Martin Wilsey: Fast Friday Indie Interviews: Jo Zebedee

Friday, June 2, 2017

Fast Friday Indie Interviews: Jo Zebedee

Tell me about yourself, Jo?

Jo Zebedee

I'm from Northern Ireland, near the notorious Belfast. I run after kids, work etc, and then, when no one is looking, I unleash my inner (very hidden) geek and write both science fiction and fantasy, generally quite dark. I doubt it's what people expect when they meet me at the school gates! I also cook, grow veg. Hell, I even make jam from time to time. But I don't clean. In fact, essentially eradicating cleaning time is how I manage to write (hygiene is overrated)

Tell me about your current Book:

Amy was five when she vanished during a family trip, only to be found hours later, clutching a golden acorn and claiming to have visited faeries. Now she’s eighteen, and the fairies are calling her back. While attending a wedding deep in the Antrim glens, the voices grow darker and their song takes hold. Not sure if she's mad or if the fairies are real, she flees, drawing well-meaning Simon into her fairy-fuelled road trip.

In it, the fairies are not the gentle variety, but the Irish sidhe, dark and malevolent. I had a lot of fun, drawing on mythology and making it feel very real and close to our world.

What are you working on now?
I'm working on another book about Ireland and mythology, this time set in Donegal and focusing on the Wild Hunt, when the fairy horde ride out. I've also written a sf based in Northern Ireland, Inish Carraig, so having a third book set in Ulster feels right. After that, I have plans for a much-promised sequel to Inish Carraig and, possibly, a fantasy duology. Oh and a sf novella and collection of short stories.

Clone me. Please.

Where is your favorite place to be when you write?

I like plotting out in my cottage garden. I can't type out there but I love free writing. Other than that, I’ll write anywhere. Since I normally have kids running around (my daughter’s mate is currently cleaning out the gerbils beside me as I write this) and dogs, and fish, and work, I have to be pretty flexible and not too precious.

What is your favorite lesson you have learned about the business of writing?

Learn the business. No one else is going to look after you as well as you will. Know your options, your rates, your expectations. Sure, learn to write, but learn what to do with it after you've written it.

What is your favorite Website?

I hang around the https://www.sffchronicles.com/ a lot and found it a great support and help when I started out. And they have writing competitions. And I'm competitive...