Interview with Author Z. A. Maxfield:
Hi Z. A.. Thank you for doing this interview. I would like to welcome you to the Romance at Heart Interview and Author Grilling session. *bg* We are interested to find out as much about you as we possibly can, so lets get started...
- Please tell us about your latest book.
My most recent release is Vigil, the sequel to my vampire novel Notturno. It’s the continuing story of Adin Tredeger, a professor of literature and expert on antique erotic manuscripts and Donte Fedelta, his vampire lover.
In Notturno, Adin and Donte struggle over Donte’s 500 year old diary. In Vigil, they’ve admitted they’re in love, but the difference between them, vampire and human, is causing problems. Donte sees Adin as fragile and doesn’t want to lose him, consequently, he wants to turn him. Adin doesn’t want that, he believes that being human is his shot at living life to its fullest, joys and sorrows included.
There’s very little they can agree on, until there’s a threat to Donte’s immortal life from an unexpected source. Then they both have to ask themselves: How far would I go to keep love alive?
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- What can we expect from you in the future?
Let’s see… I have two Christmas novellas coming in December, I’ll be whipping up a heaping helping of chaos in All Stirred Up (the companion book to Stirring Up Trouble), and in January I’ll be releasing a novel called The Pharaoh’s Concubine, (which is about neither pharaoh’s nor concubines,) a not-so-simple love story between two good men from vastly different worlds...
- How do we find out about you and your books?
Anything you want to know about me or my books, you can find out at my website www.zamaxfield.com, or by writing to me personally at zamaxfield@yahoo.com.
- Do you allow readers to contact you? If so, how do they reach you?
I enjoy contact from readers, and I like to answer reader questions! Below you’ll find all my contact information, I’m @ZAMaxfield at Twitter and I’m ZAMaxfield at facebook. You can email me directly at the email address above and there are contact forms on the website itself. I try to be accessible to fans who want to know more.
- What are some of the most memorable questions/comments?
There is one that sticks out in my mind because the reader is the dearest person. He wrote to tell me that he and his partner had been together for 33 years, and he’d just started reading so-called m/m romance. He likes the genre, and really enjoyed my book Crossing Borders. He and I’ve written back and forth, not even about books really but more about work and family for two years or so now, and I consider him a friend. I dedicated Family Unit to him. 33 years, isn’t that cool?
The other one that I cherished is when someone very young said they wished I was their mom. I wish I was too…
- Do your fans' comments and letters influence you in any way?
While I wouldn’t say I am influenced in the way I write, per se, I find myself thinking about the fans themselves and wondering what they’d like to read. On readers off-hand comment about hard bodies and the young and hung inspired me to write Family Unit, a story about middle-aged men.
- Do you have a favorite comment or question from a reader?
I think someone saying they wish they could move to St. Nacho’s was my fave. You know you’ve done something right when someone wants to live in the world you’ve created.
- Why did you decide to write romance novels?
I’m a bona fide romantic. I love love stories. No matter what I read, no matter the genre, or the time period, whether it’s literary or pulp, I love to read a story about people falling in love. I’ve been lost in books where there are no real relationships, and I am devastated by a sad ending. I think I write to right, or re-write the wrongs done to fictional characters in novels. People who don’t get their happy endings, whether they deserve them or not. The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Anna Karenina, Gone With the Wind. Brokeback Mountain.
While I don’t necessarily rewrite any one book, I am thinking about all those characters when I create my own, finding ways to tuck them in at the end of a book, happily ever after…
- How much of your personality and life experiences are in your writing?
So much of my personality is in there, my gosh. I can’t separate what I think from what I write, consequently, my values are right there on the page. As for my life experiences… I think it’s kind of funny, I was forty-nine when I wrote Family Unit, and my character was the same age. So I wrote about reading glasses, which I use, and graying hair, which I have, not that you’d know it, and joint problems and the vagaries of having sex after a dry spell and DAMNED if people didn’t keep saying, when they talked about the book, that I made my characters seem too ancient to be good romance novel fodder…
LOL. Since that part was fully autobiographical, I was a little dismayed…
- When did you first think about writing and what prompted you to submit your first ms?
I always wanted to write. Always. But I had this idea that I’d do better trying to win the Nobel peace prize. It was my kids, then 9, 9, 12 and 14 who sort of shamed me into trying by using that “You can do anything you want if you try” speech on me…
- Generally, how long does it take you to write a book?
I’d say for a genre length novel about two months to get the first draft. I used to work faster but I was obsessed back in the day and family life suffered. I’m trying to achieve balance at this point, because, as the poem says,
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.
Thank you very much for taking the time with us and answering our questions. I really appreciate this interruption to your busy schedule. Good Luck, and we will be looking forward to the next delightful creation from your talented imagination!
Yours in good reading,
Rose!
Author Links:
Z.A.'s Website Publisher's Website Blog Email Facebook @Maxfield is her Twitter Yahoo Group
RaH Links:
Review Review
Purchase Links:
Buy Z. A.'s Books at Amazon
Buy Z. A.'s Books at MLR Press
Buy Z. A.'s Books at All Romance Books
Buy Z. A.'s Books at Carina Press
Buy Z. A.'s Books at GLBTBookshelf
Buy Z. A.'s Books at Torquere Press
Buy Z. A.'s Books at Loose-Id
Buy Z. A.'s Books at Aspen Mountain Press
Buy Z. A.'s Books at Samhain Publishing