Café Wednesday: Zoe E. Whitten
It is sometimes said that every person has a book in them. But how many of those books come with five dimensions and time dilution?
The most entertaining Lord Likely was last issue’s guest, who regaled us with comments on his devious exploits.
Continuing with the slightly devious theme, this week we have the fast-typing Zoe E Whitten, who never ceases to amaze with her daily wordcounts. Zoe writes perhaps the most disturbing webfiction I have come across, but don’t let her dark writing frighten you too much: beneath it all she is a sweet soul, as Jan can personally attest to given their meet-up last December.
Capuccinos? Check. On with the interview then.
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AMH: You’ve written a number of fantasy tales – are there any common themes or plot devices amongst them?
ZW: Yes, there are a lot of common themes. The first most common theme is with characters dealing with abuse in their pasts. Some have been abused as children, while others were attacked or crippled during their formative years. This is what shapes them into flawed characters who second-guess themselves. Almost all of the main characters can be thought of as monsters to one degree or another, although some (like Amber McKenzie) don’t start off seeming very monstrous. Whether a character is good is evil is never considered by the narrators, who just tell the stories without trying to spin one side or the other as the good guys.
AMH: How do your readers respond to such morally-ambiguous characters?
ZW: I don’t think the method would have a widespread appeal because it runs counter to what casual readers want in escapist fiction. So I lose a lot of people in the introductions. But for avid readers who want to try something different, the method seems to work. I’ve had some fantastic reviews recently, and only this last week a new Kindle reader has begun to rapid-fire positive emails at me as he works his way through my back log. He’s probably the second most enthusiastic reader I’ve had, after the young man who asked for an autographed book.
AMH: Speaking of your readers, what’s the nicest thing a reader has ever done for you?
ZW: During the beta reading for one of my novellas, The Sole Survivors’ Club, a reader was so impressed with the book that he made a cover designed to emulate the flaming eyes of the jinn. It was really fantastic work, and if I’d planned on self-publishing the book, I would have used his image. It was muy awesome.
Running a close second place, Jan gave me Belgian chocolates and ale. I tried to propose marriage in return, but alas, she’s just not open-minded enough. Le sigh.
AMH: Moving on to your writing, tell us about your Mystical World Wars (MWW) series — can you summarize the series’ philosophy for our readers?
ZW: Um…oh, forget the softballs, let’s just ask a bunch of hard questions! Okay, the idea of MWW is to create a alternative mythology fantasy world where the monsters had just as much thought put into them as the humans. I see mainstream dark fantasy using the same formulas as traditional fantasy. Human heroes tell monsters what to do, and if the monsters disagree, they die. No matter how strong a monster is presented early in the story, the hero will find or make a weapon capable of killing the monster. Beyond that weakness being foreshadowed in an obvious way in an earlier chapter, the monster has no other character development. They have no family life, no job, no hobbies. They don’t have health problems or personal issues to work out over the course of the book. Why should they? They’re just the plot device to give the hero something to kill righteously.
I don’t think dark fantasy should look at the world using the same black and white values used by traditional fantasy, but the viewpoint dominates the mainstream market. I decided to make an alternative. Here, the monsters have real lives, and they have many of the same problems as the humans do. They have complex relationships, and I want to spend just as much time developing these monsters as most writers spend lovingly crafting their heroes.
Some people may feel I have a negative view of humans, since a lot of them die all the time, and the monsters are often saying, “the human mobs will be coming for us soon.” But while the humans’ past behavior has led to the monsters being afraid, what isn’t happening in the stories is the backlash the monsters feared. The modern humans aren’t as ready to band into mobs to go on killing sprees. So even though they haven’t had a chance to show their good sides as main characters, I think my depictions of human bit characters is every bit as varied and objective as I am with my monsters.
AMH: Spending so much time lovingly crafting your monsters must make you and your readers fall in love with them! Which of your monsters is your favorite, and what makes them special?
ZW: Oh damn, this is really hard…I’m taking that question as which race is my favorite and not which character. (Don’t ask which character because I don’t have a favorite. No, I don’t.) After some thought I’d have to say my favorite race is the halflings, not to be confused with hobbits. Those are a completely different race in my world. Most halflings have extra sensory powers such as empathy or telepathy. Male halflings are sometimes gifted with prophetic dreams, while the more powerful females have telekinesis. This isn’t always the case, and there are flukes like males possessing telekinesis. Their mental powers cause the kids to mature a lot faster, since they are exposed to adult minds at fairly young ages. Because the childrens’ developing abilities are so dangerous to themselves, the entire family structure is built around training and protecting the kids during the brief span when their powers first manifest.
Halflings don’t quite look human, and they carry themselves in such a way that they don’t make sound when they move, even when running. They can’t help but stand out for their looks and their unusual behavior, so halfling families relocate often, making them something like rich gypsies. Since they move a lot, they also tend to run into a lot of other refugee races. And this is what I really love about many of my halfling characters: they have boundless curiosity when it comes to meeting other races. They’re inquisitive and highly intelligent, and if you can get over the fact that they’re into incest, they really aren’t bad people.
AMH: Your character Jobe in Blind Rage is one of these fluke halfings with telepathic powers, who also is schizophrenic. How do these personality quirks help or hinder his mission to track down the rampant werebear-orc?
ZW: Actually Jobe’s condition was misdiagnosed. He wasn’t originally schizophrenic until after being infected with a man-made illness that fried part of his brain. The voices he heard that led to his diagnosis were his developing telepathic abilities, and his medication chemically unbalanced his brain. So his pills made him more crazy, even before the infection created his hallucinatory “buddy.”
Jobe is a fluke because he’s a berserker, a person cursed with a damaged soul. This damage makes him act out against other mystical races, and it also makes him violent around his direct family members. His quirks tend to hinder the investigation at first because Jobe’s berserker half is being forced to work with the same cursed werekin that he wants to kill. But as he calms down, Jobe’s abilities allow him to hear the simpler animal thoughts of the transformed werekin, and in this way, he’s able to communicate to the pack more effectively.
AMH: Now Blind Rage is set in the human world, but your MWW series has multiple dimensions. What are the other dimensions, and how big a role do they play in your stories?
ZW: There are actually four physical dimensions as well as a fifth metaphysical dimension, the spirit plane. The two dimensions featured the most in the stories so far have been Earth and Lissand. Heil and the spirit plane have only been glimpsed briefly for now, and Olympus, the home dimension of the deities, has not even been mentioned in passing yet.
The dimensions are an essential part of the evolution of the Mystical World Wars, and not just because the invading races live in those dimensions. As the story advances, many stories will move into these other dimensions to offer readers a view of life for other races. In Lissand, they’ll see that the elves are not so high and mighty, nor are their lives filled with peace and perfect contentment. In Heil, they’ll discover that not all of the daemons are hot on the idea of invading Earth, and as the series progresses, there will even be daemon-only books covering a civil war in Heil. So the dimensions have a very big role to play in the series.
AMH: That all sounds fascinating! So where would you recommend readers new to your work begin?
ZW: My world has many different entry points, so people can choose their own way to enter into the adventure. In the free series, they can start with Touched, Amber McKenzie’s first story. That moves into a vampire story with the next free installment, Blood Relations, and continues with A Phone Man Visits the Vampires and my current Bonus Blog Fiction, Job Interview With a Vampire. Or readers can start off with a more traditional fantasy story with Erick’s Journey and move on to Blind Rage. They could start way back at the beginning of the series with Little Monsters, but I consider that e-book about the halflings “advanced reading” because of the story’s themes of incest and sexual abuse. Finally, if readers are willing to pay for a horror/mystery series, I’d recommend starting the series with Wendy Stoffel and Jobe McKenzie in The Lesser of Two Evils, book one of the Campaign trilogy.
AMH: Let’s finish off with something a bit more personal: what is your secret fantasy?
ZW: Oh…um, to find a lovely bisexual woman who doesn’t think I’m crazy and finds hubby attractive? Then she could join us in Italy and complete our romantic coven of evil. I guess that’s not really a secret though, so I should try again.
Oh, I got it. I’d like permission to write a non fan-fiction novel about the romantic reunion of Kitty Pryde, AKA: Shadowcat and Nikolai Rasputin, AKA Colossus, during a fight against an anti-mutant terrorist group. But that’s a real fantasy, as I don’t believe my understanding of X-Men history is properly canon now.
AMH: Well, that’s everything from me. Any last words?
ZW: Hmmm…well I’d like to thank my readers and the reviewers who were kind enough to look at my stories. Oh, and I’d like to say that gifts of beer and chocolate are nice, but honest reviews are nicer because they don’t make my ass wider. Sorry, Jan, but it’s true. I’m on a diet cause of your chocolates and beer…and some other stuff. (*¬_¬)
Thanks for putting up with my crazy ass, everyone. Y’all make sticking around on this crummy planet worthwhile.
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Don’t forget to check out Changeling, part of the MWW series, which only launched just recently! You can read it for free, or support the author by buying it here.
Curious to learn more? Leave a question for Zoe in the comments below. And don’t forget to follow her on twitter!