Zoe E.Whitten Guest Blog

Saving Gabriel is a dark fantasy with a mystery revolving around the main characters, Gabriel, a fallen guardian angel, and Rosalinda Fernandez, a young woman who Gabriel has assigned himself to. Another fallen angel attempts to sacrifice Rosalinda, and after saving her and trying to cover up the crime, Gabriel is tasked by the archangel council to find out the reason for this failed magic spell.

I’ve got a lot of influences at this point, since I read from multiple genres. I’m inspired as much by the books I read as I am by listening to music or reading the news. My head’s a bit like a blender, and all of these ideas get swirled together until a new story idea comes out.

Saving Gabriel is probably my most accessible work in a long time, and it’s probably the first time I’ve written something that feels like a good fit for mainstream readers. I’m calling the book YA dark fantasy, but I think adult readers will also enjoy the story and the characters.

That really depends on whether my muse and I are on speaking terms. I know lots of writers say write every day, but when I do that, I end up with a lot of trunk material that I never finish. I much rather prefer to write while I feel the right words are in me. Then, I can write every day and crank out a full story in three weeks. But in between my projects are often two and three week periods where I don’t write anything. I’m not saying my method would work for others, but I have a rather huge back catalog at this point, so I speak with authority when I say it’s worked out well for me.

I think there are two types of people who want to write. There are those who think writing is some mystical craft, and that forming words from the ether requires total silence and absolute concentration. So for those people, they will never write anything, because “who can find time to write without distractions?” The straightforward answer is “Every writer, from the pros to the fan-fiction scribes, has made time to write.”

You don’t find time to write. You get greedy and demand time to sit down and make up words. You keep making up words until you get to a point where the last two most logical words are “The End.” Then you set that story off to the side with intentions of fixing your mistakes, and you write something else.

Then there are people who do make time for hobbies, and who could write, if only they had some inspiration. To those people, I say, read more. Eventually, something you read is going to click with you, and you’ll say, “I want to make a story like this, but different.”

It’s even better to read stuff you might not normally consider trying. If all you’ve read is westerns, why not try out some high fantasy, or maybe a historical romance? It gives you the chance to see how writers in other fields approach the same common scenes, and it helps build your own sense of a narrative voice. So if you want to write, but don’t yet feel any words worth committing to paper, pick up some books and let the words of others fill you until you’ve got an idea of your own.

John A. Lindqvist, Stephenie Meyer, and Anne Rice. There would be lots of booze after dinner, and I would try very hard not to be reduced to giddy gushing.

Probably doing the same things I’m doing now, but hopefully with a higher degree of success in the promotions department. I’d fire my current promoter and hire someone more qualified, but I’m the only person I know willing to work for rates so cheap.