Interview With Author Zoe Routh
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a leadership futurist, multi award-winning author, speaker, and podcaster. English-born, Canadian-raised, Australian-adopted, Outdoor Adventurist and Experiential Educator, Truth Teller, Learner, Cancer Dancer, One-Time Belly Dancer, Aspiring Telemark Skiier, Slayer of Dragons, Mother of Chickens.
My first career was leading canoe trips through north west Ontario with a summer camp. That led me to Outward Bound Australia where I stayed for nine years. I set up my own leadership development business in 2002, which I worked at part time until I went full time in 2014. I started writing books in 2015 and have four leadership books out. I started writing novels in 2022.
Currently I am the author of seven books (the seventh is currently being edited). My fourth People Stuff – Beyond Personality Problems, An Advanced Handbook for Leadership won Book of the Year at the Australian Business Book Awards 2020. My first novel, The Olympus Project, won a Gold Medal at the Readers’ Favorites Awards 2023.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Terra Blanca: Insurrection is my latest published work. It is the prequel to my first novel, The Olympus Project. I don’t recommend writing the prequel after the first book! Going forward in time feels easier on the brain.
The inspiration for Terra Blanca: Insurrection? I kept asking the leadership question, “can we really live and work collaboratively?” and added, “what if we have to live differently in the future due to climate change – have we got the right governance and leadership structures ready for that?” I thew in some political ambitions, human nature, and high pressure situations and the bombshell of Terra Blanca Insurrection was born.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not sure what ‘usual’ writing habits are! I like to leverage technology. I dictate – it is a lot faster than typing, I use chat GPT for brainstorming, solving plot problems and character names.
I can write standing up at my desk, or in a cafe, or on a train. A change of scenery often helps. I like to take pictures of my various writing spots to see where the characters were ‘born’ and came to life.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Definitely Frank Herbert, Dune. The scope and scale of his world is incredible. Next would be Kim Stanley Robinson, for his ability to see into the future and to follow ‘what if…’ questions into long rabbit holes. His Mars series was remarkable for that.
Ursula K Le Guin for her beautiful sentences. Kate Quinn for her riveting details and fast plots.
What are you working on now?
I am writing book 4 in the Gaia series, with a draft title of Olympus Rising. I also have the line edits to do for Olympus Bound, the sequel to The Olympus Project. Plus a non-fiction leadership book on power coming in 2024. My brain is exploding with creativity right now!
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
My legion of raving fans who will leave reviews and spread the word! There is no single site that will do the heavy lifting for marketing. Goodreads i a nice central location for book reviews and reader thoughts and probably one of my favourites.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Get help! I never appreciated how collaborative book writing could be with good editors, ARC readers, beta readers.
Also, play the long game. As a new novelist, I expect it to take ten years and many many books to hit my stride. Thinking long-term takes the pressure off to hit it big first time out.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Read like a writer. Pay attention to when the sentences light you up, how the book makes you feel, how the author produced a response, an image, and a story, what you like, what you don’t and why. Study the books you want to emulate and unpick their recipe for success.
What are you reading now?
I just finished War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. It was epic! There’s a reason it’s a classic. Tolstoy sustains a compelling narrative that covers the intrigue of a parlour room, the grit and grime of battelefields, political ambitions of characters like Napoleon, internal emotional words, philosophical and historical musings. Not bored once.
Also, The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. Another huge book that meanders like a river with many tributaries of lives flowing together. Beautiful.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Finish the Gaia series and play with other leadership ideas made into stories.
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?
Pierce Brown’s Red Rising series. Frank Herbert’s Dune series (and all of the books by Anderson and his son). Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series.
I know those are all series, but there you go.
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