Happy new year, everyone!  Today at the Bradford Bunch, we’ve got a great interview for you.  Zoe Winters—a long time visitor at the Bunch and a talented writer—is here for some interview fun.  Zoe, thanks for joining us!

You’ve got a free ebook (Kept) up on your website. (Talk about a great deal—FREE!)  Will you tell us a bit about this book?

Sure!  Kept is a paranormal romance novella.  My hero, Dayne is a cranky old sorcerer, though he doesn’t look his age, because the magic makes him age far more slowly than your average human.  My heroine, Greta is a werecat who has just found out her tribe intends to strap her to a stone altar and sacrifice her. (Nice guys, huh?)  Her adoptive mother sends her to the only person in the city strong enough to help her, Dayne.  But he’s got a reputation for being pretty much the city’s darkest evil, because he killed most of her tribe years ago.  It was self-defense.  He thought he was trying to save the woman he loved, only to find out it had been a trap.  But Greta doesn’t know that.  He’s allowed the reputation to build to protect himself from further hurt.  When Greta shows up on his door, he’s fairly suspicious of her motives considering he was already burned once trying to play the hero.

Will there be more books in the Kept universe?

Oh yes. :-)  In a way, they’re ALL in the Kept universe.  I’m a really big fan of when authors write all their stories in one verse, and leave easter eggs in their work giving tiny little references to other works.  It’s part of why I was such a big fan of Buffy, that sense of continuity.  In season 7, they’d still be mentioning something like Xander’s hyena possession in season 1.  And so I like when things interconnect like that.  I’m working on two other novellas that are set in the same town, but everything is ultimately in the same verse, just different places and different factions.

What do you enjoy most about the writing process?

Probably the same as most writers, when the words are actually flowing.  When I go back and re-read the crap draft, it’s always better in some places and worse in others than I thought, but its always great when the words are pouring out onto the screen.

Where do you get inspiration for your stories?

I think like a lot of Paranormal Romance writers, I’ve in some way been influenced by Buffy.  I think Spike and Buffy (for me) and Angel and Buffy (for some others) took a big hold of several of us and has in many ways helped inspire and grow this subgenre.  Otherwise, it just happens.  I’ll hear some random thing, and it connects with some other random thing, and then I’ve got little plots building.  I really have no idea how it works, and I’m not sure many of us (writers) do.  I wish I could say I got my ideas from the idea factory or ordered them online or something, it would sound less lame, haha!

You decided to publish Kept independently. Why did you make this decision—and have you learned anything about independent publishing that you’d like to share with us?

The most basic answer is that I’m a control freak.  And I think business is sexy.  I was raised in a pretty entrepreneurial family.  My grandfather owned a successful printing company for decades before he died. And my dad has a handyman company.  Instead of passing down the line down to my brother, this “gotta be my own boss” thing, passed to me.  I spent about 4 years collecting self publishing books and arguing with myself over it before finally deciding to take the plunge.  Mostly I was scared/upset about maybe not being as fully accepted in the “writer club” anymore.  Everybody else goes through the “respectable gates”  and going totally indie and producing your own work isn’t seen as very respectable.  A lot of people misunderstand it or think you’re trying to cut some line or something.  Or that you think you’re bigger and better than you are.  But filmmakers and musicians do it.  I think authors should be able to do it too if that’s the path they really want.  As for what I’ve learned.  I’ve learned a lot of “theory” about how to run a micropress putting out my own work.  And how to market books, and how to do this and that, but it’s all in the practice and trial and error.  So I’m still too new on this journey to have many take-home lessons to share.  Though I do think indies need to help each other and have community, and so I’m doing what I can in my small corner to help bring indies together so we can help each other and benefit from each other’s successes and mistakes.

What’s next for you, Zoe?

Taking over the world. Muahahaha.  Just kidding. Next I’m working on finishing the other two novellas that are directly linked with KEPT and combining them into a print release.  Hopefully I’ll get to do a podcast too.  I’ve got some great people who are there to help me on that, so assuming I don’t get too bogged down by everything else, it’s definitely on the agenda.  Then SAVE MY SOUL, the first full length novel comes out probably the year after that. And I have some erotica I want to do under a different name and imprint.  Some of  it is some pretty dark stuff, and not like a lot of my romance, so I dont’ think I want those “brands” mixing too much.  I’m on like a ten year plan here, it’s insane. I’m insane.

Wanna share a New Year’s resolution with us?

Losing that 5 pounds I gained back and getting back into bellydancing.  I’m having a blast with what I’m doing, but I’m becoming a bit of an anal retentive workaholic, and I need to get back into doing something physical.  Working out definitely needs to go back on the agenda for the New Year.

If there is anything else you’d like to add, fire away!  And thanks for taking the time to answer the interview questions.

Nah, I’ve already talked too long.  Thanks for having me!

Thank you, Zoe! To learn more about Zoe and her work, check out her website.

Have a great Saturday!