the Santa Dragon Holiday Extravaganza:

Day 1 — H. L. Burke

Today we meet Author H. L. Burke who has brought along an elegant Steampunk Christmas Tree pendant!

If you’d like to enter to win it, post on her Facebook page and tell her what you hope Santa Dragon will bring you for Christmas. H. L. Burke’s work includes over 15 titles of eclectic fantasy including dragon themed fantasy romance and YA Steampunk adventure.

 

 

Day 2 — Jessica L. Elliot

Our second Santa Dragon Author Visit is with Jessica L. Elliott! To enter to win an ebook bundle of her Charming Academy Series, like her page and comment on the pinned post!

 

 

Day 3 — Katy Huth Jones

Today Santa Dragon takes us to visit Author Katy Huth Jones. Katy has an awesome prize to offer us: this adorable baby dragon plushie!

If you want a chance to win, head over to Twitter and follow Katy! Post in the comments on this post to let us know you’ve done so and leave your Twitter Handle if you’d like to be followed back!

 

 

Day 4 — A. R. Silverberry

 

Today’s #SantaDragon stop is with Author A. R. Silverberry.

Like and leave a comment on his page for a chance to win a limited edition hardback of Wyndano’s Cloak (US only) or an ebook (international).

 

 

Day 5 — J. C. Morrows

 

Today’s Santa Dragon stop is with Author J. C. Morrows…and she is offering a paperback copy of her new release Life After E.L.E.

Visit her page and say hello, then comment on this post to tell us what you hope Santa Dragon will bring you this year to have your entry counted.

 

 

Day 6 — Kandi J. Wyatt

 

Today’s Santa Dragon stop takes us to YA Fantasy Author Kandi J. Wyatt and she has dragons! Santa Dragon loves dragons. Do you love dragons? If you’d like to win an ebook collection of her Dragon’s Courage series head over and like her Facebook page. Leave a comment to let her know Santa Dragon sent you!

Author Interview: Krisna Starr

Today’s Blog World Tour: Fantasy Edition interviewee is Krisna Starr, a fellow lover of dragons! I admire her ability to juggle family obligations and writing and am excited to be interviewing her today. Welcome to my blog, Krisna!

First, would you mind telling us a little about your current work-in-progress?

My current WIP, Dragons of Atlantea (working title), is set in the magical land of Atlantea full of fantastic creatures like angels, dragons, dwarves, and giants. It’s about a dragon prince trying desperately not to give in to the darkness within him, a crippled nephilim girl’s struggle for respect and their role in the salvation of the world.

Wow, that sounds intense! I look forward to reading it when it’s done. I know you write fantasy, but how much research do you do for your novels?

The good thing about fantasy stories is that we don’t need to do extensive research like, say, historical fiction or contemporary novels. Of course I need to do research stuff like battle strategies, commonly known fantasy creatures and magic systems. But once the basics are in hand, everything can be adapted to the rules of my fantasy world.

For example: The magic in Dragons of Atlantea, falls under the category of Elemental magic. But how the magic works, what is the cost of doing too much magic, how people learn and wield elemental magic is all from my imagination.

A strange quirk in my character is that I feel stifled by too many constraints, rules, and boundaries established by others. So for my stories, I create my own.

That’s awesome! The great thing about fantasy is you can create whatever you want in terms of rules or un-rules. It’s what draws me to the genre, too. Now, I know it’s a WIP, but once you’ve finished the draft, how are you planning to publish this and your future stories?

I’m leaning more towards becoming an Indie author, because of the character quirk I mentioned.

Traditional publishing has a LOT of rules that I need to strictly follow. And the control for many areas will be with the editor and publishing house. I think I’d end up being frustrated with the whole thing, which is not why I write. I write because I love the stories and the world that lives in my imagination. And I want to preserve this love and joy that I get in penning them down.

Of course, being an Indie author also means that I’m responsible for my own marketing and for ensuring the quality of the published books. So I’m planning to workshop Dragons of Atlantea multiple times in critique communities, get feedback from beta-readers and also run it through a professional editor before I publish it.

I also chose a non-traditional route for publishing in order to have more control. It’s great that you already have a solid plan for preparing your book for publishing as well. Now, regarding published books, when you read, which do you prefer: ebooks or traditional paperbacks/hardcovers?

Hm, a difficult question. I absolutely love traditional paperbacks. They give a sense of comfort and I love the feel of paper on my hands as I turn the pages. But nowadays, paperbacks are much costlier than ebooks and less accessible too. So it was a battle between my love of traditional books and the volume of books I’d like to read.

In the end, my greed to read more stories and immerse myself in worlds filled with magic and fantastic creatures won. So I now devour more and more novels in e-book format.

But if they bring down the price of traditional books, I’d ditch ebooks in a second and go back to the way I love to read.

I have to agree that’s the major reason I buy more ebooks now, too. And because I travel a lot, so an ereader’s a lot easier to cart around than a duffel bag of books. But I second you on traditional books being much nicer! *glances at clock* All right, we have time for one more question… *shuffles questions* Ah! A favorite of mine. If you could meet any famous person (living or dead), who would it be, and why?

I’d love to meet Mother Teresa. I’ve always admired her compassion and dedication to the poor helpless children of the world. I feel that many of us are content living our own personal lives and families without doing much about the pain and suffering of the rest of the world. If every one of us puts an effort to help others (not beyond our capacity, but just as much as possible), then a wave of change will sweep over this world and it’ll become a much better place in a few years.

That’s a lovely choice! She was an amazing person. Thank you so much for being here today, Krisna! It’s time to wrap things up now. I’ll finish by wishing you and your current and future WIPs success.

Krisna is an avid reader and a lover of dragons, unicorns and all things magical. Dreams and stories are her personal haven from the hum-drum of daily life.

Her current WIP, Dragons of Atlantea (working title), is set in the magical world of Atlantea where magic rules, dragons roar, and angels soar the skies.

Besides books, she enjoys spending time with her children, mediation/ yoga, music and watching animes on the net.

You can connect with Krisna through her various social media sites:

Her blog

Facebook

Twitter

Goodreads

From the Stories of Old: Preorder is live!

Yes, the release date is only a few days away, but the anthology is now live for preorders!

You can order here: From the Stories of Old

The anthology’s release date is December 7th, and there will be a paperback version available on that date, too! If you want to get a sneaky start on your paperback order, however, it is live, just not linked to the ebook yet. You can find the paperback here: From the Stories of Old: Paperback

Author Interview: Lynden Wade

In just a few short days–December 7th, to be exact–the first JL Anthology will be available to order. We’re all super excited! Today, as part of the pre-release celebrations, I am interviewing one of the authors–Lynden Wade.

Her story in the anthology is titled The Goose and His Girl.

Thank you for being here today, Lynden! Let’s dive right into the questions.

What inspires you to write?

I love story-telling. And there are so many stories that I haven’t found tellings for, so I want to write my own. Take an example. In the graveyard of an old church in London is a tombstone with a verse on it. One line says, “Tis needless whether he or she to say/Let’s wait on God till that Eternal day.” So the people who buried the person didn’t know if it was a man or a woman? Why not? There’s a story there, and if I tell it, I might find out the answers.

Wow, that’s so cool! I’ve never seen a gravestone like that–it definitely makes me wonder why they didn’t know.

What sort of genres (or non-genres) do you generally write?

I’ve got a batch of historical novels I’m working on. The past is another world, full of color and adventure. But I also like taking fairy tales and retelling them with a new twist. I’m also hoping to invent a new genre – fairy tales for parents. They’re about escaping the humdrum life. I’ve written two so far.

I love writing fairy tales as well! Adult fairy tales sounds like a genre we definitely need in the world. Good luck with developing it!

Do you have any available or upcoming publications?

Yes, the JL Anthology! It’s a collection of new authors, retelling classic fairy tales with a twist. I also have a poem in a charity anthology called With Lots of Love, which is being sold in aid of the Nicholls Spinal Injury fund and is published by Eggheads in the UK.

I can’t wait for the anthology to be available! It was so much fun putting it together with everyone. That’s awesome that you have a poem published as well. I hope we see more stories from you in the future!

Speaking of the anthology, could you tell us a little bit more about it?

It’s got a great range of styles and angles. For instance, I’ve just read the Cinderella retelling, The Glassmaker, by Mckayla Eaton. The glass slipper is replaced by a glass mask, and plays the roles both of hiding and showing the identity and talent of the “Cinderella” of the story.

I loved the twist with the mask in that story as well. Could you share what inspired you to write your own story, The Goose and His Girl?

It started off as an attempt to write in a classic style. I wanted to write another fairy tale like the Grimms did. And I wanted to take a story type and do my own version of it. Here, I used the outline that both Beauty and the Beast and East of the Sun, West of the Moon use – the beast bridegroom. I pulled off the style, but people found it quite remote emotionally. So I rewrote it entirely in a more up-to-date style so it would resonate more with people. After all, the theme is timeless – it’s about accepting the ones you love with all their faults and foibles.

It definitely resonated with me–I love your story!

We have time for one more question, so let’s wrap up with an easy one. What is your favorite non-writing, non-reading activity?

Is there such a thing? Drinking tea (I’m very British.) Visiting old houses and castles. Walking in the woods. I love trees.

Mmm, tea! I love visiting old houses and castles, too; sadly, not many castles where I live. I make up for that by living in the forest, however–it’s wonderful stepping out into fresh woodland air every day.

Thank you again for visiting my blog today, Lynden!

Lynden Wade spends as much time as possible in other worlds to avoid the dirty dishes piling up in her home. She enjoys writing stories inspired by fairy tales, legends, and history. Aside from the anthology mentioned here, she has had reviews published in a number of small magazines, and a poem accepted in an anthology. She is still hoping for a house elf. You can find her on her blog and on Facebook.

Ensign’s Log, Entry 38: December Month Map

November was a crazy month. Not only with National Novel Writing Month and a new (seasonal) job that took up a lot of my time, but also the anthology is being released early this month (December) and a good part of November was spent preparing for that (and I’m still not done! Yikes!)

However crazy December might be, though, I wanted to revive my lovely Month Maps, so here’s December’s in all its snowy glory:

Normally I use an image from Pixabay, but the website was having issues today, so I grabbed an old picture from a few winters ago–that’s a bit of the woods right outside my house. So beautiful and snowy, and perfect for a winter month map!

A bit about my goals for the month:

From the Stories of Old: My writer’s group, the Just-Us League, is releasing our first anthology, a collection of 13 fairy tales, on December 7th. I’m super excited for the release…and also nervous because I still have a lot of things to get done before that date!

Upgrade: This poor manuscript was been gathering dust for a bit, because I hit some blocks on it. However, now that I’ve had some time away from it, it’s time to dust the pages off and dive back into one last heavy round of editing before the final editing stages commence.

Skin as White as Snow: I won NaNoWriMo for the 10th time this year, but didn’t manage to complete my NaNovel. My goal is to type The End by the end of December–shouldn’t be too difficult as I think I’m only 10-20k away from that point.

Wish me luck–for the first half of the month I’ll still be working long hours at my seasonal job, juggling anthology responsibilities, and working for my other (regular part-time) job, so it’s going to be another crazy month. This time, though, hopefully with the occasional update!

Cover Reveal: From the Stories of Old: A Collection of Fairy Tale Retellings

I know I’ve been quiet for the past month or so, but there’s a good reason why! I have exciting news to share today: my writer’s group, the Just-Us League, will be publishing our first anthology on December 7th, 2016! One of stories will be my own, a retelling of the selkie myth called “Beneath His Skin”.

Today, I’m revealing the cover and the blurb, and there will be more posts in the near future, including an interview with one of the anthology’s authors.

The anthology is comprised of thirteen stories, each accompanied by an illustration created by my talented sister, Heidi Hayden.

Our cover was designed by Louis Rakovich of Indigo Forest Designs, who also designed Augment‘s cover. Once again, I was blown away by how perfectly he captured the essence of our anthology!

The blurb:

In this international collection, new life is given to fairy tales, both classic and obscure.

Mythical creatures put the fairy in Fairy Tale. Mermaids, selkies, and ocean guardians experience the best and worst of humanity; sisters encounter an unusually friendly bear; a brave bride meets a silly goose; and a spinner of gold sets the record straight.

Urban fantasies modernize classics: a Frenchman learns the truth about magic, his past, and his girlfriend; a girl sets out to find love but receives a curse; and today’s naughty list makes Old Saint Nick not-so-jolly.

New worlds bring a fresh sense of wonder! In the future, a young woman fights for her people and herself; a bastard son finds acceptance in a world ruled by women; and a farmer’s wits win the heart of a frosty king.

Discover unexpected twists on old favorites, and fall in love with new tales and worlds to explore!

 

Intrigued? More information will be forthcoming soon… And on December 7th, 2016, this beautiful anthology will be available for Kindle and in paperback.

Author Interview: Christina Feindel

This interview is the next in the Blog World Tour: Science Fiction edition series. Today I’m hosting Christina Feindel, author of The Revenant.

Welcome to my blog, Christina! I’m delighted to have you here today.

My first question goes straight to the heart of the matter–when did you know you wanted to be a writer?

I knew I wanted to write a book someday when I was in the third grade. My teacher spiral-bound one of my writing assignments–the first piece of fiction I ever wrote–and put it in the school’s tiny little library. I’d been an avid reader for as long as I could remember, and having my own silly little story tucked on the shelves beside The Little House on the Prairie was kind of a cool feeling for an eight-year-old. I knew that even if writing didn’t wind up being my career, it would always be a hobby I’d come back to, however I could.

Wow! What an amazing teacher. It’s wonderful that you started writing at such a young age. What’s the easiest thing about writing for you?

The things that come easiest to me are the really emotional scenes or conversations, the ones where the characters collide or come together in a really pivotal way. Things just feel a lot easier when you’re really in the thick of it. I love it. It’s hard to feel that way about laying the exposition or describing a new setting unless you have the anticipation of knowing there’s something really great on the other side of it. Sometimes you don’t know that until you get there, and getting there can feel like a long, arduous slog.

I find writing easiest when I get caught up in the emotions of a scene as well. When the words just flow out, it’s something magical. Have you ever collaborated with other writers on a project?

The Revenant was sort of a collaboration between me and my husband, although he wanted nothing to do with actually writing it. The base story was his idea, but he didn’t really get involved with the book until the editing process. I’d love to give a real collaboration a try someday. I’m sure it’s simultaneously fun and frustrating to have a partner for the whole process. I have a lot of respect for authors who’ve pulled off collaborations. I know it can’t be easy.

I think it depends on your partner(s). My last finished collaborative work was a novel I co-wrote with my sister when we were in our early teens. Although we had our disagreements, overall it was a fun and rewarding experience. She and I are now working to revise a fantasy trilogy I wrote (for those reading this post, that’s the Demons trilogy!). The characters and story ideas came from both of us, but I originally wrote the trilogy myself. Now we’re working together on the revision, and I’m super-excited about it.

My next question delves a bit into the marketing side of writing. Do you think giving books away for free works as a marketing tool? What is your reasoning for or against it?

Yes! Word of mouth has always been the best way to get people interested in something, and that includes online reviews like Amazon or Yelp. You want people to talk about and review your book, and giving it to them in a contest is an awesome way to make that happen. Not to mention the potential to build relationships in the industry by sending review copies to other authors. Half of my favorite bloggers are people I found out about because I received their book, and some of them have become good friends.

Word of mouth definitely helps in marketing! Thank you for sharing your thoughts. There’s time for one more question, so I’m going back to the lighthearted side of things and asking you this: What is your favorite quote about writing?

There are too many good ones to pick an absolute favorite. But a recent favorite comes from playwright @JonnySun on Twitter: “write even if u dont have something to write about bc: a) something WILL come, and b) once it does u’ll have practiced how to write about it”. It’s the perfect approach to writer’s block. I love thinking about “uninspired” writing as practice for the writing that does matter. People tend to think of writing as something you’re either good at or aren’t. But most people don’t just sit down and paint the Mona Lisa or play a perfect Ode to Joy on the piano. You have to practice your technique to be able to do those things, and the same is true of a good piece of writing.

I need inspiration to write, but I definitely have fun using word prompts and image prompts to practice writing scenes, snippets, different styles, etc. I think everyone has their own way of practicing–the most important part is sitting down and writing.

Thank you so much for being here today, Christina!

 

Christina Feindel resides in central Texas with her multi-talented husband, Noah. While traversing academia, civil service, and chronic illness in early adulthood, she founded the whole-foods blog ACleanPlate and now works as a cook, photographer, and educator. She pens fiction in her spare time, with a particular passion for character development and genre-blending. More info about her and her debut novel The Revenant can be found on her website. She is also on Twitter.

With its advanced weaponry, the ghost ship Revenant was supposed to turn the tide of the war… but went missing instead. Ten years later, the Federation’s hold on the three suns is firmly cemented and corrupt in every way, and any Separatist hopes or dreams seem to have gone the way of Old Earth and its dinosaurs.

Grayson Delamere was still a child when the war ended and she doesn’t much care why it was fought in the first place. In the cold, dark vac of space, most lives are short and brutal with or without the Federation’s interference. She’s worked hard and kept her head down, making her living as a mechanic on any ship that’d have her. If she’s broken a few laws and made a few enemies along the way, well, that’s just the way life is on the fringe of the Trisolar System.

But now, someone has discovered all of her dirty little secrets… and will hold them hostage to ensure Grayson’s help in the most dangerous job of her life: To recover the Revenant and rekindle the fires of rebellion.

Author Interview: Krystal-Ann Melbourne

Today I’m interviewing Krystal-Ann Melbourne for the Blog World Tour: Fantasy Edtion!

Welcome to my blog, Krystal-Ann! I’m delighted to have the opportunity to interview you today. My first question is an obvious one: What have you written?

Other than the twelve years I’ve spent writing and editing my romantic fantasy, A Balance of Souls, all I have under my belt is a handful of poems, and those written only for my own enjoyment. But since I’ll be *finally* finishing A Balance of Souls this autumn, I’ve begun drafting my next two projects: Claudian’s Keys, a surrealist YA about a pirate captain and the nephew of an inventor traveling through 9 different dimensions into the afterlife to solve the inventor’s murder; and Hesitation, an adult choose-your-own-adventure horror that I’m planning to frame like a video game, complete with map and inventory and puzzles to solve. I’ll probably have to dedicate a whole wall in my living room just to outlining the thing.

What intriguing stories! I especially love the sound of Hesitation–when I was a kid I really enjoyed choose-your-own-adventure books. How long on average does it take you to write a book?

Ha! So far, one book, fourteen years. But I started when I was twelve, and I was terrible. I like to think of it not as half my life spent failing to finish a book, but half my life teaching myself how to write, edit, and organize. Because of that experience, I feel like I can finish A Balance of Souls by the end of the year, write Claudian’s Keys within the next year, and then probably take two to write either A Balance of Souls’ sequel or Hesitation.

I have one book that’s in the same boat–still working on it and it’s been eleven years for me for the same reasons. I definitely view it as a learning process, too. As a writer in today’s world, regardless of which publishing path you take, you definitely need to have a presence. What part of your writing time do you devote to building a platform?

Well, the aspect of platform building that appealed most to me was having my own website. I have many passions in addition to writing, and a website offers one place for me to combine them all. I already have lots of experience in computer science, fine art, and graphic design, so it was really a lot of fun for me to build the website myself.

I picked up a template, but wanted to change so many things about it that I had to go into the nitty gritty of the code and change things all the way down to the variable level. Not to mention that the code itself was a language I hadn’t worked with before, so it made for quite the challenge. Like solving a jigsaw puzzle that you’ve never seen the full image of.

So I spent a good month and a half on that, collecting the content, designing the layout, and implementing my ideas into the actual code. I realized that updating the website on any frequent basis would require reopening all the files every time, fiddling with the image names, the text fields, the fonts. I decided to avoid that headache and launched my blog through Google instead. This way I can update the blog however often I like without actually needing to update my website. I do that at least once a week, often twice a week if I have extra posts such as rants and recipes. The website I will only update for really important news.

Wow, that’s incredible! I considered going that far for setting up my website, but it seemed like so much work and headaches I didn’t end up pursuing it. Kudos to you for making the effort though. Your website looks amazing! While I was browsing it, I saw a picture of your bookshelves (love the black paneling, it looks lovely.) That makes me wonder, do you remember the first story your ever read, and the impact it had on you?

The first book I remember owning is a very old copy of the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales. Not the nice versions, the original ones full of death and mutilation. I hadn’t thought of it before, but maybe that did have an impact on my writing, seeing as my main genre is dark fantasy.

Sounds like that might very well be possible. I love fairy tales as well, whether Grimm or otherwise. *glances at ticking clock* We’re running out of time, but I have one more question I’d like to ask you. Which famous person, living or dead, would you like to meet, and why?

Hypatia, the Greek Philosopher. The physics and math nerd in me would really love to meet her, both to pick her brain and because I find her an inspiration to women working in predominantly male fields.

That’s a great choice! I’d love to meet her as well. *clock chimes* Thank you for being here today, Krystal-Ann! Best of luck with your now and up-coming writing projects–and keep me posted on that choose-your-own-adventure book, pretty please? I’d definitely volunteer as a beta reader.

Krystal-Ann Melbourne is an author and artist living in Montreal with her two fat cats. Since neither writing nor painting pays the rent, she also works full time as a Video Game Playtester (best day job ever) for a game which she’s not allowed to tell anyone about.

Her other interests include teaching herself piano, violin, knitting, cooking, baking, making candles, and gardening. She’d really like to get into creating art from sandblasting old windows, and is always working to improve her French.

You can connect with Krystal-Ann through her website and her blog!

Author Interview: Zeta Lordes

Today I’ll be interviewing Zeta Lordes for the Blog World Tour — SciFi Edition. Zeta writes both science fiction and fantasy (like me!), but with a nice dash of romance on top for all you romance lovers out there.

Thanks for being here, Zeta! Let’s dive right into the questions.

My first question is one I love asking other writers–what is your favorite genre to read?

Specifying a favorite genre is tough for me. I could probably be defined as a thriller junkie. If it contains strong elements of suspense or charismatic/mysterious characters, I don’t much care what the genre is. I love fast-paced, layered plotting that engages and challenges my imagination. Carolyn Wheat, in her book How To Write Killer Fiction, describes it as the Roller Coaster of Suspense. Throw in some sexual tension or romance and I’m hooked. I’m also a series reader, so if an author hooks me with their characters, I’m a lifelong fan.

I’ve definitely enjoyed thrillers before myself. That Roller Coaster keeps the pages turning! Now, I know you write both scifi and fantasy, but what’s your favorite genre to write? And why?

Speculative Fiction is definitely a favorite with a lot of the elements of mystery and suspense novels. I love the freedom of writing Spec Fiction—imagining settings and problems beyond our tiny planet and its struggles. Not surprisingly I include a lot of those same human struggles in my story universes, but I love offering fantastical escapism from reality as we know it. And I adore having an entire universe to play in.

Speculative Fiction is a wide umbrella–it encompasses many genres. How do you define it for your writing?

You’re right, Spec Fiction is a diverse catch-all for story settings outside reality as we currently know it. The story world (and often the characters) are products of the writer’s creative imagination. I lean mostly towards Science Fiction in that my settings are often different universes, but I also include a lot of paranormal aspects. Basically I try to mix the familiar with unfamiliar to create a unique experience for both myself and my readers. Speculative Fiction allows me to pull together these different elements.

That sounds awesome! I love how writing allows us to explore all sorts of different settings in which our characters come to life (and, in some cases, die.) What would you say are the easiest and most difficult aspects of writing Spec Fic for you?

Both could probably be summed up in three words: Fantasy World Building!

It’s time-consuming, and attention to details (to avoid conflicts and make your world real) is critically important. In many ways, it’s just the other side of the research coin that many writers deal with, but instead of this-world history and facts, you deal more with creative logic. And instead of accuracy, you deal more with descriptive believability.

The fun and easy part is the freedom to create worlds that are custom designed to impact your story and characters in new and interesting ways. A world of females who keep men as slaves? A galactic peacekeeping agency out of control? A universe where vampires are the most hated and reviled criminal elements? The possibilities and fun ideas are endless.

Haha, yes, I have the same delight (and problem) with my own world-building! It’s so much fun to create new worlds and cultures, but at the same time, a lot of work to make everything consistent and believable.

*glances at clock* We have time for one more question, and since genres has been the main theme of this interview, I’d like to ask one more related question. Do you ever write other genres?

I do enjoy writing short stories and often switch to much less speculative settings though I still include elements of suspense and mystery—just set more in the familiar world we know. I prefer heavier, nuanced plots, so I seldom attempt narrower relationship-type stories. While I appreciate the emotional impact of Romance or Coming-Of-Age type stories, I’m not particularly good at writing them. I also enjoy writing short crime fiction. But ultimately I’m not going to stray too far from my first love of spec-fic.

I’ve also delved into other genres in my short stories. They can be fun to dabble in, but I’ll agree that I usually prefer to stick to my favorite genres.

Thank you so much for being here today, Zeta!

Zeta Lordes is an author of Science Fiction and Paranormal Fantasy flavored with plenty of suspense and romance. When she’s not writing, she’s often playing with photo projects, including book covers for herself and other author friends. She lives alone in a rambling house littered with three generations of passed down books and three cats—who have their own litter.

She’s just started reaching out on social media. You can follow her on her website.