Here are five questions that we are commonly asked when people discover our secret identities.
Number one: A mother and son writing team? Seriously???
Yep, we get this question more than any other. We've all heard of husband and wife teams, and even the occasional sibiling teams, but between our combined years of reading fiction we've never heard of a parent/child writing team. Let us know if you've heard of one. Yes its been a challange working together but we both know that by ourselves these stories would never have ended up on paper.
Number two: Who writes who/what/which parts in your stories?
There are a few characters that just one of us specifically writes, but most of them are traded back and forth for whomever has the time/energy to write them. In general, Zachary usually keeps tabs on the larger focus of the story; what character needs to be where at what time in order to keep the story progressing. DeeAnn who is the m0re proactive/better writer of the two (according to Zachary), is often more focused on the details of an individual chapter; how should the style or voice be altered for this paragraph to sound better. We should also mention Claire Zamora, (Zach's sister DeeAnn's daughter,) who is our editor, and has no qualms telling us when somthing sounds bad or unrealistic.
Number three: What genre do you prefer to write?
That's an easy one. Fiction with a taste of fantasy and an undertone of historical knowledge. We're not looking to push the envelope here. DeeAnn has read some pretty "far out" fantasy and sci-fi books which Zachary can't stand and we've found that most people shy away from such books. One of our greatest inspirations is J.R.R Tolkiens, "Lord of the Rings," and we don't want to get much crazier than that. Both of us share a love for history as well, with Zachary actually majoring in ancient and medieval history in college. So far our works embody these two designs of using historical knowledge and placing it in a light fantasy setting. In the future we are considering trying to write historical fisction, and possibly even sci-fi.
Number four: What is it like being a self published author?
DeeAnn: Unbelievable, most of the time! Truly it still amazes me that we wrote a book. I look at all those words on all those pages and wonder how we did it. Sometimes the words just seemed to write themselves and other times it was like pulling teeth. I have really enjoyed the writing, though, and can't wait to write more.
Zachary: I took a creative writing class in college where the professor told me only two percent of all writers get published, so I wasn't all that dissapointed when most of the publishing companies we sent our first book to turned us down. I've never considered my own writing to be very skillful and thus I've never really felt the need to share my imagination with the world, but I've always had a dream to hold at least one book in my hand with my name on it. For me these books are that small dream becoming a reality and I owe it all to my mother and coauthor.
Number five: What has been the worst and best part of writing these stories?
Zachary: Worst part? I think I would probably have to say the compromises to the story line in our first book. It's not easy giving up the idea of something that was "yours" and is now "ours." With neither one of us having any experience coauthoring a story with anyone else, that was a difficult lesson to learn, for both of us I'm sure. As for the the best part, that has definitely been seeing my mother thrive at something I've long suspected she would be good at. I started picking at her to begin writing about the time I started college, and I'm glad I kept pushing her. She is a far faster and more skilled writer than I am. It is also pretty amazing to hold a paperback book in your hand with your name on it.
DeeAnn: For me the worst and best is actually the same thing-publishing our books. When it came time to self-publish, Zach was working on the other side of the state with little access to the internet so I had to do the actual publishing. I can use a computer fairly well, but I'm definately not an expert. I went through Amazon and got their free book on "How to Self-Publish" and had many hair pulling sessions with my computer from then on out. It takes alot of work to self-publish! So that was the worst. There was also that moment when I had checked and double-checked and was ready to push that "publish now" button. For anyone who has ever written a story, painted an original painting, or composed a song or poem, there comes that moment when you get ready to show someone what you have done. It takes alot of courage to put yourself out there for the world to see. I know I spent at least five full minutes in terror before I pushed that button. All our hard work was now available for anyone to see and thus like or dislike, criticize or praise. Wow! Once I pushed it, that was the best moment. Also, as Zach said, holding that book in my hand with our names on it was fantastic!