As someone who has been constantly searching for new reading material ever since I was ten years old, I'm always ready to enjoy a new story or discover a new author to read. That is why I enjoy featuring authors every week in My Writing Corner. The stories are always as varied as the books these authors produce. My guest today is author C. J. Zahner, whose latest book just came out at the beginning of the month. Let's find out more about her and her new book!
Tell us about yourself, C. J. :
I am a digital-book hoarder, lover of can't-put-down books, wife, mother, grandmother, and author. I've published six novels, am editing number seven, and writing eight and nine. I was a full-time grant writer and part-time freelance writer until 2015, when I stepped down from both jobs to write books. My freelance articles varied from business to women’s health to the paranormal while my novels center on thrillers and Chick lit, depending upon my mood. I post about can’t-put-down books I loved and other topics at https://cyndiezahner.com/reviews/.
Tell us about your road to publication.
Fate has a way of guiding us toward the path we were meant to walk.
I selected English as a major when I applied to college. The summer beforehand, I worked at a retail store alongside four women with English degrees, so I switched my major to accounting.
I worked in the business world, but my writing skills always led me to unique assignments. Eventually, I became a full-time grant writer/administrator and a part-time freelance writer.
I quit my full-time job and began writing novels in 2015 after my brother and sister-in-law were diagnosed with early-onset dementia and Alzheimer’s. When something like that hits your family, you grab life by the reins and redirect.
Immediately, I began writing stories. I found a publisher for my first novel, published my next five novels through Kindle Direct Publishing, and here I am.
How do you develop characters?
My novels are character-driven. I’m a runner and with every book I’ve written, the characters have run alongside me for miles before I ever wrote a single word of the book’s manuscript.
I love people and I love studying them. Everyone has quirks, and it’s those harmless, little idiosyncrasies that bring a character alive.
I often use experiences from my own life or the lives of my friends to build my characters. Brent, one of the characters in The Dream Diaries is a true-to-life race-car driver. He actually helped me write Brent’s chapter. Of course, Real Brent doesn’t remember a past life like Book Brent, but his personality inspired the character. It’s the same with the daredevil teacher, Annie. I used a picture my daughter, Jessie, had taken of my granddaughter for Annie on the cover of The Dream Diaries. My granddaughter could climb the refrigerator before she was two years old, just like Annie. (Let’s hope she doesn’t grow into a daredevil pilot like her!)
What is your latest book and how did you come up with the idea to write it?
The Dream Diaries is my newest novel and the third book in my Dream Series.
The first novel of my series, Dream Wide Awake, was inspired many years ago on a night I met fright. I was sleeping in the attic of my grandparent’s home—like LeeLee in the book. In a pitch-black hour, I awoke when someone grabbed my hand. My arm was wedged between the headboard and mattress of my bed. I felt someone’s fingers slip into mine and when I opened my eyes, he didn’t let go.
I say “he” because I was sure I clasped hands with a devil. I screamed and my mother rescued me. She said I was dreaming, but it had seemed so real I never forgot it. Fast forward forty years. This single incident, still so alive in my memory, inspired my Dream Series.
This third book, The Dream Diaries, was inspired when I wrote a short story for an anthology published by The Wild Rose Press. I elected to write about one of the characters from book two, Project Dream, after readers asked what happened to him—Chase.
I knew, of course. I had Chase’s life planned out in my head. To keep characters in a series straight, a writer has to know more about them than what is written—especially minor characters. Their existence is so important to a novel, but their individual stories may not contribute to the main plot, so much of their lives are left out.
I loved several minor characters in Project Dream: Chase, the villain named Dawn, and one teacher at the military-type school, Annie. I decide to tell their stories and my first novella, The Dream Diaries, was born.
Let's get a blurb:
They were children chosen for their gifts.
One hundred kids were enrolled in a U.S. national defense program between 2002 and 2004 because they could remember past lives, read a person’s future by the touch of a hand, foresee events in dreams, or speak with angels.
The government had explored adult intuitive programs, but after 9/11, military scientists speculated young minds might be easily trained to identify threats to the American people through training. What they were unprepared for was the utter success and transcendence of the bending of a child’s mind.
These are their individual stories—the first chronicles—of the Project Dream characters who could not get out alive.
What is your next project?
As a reader, I never read one book at a time, and as a writer, I’m the same. I’m currently editing one novel and writing two.
I write two genres, Thrillers and Chick Lit, because, well, sometimes you’re in a spooky, need-a-good-scare mood, and sometimes you’re in an I’m-a-girl, need-a-good-laugh mood. I’m working on Book Four of my Dream Series, The Dream Snatchers, and Book Three of my Mothers You Hate Loving Series, Please Post Bail, Love Mom.
I am also editing a book close to my heart, The House that Loved. Many years ago, my mother took a drug called Diethylstilbesterol (DES) while pregnant with me. DES was distributed to women in the United States between 1938 and 1971. It was touted as a miracle drug for women prone to miscarrying and those who had morning sickness, but it ended up causing cancer in the mothers who took the drug, and cancer, infertility, miscarriage, stillbirth, ectopic pregnancy, and a slew of neurological disorders in the children. The House that Loved is my memoir, and I hope to inspire women to ask their mothers or grandmothers if they took DES.
Let's get an excerpt:
Annie, Age Four
I don’t dream like normal girls. Dolls and boys and money bore me. My dreams are magical. In them, I fly faster than the speed of sound and swim quicker than all the sea serpents in the ocean.
I live in a house at the edge of the Pacific Ocean, close to the Mexican border. My father taught us how to swim as soon as we could walk. He didn’t baby us like my mother. He said every kid needs to cough up a wave at least once in their life. I coughed up plenty, but I never feared the water after I drowned.
Momma doesn’t know about the day I drowned. This is when the angels began appearing. I had swum too far from Daddy, and a wave swept me out farther, flipping me over. I don’t remember my father searching for me and dragging me out. I only remember two things: the brilliant colors I saw at the bottom of the ocean after the water filled my lungs and the lady with wings who hovered over my father’s shoulders as he breathed life back into me.
The woman smiled and talked to me in a humming way that tickled my ears. She said she was my guardian angel, and I thought she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.
“Never tell your mother what just happened,” Daddy warned after I coughed salt water out my nose and mouth. “She’ll never allow you to swim in the ocean again.”
Later that evening, when he tucked me in for the night, he whispered. “So now you know what it’s like to drown. It’s discomforting but fascinating; did you see the colors?”
I bobbed my head up and down, rapidly. “I did. Did you drown, too, Daddy?”
“Yes. It happened the same way. A massive wave dragged me away, and my father rescued me.”
“How come we don’t have those pretty colors here?” I asked.
“Those are the colors of the angel’s wings.”
“Oh.” I sat up in bed. “Did you see the angel when you drowned?”
“The angel?”
“She was lovely, her skin a milky white, and the edges of her glittery gown were trimmed with tiny gold flowers.”
My dad fell silent.
“You didn’t see the angel, Daddy?”
He glanced away and took his time answering. “No, I didn’t. But I know one thing. You are a special person, Annie, and if an angel was going to appear to someone, I think she’d choose a girl as determined as you.”
“What does determined mean?”
“It means you might not be as strong or skilled as your brothers because you’re smaller, but what you have up here.” He tapped my head above one ear. “Makes you as powerful. You’re tough, Annie. I imagine that’s why the angel appeared to you. What did she tell you?”
“She said she had a hard job to do.”
“A hard job?”
I nodded.
“What hard job did she have?”
“She’s my guardian angel.”
My dad busted out laughing then covered his mouth and glanced toward the bedroom door to see if my mother had heard him.
He wrapped his arms around me. “It will take one tough angel to watch over you, sweet girl. I can’t be with you twenty-four hours a day. No, I can’t.”
It didn’t seem as if he was talking to me anymore. He tucked my head under his chin. “I’m glad you have a protector.”
He tightened his arms, hugging my breath away and whispering toward the ceiling. “Watch over her. Watch over my brave girl.”
He kissed me goodnight, and when he was gone, a light appeared in one corner of my room. My guardian angel was back. At least it appeared to be the same angel who came when I drowned. She was like a puff of powder, all white and cloudy.
“Annie,” she whispered.
What advice do you have for beginning writers?
I’m going to be blunt because I believe this is important.
First, the best advice I received was from an established author. She said to begin writing my second novel before I found a publisher for my first. In the end, I elected to self-published my second book at the same time my publisher released my first. It truly paved my way into the indie world.
Second, and here is where people are going to cringe, there are two ways to hit the ground running as an author. If you are young, concentrate on perfecting your first novel. Turning out a great debut novel is gold. Find a good agent, editor, and publisher to help you (but don’t stop writing until you do!).
If you are older, you have to come out fighting. Write, not a great book, but a fabulous one. Take a look at the faces of the editing and agenting world. Many (not all but most) are young. You’re writing for the masses—and much of your audience is younger than you. The agents know that, so it’s imperative you remain current and trendy.
Finally, blog or freelance to keep growing your platform. The publishing world is tough business. Approach an agent, editor, or publisher with a large platform and you have a better chance of winning them over. It’s simple for them to market a Michelle Obama novel. Not quite as easy for a Jane Doe book. Do the best you can to build your audience.
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Thank you, C. J., for being my guest today. Your featured book is quite a grabber! Here is the buy link for The Dream Diaries and C. J.'s contact information to learn more about her and her other books.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BGYY87S7/
Social Contacts:
Website/blog:
Social Media links:
Instagram ~ Twitter ~ LinkedIn
Facebook ~ Goodreads ~ BookBub
Another Buy Link:
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Thanks for the great opportunity, Rebecca!
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