Interview With Author Zoe Mayen
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve been writing full-time for a little over a year, since leaving my job as a litigation lawyer in central London to pursue my dreams of being an author. In that time, I’ve written two self-published mystery thrillers, the second of which was released last week:
‘Enter the Forest: Murder in Taman Negara’ – a light-hearted whodunnit centred around a group of people who meet on an organised holiday in the Malaysian jungle (one of the world’s oldest rainforests). The splendour of their surroundings soon turns menacing as people inexplicably start to disappear.
‘Wicked Games’ – a twisty psychological thriller told from a multi-character perspective, centred around a group of friends staying in the English countryside, at a mysterious house with a dark past. The fun and games take a sinister turn and anonymous messages become threatening…then friend turns murderer.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Wicked Games. The name was inspired by a theme of the book, which is a sequence of various games played throughout the story that soon bring out darker aspects of the characters and their pasts. The narrative is interspersed with an anonymous voice who appears to be one of the characters with a deadly purpose, unknown to the rest of them. All of these things lead to strange incidents and bad things happening to various characters, culminating in a murder in the house – hence the ‘wickedness’.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m not sure how unusual it is, but I like to eat/snack whilst writing, which helps me think! As well as listening to music, which helps me focus and can inspire me (that one’s not unusual!).
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is one of my favourite books. I just love the passion with which she wrote, the dark edge and the humour in her writing (I know WH isn’t a comedy!). I’m aiming to work up to that level of writing.
Also Agatha Christie with her classic whodunnits, JK Rowling with Harry Potter (the entertaining, easy way in which she writes and the humour) and George RR Martin with his epic Game of Thrones books. In the thriller genre, I loved Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and Shiver by Allie Reynolds – both brilliant books.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on my third novel, another psychological thriller which I’m really excited about. The plot is still in the making but the idea so far revolves around a troubled woman who is forced to recount conversations from a virtual relationship with a lover, to a mysterious psychotherapist. As she struggles to come to terms with what she is being told was never real, the relevance of the information starts to become clearer (and more ominous) and she strives to decipher fragments of vital memories that are the key to all of it.
At some point, I’m also planning to write a romantic mystery inspired by Wuthering Heights and my great grandmother’s memoirs about fleeing Russia through Europe in 1904 as a child, by the Trans-Siberian Railway, after the Japanese invasion of her hometown, Port Arthur, and the Russian Revolution.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m still very much in the learning process when it comes to promotion. So far I’ve found Booksprout to be brilliant for getting readers to review my books and BookSirens seems very good too. I need to up my game a lot when it comes to social media and promoting myself as an author on there!!
Kindlepreneur is absolutely brilliant with the wealth of information about self-publishing and promotion, and I’m still making my way through all the information and resources available there. Your First 10000 Readers also seems to have a lot of very helpful marketing information and resources, which I need to take a good look at.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
I am a new author and I’m still on a steep learning curve, but I would say: Don’t be afraid to get things down onto the page, however good or bad you feel it is. It’s more important to get things out and get the creativity process flowing – no one has to ever read what you’ve written if you don’t like it, you can come back and edit and refine as many times as you like until you’re happy with it! But just get the flow going and it’ll help the momentum to kick in.
Also, complete something without seeking absolute perfection – done is better than perfect. You’ll get a lot more experience that way, once you start inviting feedback and learning more about the publishing process through doing. That’s not to say not to pay attention to quality, of course – that’s very important – but there’s a balance to be struck.
One thing that I’ve recently been learning to deal with better is negative critique. Negative feedback is scary, and can hurt, but it’s good to think of it as free advice on how to improve and get better as a writer. In some ways, that’s better than someone just telling you you’re doing all the right things. There is always room for improvement. And it’s all part of the fun!
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Ooh, this is tricky as I’ve received so much good advice and wisdom over the years, and I’m probably forgetting something really good.
Someone once said to me, ‘Wouldn’t it be so much easier if you just dropped it?’ Meaning the harsh self-criticism that is pointless and self-destructive, and wastes so much thought and energy that could be used somewhere else more usefully. It could apply to many things – worry, fear, replaying negative past events or worrying repeatedly over things to come. Caring about what other people think so much. All the ‘noise’ that is always going to be around us and in our heads that we need to learn to let stay in the background and not let it assume more importance than it deserves.
‘Don’t dread it, experience it’ is another one.
What are you reading now?
It’s been a habit of mine since I was little to have a whole pile of books on the go at the same time – now a virtual pile on my Kindle. So I’ll pick one non-fiction and one fiction for now! The Silva Mind Control Method by Jose Silva. And I’ve started re-reading Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (first read when I was at school).
What’s next for you as a writer?
Once I’ve done some promotion for my second book, Wicked Games, which I released last week, I’ll be writing my third book, another psychological thriller. I’m really looking forward to getting started on that one!
I have so many ideas for future books and various drafts on the go, so it’s a matter of getting through the writing as quickly as I can and getting lots of books out there, hopefully!!
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, one of the Harry Potter books, The Secret by Rhonda Byrne and one of my books on natural vision improvement.
…Just wanted to say thanks for all these questions, they’ve been really interesting to answer!
Author Websites and Profiles
Zoe Mayen’s Social Media Links