Interview with Zara West

Welcome, today we are talking with Zara West! I would like to thank you for taking time out of your busy writing schedule to answer a few questions. First, let’s delve into who you are. Some of the questions may be untraditional but you’d be surprised at what readers connect to, and sometimes the simplest ‘I can relate to that’ grabs their interest where nothing else can.

Can you share a little something about yourself that’s not mentioned in your bio on your website?

I am a champion hand spinner with a collection blue ribbons from the New York State Fair. My spinning wheel was handmade by a local carpenter who used the same tools used during the Colonial Period.

How long have you been writing?

I have been writing forever. As a child, I loved art, horses, and storytelling. I wrote hundreds of tiny, illustrated books full of talking horses, which I sold to my classmates for a penny. Then I grew up and turned to writing non-fiction. I have written magazine and academic articles, how-to-manuals, craft books, and college textbooks on a wide range of topics, including art, ethnography, weaving, technology, and writing. But for the last fifteen years I have returned to writing the fiction I love to read – historical fiction and romance.

What have you found most challenging about it?

The change to fiction from non-fiction was hard. The structure of each is totally different. The biggest difference is that non-fiction is full of telling, but fiction needs to reach deep inside a character’s psyche and show how they experience the things they are doing and the things happening to them, emotionally. When lovers kiss in a romance, the reader needs to feel that kiss as real.

What does writing do for you? Is it fun, cathartic, do you get emotional?

Writing a story is pure release. I practice a technique called fast drafting (I have published a book about it Fast Draft Your Manuscript and Get it Done Now).

When I am writing, I focus totally on the story. I don’t worry about grammar or spelling or being precise. Instead, I just let the ideas and character’s voices flow out of my fingers. I am that character. I’m in that experience. I’m in the story.

Describe what your writing routine looks like. Are you disciplined with a strict schedule or do you have to be in the mood?

Because I live in a busy household and work, I do all my writing early in the morning before everyone else is awake. I write every day from five to seven AM. Since I have been doing this for years, I have developed a system. Each night, the last thing I do before I fall asleep is mentally plan what I will be writing. That way when I wake up, my brain is mentally set to write the minute my fingers touch the keyboard.

Did you go into writing thinking that it would be a hobby or a job?

When I was first starting out writing non-fiction, I wrote a number of articles for fun and submitted them to several magazines. I was surprised when the publications not only wanted to publish them but paid me for both the article and my accompanying illustrations and photographs. I realized that writing could be more than a hobby.

But since I had a job teaching that I loved, writing became a nice income supplement and a way to share what I knew with interested readers. Today, my textbooks support my fiction writing so that I can donate the proceeds of my novels to non-profits doing important work. Proceeds from my new Tide Harbor series are donated to the Ocean Conservancy, a group dedicated to protecting ocean life.

What inspires you?

My greatest inspiration is nature. I have a cottage facing east on the ocean. Watching the sunrise as I sit down to write each morning makes me both humble and inspired so I can weave the most amazing stories I can.

Let’s move on and give readers some insight into your personal life.

What are your pet peeves?

I’m an easy-going person and not too much bothers me. I love being a writer and writing instructor. Usually, it is tiny things that annoy me, such as a computer key that sticks, being interrupted in the middle of writing, a story detail I can’t remember, or the electric going out, which in my rural area it does often.

Who is your hero?

My husband has been my greatest inspiration and support. A real-life Indiana Jones, he has taken me on amazing adventures from climbing to the peaks of mountains in Greece, watching icebergs float by in Newfoundland, and being stranded on the banks of the Rhine with one candy bar and no money. But no matter what, he has encouraged me to write, write, and write.

Give us one thing on your bucket list.

I would like to visit the Orkney islands off the northeast coast of Scotland. For one thing, I have plans for a romantic suspense set in the Viking period and for another, my sister lives there, and while she has come to visit me, I have not had a chance to visit her, yet.

What is your favorite hot drink (coffee, tea, etc.)?

Hot chocolate! Especially with marshmallows and whipped cream!

What would readers find surprising about you?

I am really a very shy person. But when I write, I can be much more outspoken.

Just for fun. What is your least favorite:

Hero type – A Mafia Alpha-type
Body part – Toes
Overused word in a title – Love
Genre – Horror

Now that our readers know who Zara West is let’s get down to the business of your book, Lost Beneath the Tide_.

Please tell us a little bit about Lost Beneath the Tide.

A quicky marine biologist clashes with a security-obsessed, water-phobic, single dad when her hunt for evidence of pollution at a fish farm puts their hearts and their lives on the line in a small Nova Scotia coastal community.

A beach read with a dash of danger, Lost Beneath the Tide is Book 2 in the Tide Harbor Romantic Suspense series, and can be read as a stand-alone. This fast-paced sweet contemporary romance features a feisty heroine, a protective, single-dad hero, and plenty of edge-of-your seat danger.

What was your hardest challenge writing this book?

The challenge in any novel is to make the events feel real. In Lost Beneath the Tide the hardest part for me to create was writing the section where the hero and heroine face almost certain death as they battle the incoming tide. This is not an experience I have ever had so I had to do a lot of research and then use my imagination.

What kind of research did you have to do?

To do the research for my Tide Harbor series, I traveled all over Nova Scotia with the goal of discovering and sharing some of the fascinating places there in my novels. Concealed by the Tide, Lost Beneath the Tide, and the upcoming Adrift on the Tide are set in a fictious seaside town in the Minas Basin, Nova Scotia. I chose this particular location, because this is where the highest tides in the world occur. These wild tides offered a way to add danger to my romantic suspense stories.

What in your opinion makes good chemistry between your leading characters?

I tend to write heroes who are very protective and often struggle with family issues. My heroines are feisty women who strike out on their own and tackle difficult environmental issues, but also have personal issues. In Lost Beneath the Tide, the hero has lost his wife and has a five-year-old daughter. The heroine has just lost her father. This becomes a bond between them that grows into love.

Any other works in

I am currently writing book 3, Adrift on the Tide. I am hoping for a Valentine’s Day release.

Any advice for aspiring authors?

Never give up. Be open to criticism. And write what you love to read.

Final words?

Every time I share about my writing career, I realize how important all my writing mentors have been in encouraging me, and how important, all my reader fans have been in making all the hard work that goes into a novel, worthwhile.

Please include the following links and an author picture:

Website: https://zarawestromance.com

Blog: https://zarawestromance.com/blog

Email: contactme@zarawestromance.com