Interview with Zinnia Hope:
Hi Zinnia. 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.
The Red Storm is a romantic science-fiction mystery coming out with Lavender Isis Press this spring. Jordanne Saunders, admiral of The Red Storm, has just received her new ship and the crew is mostly women. It takes place in an alternate dimension similar to Earth, but the people from the devastated Earth want to immigrate to Sister Earth.
Jordanne deals with the barbs and arrows of those who would love to see a Saunders woman fall flat on her face. She transports and protects government officials on their way to a meeting of countries, and while shouldering so many responsibilities, she wrestles with her attraction to Wesley, the contracted Delph hunter. (Delphs are big, mutated ocean monsters.) In the process, she learns that her grandmother’s death was no accident and must solve the mystery of her demise through the clues left to her in an inherited journal.
The red lightning on the cover portrays the awesome and somewhat dark setting of the Sister Earth world.
- What can we expect from you in the future?
Well, after The Red Storm, I’ll start querying for two paranormal romances that I’m polishing up right now. One involves an interracial romance and the monsters in the heroine’s head—or are they really monsters? The other is a wild romp from the Midwest to Key West where the heroine realizes her family is descended from a long line of witches. She picks up a neurotic, empathic mind-reading hitchhiker, who turns out to be tied to her ancestry too. It’s full of zaniness and acerbic wit, not to mention sizzling love scenes.
I have a novel I’m peddling now, but since I had a previous agent who repped it, I’m thinking of tucking it away for a while and concentrating on the two I just mentioned.
- How do we find out about you and your books?
I have four books with FreyasBower.com, plus I’m one of the authors involved in the FB Charity Anthology called Freya's Bower: Dreams and Desires. AmiraPress.com has published one of my short titles called Visiting Donna Dee, and LavenderIsis.com is publishing The Red Storm.
- How may readers contact you?
My website is www.zinniahope.com; there is an email link and guest book link on the site, plus a link to my blog.
- How many readers/fans contact you?
I don’t know exactly. I get comments and questions through email, my blog, my website and sometimes through Yahoo Groups. Heck, one fan even asked for my telephone number to discuss one of my books with me.
- Do your fans' comments and letters influence you in any way?
The one fan who telephoned me loved Conspiracy of Angels published at Freya’s Bower. We talked for over an hour, and eventually, she brought up the chicken escapades or spoofs I do for fun on my blog. These stories are for tension relief. I have an ongoing war with the farm chickens that can get quite hilarious and even bizarre in a ha-ha way. She strongly suggested that I write them into a novel centered on the chickens even putting in the chickenese as I call it (the way the chickens sometimes talk), but I’m not much of a YA fiction writer, so I plan on writing them into a mainstream novel that will both be humorous and have a touch of magic involved.
- Why did you decide to write romance novels?
I didn’t, really. 90% of everything I write has some element of romance in it even if it’s very subtle. When I left my literary agent, I turned to writing e-books as a way to occupy my time between writing my full-length novels. Since erotic romance is so hot in cyber space right, now and I already have a long background in writing for men’s sex magazines, writing erotic romance just came naturally.
- How much of your personality and life experiences are in your writing?
Lordy, too much. I’m not speaking of the sex scenes in my books, rofl, but the black panther in Free Spirits is real, the bad husband in The Sexual Science of Witchery is based on one of my ex-husbands, the huge family in Honeysuckle and Wild Roses comes from the huge families each of my parents come from, but most of all, Conspiracy of Angels has many aspects of my life growing up. I grew up in a very straight-laced church that has some odd views, so this novel was a way to exercise some demons.
Every story, novella or novel I write has some aspect of my life now or in the past weaved into it.
- When did you first think about writing and what prompted you to submit your first ms?
I’ve been writing since I was six, and the first manuscript I submitted was a short story to a big glossy fantasy magazine. It was rejected, but it did come back with some nice comments from the editor. The submission bug really bit me then, so I honed my craft over the years and eventually ended up writing for professional magazine markets.
- Generally, how long does it take you to write a book?
The shortest time was five months for an 85K-word novel. Nowadays, I could write one in a couple months if I didn’t have the constant interruptions of kids, farm work, and life chaos. However, The Red Storm’s first draft is due the end of April and it’s a novel, sooooo....
- Do you have a set schedule for writing or do you just go with the flow?
I have six kids. I go with the flow. I suffer insomnia too, so that helps in a roundabout way.
- What about your family, do they know not to bother you when you are writing - or are there constant interruptions?
With six kids? Hahahahaha! When I want to write, that’s when I hear “Momomomomom....”
- What do you do to relax and recharge your batteries?
Did I mention the house full of kids? ROFLMAO!
- Where do your ideas come from?
Sometimes a movie, sometimes a snippet in a song. Every now and then I’ll overhear a conversation in the café or grocery store that inspires me. Most of the time my stories fall into my head out of the clear blue, though.
- Do you feel humour is important in women's fiction and why?
Yes, I do. In fact, humor is a good way to make a reader feel good. You can enjoy a great tale, but it you can make someone laugh, that’s a way to touch their soul.
- What are your thoughts on love scenes in romance novels, do you find them difficult to write?
Love scenes as in affection is one thing, but sex scenes are difficult for any writer. There are only so many ways to describe the act of sex without it becoming boring and redundant. Finding new ways to present a sexual act or image is the challenge.
- What kind of research do you do?
I’m a big fan of history (all kinds), the paranormal, and different time eras. I have one story on a back burner that involves revenuers and how moonshiners brought about the birth of NASCAR. This novel is going to be a challenge because it’s based on a part of history I’m not familiar with.
- Would you like to write a different genre than you do now, or sub-genre?
I write several different genres and sub-genres now, but if I had to be pigeonholed I’d say it would be a toss-up between magic realism and paranormal thrillers.
- What does your husband think of your writing?
My husband loves having an author as a wife. He teases me about one day accompanying me to NYC as my personal bodyguard and detaining any hunks who want to be portrayed as my next novel’s hero. He’s very comical and spins some hilarious “what will be” tales about the future of my career. I love him more than words can express.
- Do you ever ask him for advice?
Yes, I do! My husband will discuss scenes with me, help me give characters interesting quirks, and suggest plot variations or subplots. It’s very nice to have a spouse who gets involved in my work.
- Please tell us about yourself (family, hobbies, education, etc.)
Well, I have six kids in the house, who often have a friend or two over on the weekends, so chaos reigns under our roof, lol.
I’m working on an a college education, and although I take courses from time to time just because I’m a human sponge for learning, my focus is history as a major and English as a minor. I love gardening, and we raise, sell, and put up produce each summer. I also crochet and draw/paint.
- Do you have a favorite author? Favorite book?
I have several favorite authors and books.
Seventh Heaven by Alice Hoffman
Gerald’s Game and Daloris Claiborne by Stephen King
Gravity by Tess Gerittsen
A Rose in Winter by Kathleen Woodiwiss
- Who are some of your other favorite authors to read?
Sue Grafton
- Are you a member of any author groups - RWA, critique groups, etc.?
Erotic Authors Assoc and one critique group, but I don’t have as much participation time any more.
- How long have you been writing - have you always wanted to be a writer?
Since I was six, but I didn’t realize that I could have a real career as a writer until I was in third grade. My mother gave me my first electric typewriter, and combined with my love for fiction about horses, I began writing horse stories. I drove my mother crazy with my incessant pecking at the typewriter.
- How many books have you written, how many have been published?
Good grief...let me count. I have four e-books with Freya’s Bower.com, a short with Amira Press.com and a WIP with Lavender Isis Press. I have one completed novel I’m peddling to agents, and two more nearly finished. Add to these totals two rough drafts that I wrote years ago and about six more WIPs.
- What book for you has been the easiest to write? The hardest? The most fun?
Free Spirits was the easiest. Conspiracy of Angels was the hardest, and the most fun to write is the novel I’m peddling now.
- What is the most rewarding thing about being a writer?
Well, although the money is great, I have to say that when a reader contacts me to tell me how I touched h/her life in some way through my fiction, that is the best reward of all.
- If you weren't writing, what would you be doing?
Probably teaching school. My grandfather was a schoolteacher, and so is one of my first cousins, so it tends to be a desire that runs in the family. I’ve taught writing and art to grade schoolers on a volunteer basis, so yeah, I’d probably teach.
- Are there any words of encouragement for unpublished writers?
Learn everything about writing and publishing from the ground up from spelling to how to revise a manuscript and how to submit material properly; most writers just don’t realize how very important it is to be knowledgeable in every aspect. Above all, never stop reaching for the stars.
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! For the latest updates on Zinnia's new releases, excerpts, contests/freebies and much more, sign up for her Zinnia's Newsletter.
Yours in good reading,
Rose!
Author Links:
Zinnia Hope's Website Zinnia's Newsletter
Purchase Links:
Buy Conspiracy of Angels
Buy The Sexual Science of Witchery
Buy Honeysuckle and Wild Roses
Buy Free Spirits
Buy Visiting Donna Dee