Blog Tour: Save My Soul by Zoe Winters (Giveaway too!)

Welcome to The Wormhole and my stop on the

 Save My Soul blog tour hosted by The Bookish Snob Tours!

You can check out my review HERE!

Please welcome author Zoe Winters!!!

Zoe Winters writes quirky and sometimes dark paranormal romance. She lives with her husband and two cats, and her favorite colors are rainbow and clear. For more information visit 

http://www.zoewinters.org or her blog at: http://zoewinters.wordpress.com

? When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

I’m not sure, but I know I was writing novels in junior high school. So, it’s been awhile. I’ve got a crappy goldfish memory anyway, but I feel like I was always a storyteller. Being a writer is just a mechanical thing. It’s a mode of delivering a story. I think of myself more as a storyteller than a writer.

 ? How many jobs did you have before you became a writer?

33. I don’t do well working for other people.

? How long does it take you to write a book?

It depends on how much I’m working on it. If I was working consistently every single day on a book and had no other writing or editing projects going on (and often I do because the Zoe name isn’t my only writing), I could turn a book around from rough draft to publication in as little as 3-4 months. Some people think that means a “rushed book”, but what they don’t understand when they make that assumption is that the calendar time that passes is no real indication of how much time the author actually spent writing the book. Many books that take a year or longer to write, the work output by the author is rather hit or miss. (And it always makes someone angry when I say that, but it’s true. If you’re applying butt to seat and fingers to keyboard consistently, you’d be amazed by how fast you can write a book.) Slaving over it or suffering for it doesn’t necessarily make it better. I’ve written books fast and I’ve written them slow. Often the faster-produced work is my better work according to reader reaction to it. Most likely this is because I don’t constantly second-guess myself, I just let the creation happen.

 ? What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?

I try not to have writing quirks. Sometimes quirks are just cute ways of saying “neurosis”. If I allow myself to develop quirks then I become superstitious about how I can write and how I can’t write. I don’t feel that attitude serves me. Different books require different things. Like the book I’m working on now, I’ve written a lot of it out of order (it won’t be out of order in the end, but my writing process has been very different for this book). I try to work from a very minimalist philosophy where all methods are on the table as options to get a book written.

? Do you have a routine that you use to get into the right frame of mind to write?

I open the document, reread the previous day’s work, turn on Focus Booster (a timer app that can be used for anything, but I use it for timed writing), and I start typing. Not sexy or romantic, but the quicker I can get from “I need to write” to actually typing words, the better. As for being in the right frame of mind to write, that’s usually more about what I “don’t” do as opposed to what I do. Like... avoiding as much conflict as possible. The biggest way to kill my writing mental zone is to argue with people on the Internet over stupid crap. I’ve really tried to give that up. The better I am at avoiding the Internet, the more I write.

 It seems that once you have grammar and spelling and basic narrative structure down, learning to write and to become a good writer is all about getting out of your own way. I basically take dictation from whatever out there supplies me with stories and try not to overthink it.

 ? Where do you get your ideas or inspiration for your characters?

Which Character? I can give you a couple of examples, but I’m afraid a direct answer to that question would be “everywhere”. Tam in Save My Soul is a weird blend of me and one of my best friends and the friendship between them is similar to my own dynamic with said friend, but that’s just one specific example. When you’re a writer, every interaction you ever have with anyone is grist for the mill. Henrietta Baker (the rude old lady at the church), was based on an experience I had with a similarly dour old woman when I went to a latin Catholic Mass for book research.

 ? How do you decide what you want to write about?

 The thing about creative work is that it’s largely intuitive. Most people don’t create in a regimented way. The structure and rigidity we sometimes supply to our writing practice is part superstition and part routine intended to train our muse to come out and play with us. I’m not trying to be vague or esoteric on purpose. (Or snotty or a special snowflake either.) It’s just that there is no way to describe a process that is largely created by the unconscious mind. I can’t even tell you with any real accuracy how I decide what I want to write about. Most of the time when writers are asked these questions we just make things up that we feel will entertain the readers and the interviewer because we really don’t know. And the more we analyze it, the more uncertain we get about the whole thing. So I’m learning to embrace my writing process agnosticism.

 Fun random questions: 

·        dogs or cats? Cats

·        Coffee or tea? Neither

·        Dark or milk chocolate? Dark

·        Rocks or flowers? Flowers

·        Night or day? Both

·        Favorite color? Clear. But I like rainbow a lot also. ;)

·        Crayons or markers? Crayons

·        Pens or pencils? Pens

Thanks for stopping by!

The author has offered an ecopy of  Faustine as a giveaway for this post!

To enter - you must be a follower - age 18 or older and fill out the form below.

You can buy Zoe Winters books at Smashwords, Amazon, or Barnes and Noble.

The next stop on the tour is: June 22 – Black Lagoon Reviews http://www.blacklagoonreviews.blogspot.com/
At the end of the tour there is a special giveaway - check it out !!!