Today's episode features Z or Zachary Jeffries, two pen names from one author writing Science Fiction and Fantasy for readers nine years old and up. Always a late bloomer, Jeffries didn't get into novel-writing until his late-thirties, and by then he'd amassed experience storytelling through short stories, poetry, and theatre. Thanks to the support and community he found in local writer's groups as well as NaNoWriMo, Jeffries realized his long-held dream of completing a novel, releasing Chase: The Boy Who Hid (Book One of the Hide & Seek Chronicles) in 2020.

After releasing four books in his upper Middle Grade series, the Hide & Seek Chronicles (Miss: the Girl in Disguise, Gamble: One Champion Wins, Gamble: Two Lives Away) and traditionally Middle Grade book, Pro Wrestling Saves Earth, Jeffries began finding success in local in-person events. Since he'd begun self-publishing amid COVID, by the time the opportunity to sell and sign books arose, he had a five book backlist with one on the way. Jeffries quickly fell in love with meeting readers, hand-selling books, and connecting with kids with a similar affinity for words.

Fresh off his Valentine's Day release of his first Young Adult Paranormal Romance, Angel of Fate (available at https://bookshop.org/a/), Jeffries prides himself in his title as local author. Through local events and media, he's established himself within his community as a storyteller, library volunteer, and resource for budding authors. He's taken his experience and infectious optimism to TikTok, where he hopes to spread the word on how a lesser-known indie author can become a local author well-known in their hometown.

You can get a taste for Jeffries' writing at www.zjeffries.com and catch his videos over at https://www.tiktok.com/@zjeffries?lang=en. With books that take place in small towns across America as well as his focus on building readerships nearby then branching out, he hopes to be every indie author's local author!

A little about today's host-

Shawna Rodrigues left her award-winning career in the public sector in 2019 to consult and publish her first novel Beyond the Pear Blossoms. Her desire to connect and help others led to the launch of her podcast The Grit Show shortly thereafter. When she learned women host only 27% of podcasts, her skills and passion led to the founding of the Authentic Connections Network. She now helps mission-driven entrepreneurs better connect with their audiences by providing full-service podcast production and through a community for Entrepreneurs & Podcasters – EPAC. Podcasting is her primary focus, so she continues to support the writing community through this podcast, and her writing time is mostly focused on anthologies.

She offers a free 7 Steps to Perfect Your Podcast Title to anyone interested in launching a podcast. You can also follow her on Instagram-@ShawnaPodcasts, and learn more about the network and community at https://linktr.ee/37by27.

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[00:00:27] Shawna: and craft fairs. Jeffries lives in the American Midwest with his wife's daughter and grumpy old dog. Thank you so much for joining us today, Zachary. I'm excited to get to know you and you're writing more.

[00:00:53] Shawna: Oh, thank you so much I love that. Yes. Listen to Zachary this. This guy's smart. He's not just a good writer, he is also a smart man. I like this. Zachary, tell us something interesting about where you are from.

[00:01:42] Zachary: Like by the time I started writing stories, I had just a million of them in my brain just to, just to make the time go by when I was mowing lawn.

[00:01:56] Zachary: Oh yeah. So many, so many horses and all these other kids, they loved horses. And I was the guy that was cleaning up after 'em. I did not have the same affinity for horses. I'm like, those guys are jerks. Those guys, they know that I work for them, so don't, no horse is nice to me.

[00:02:25] Shawna: I get it.

[00:02:31] Shawna: There you go. From afar. So what is something about you that other people would find hard to believe?

[00:02:50] Shawna: boy makes me think of the Princess Bride and Wesley.

[00:03:06] Zachary: But I'm sure you run into this as well. I go to a cocktail party and I strike up a conversation with someone. They ask what I. And I'm like, oh, I'm, I'm a novelist. And that, that can just floor people. You can hear the record scratch and all of a sudden seven people are around you asking you all kinds of questions.

[00:03:29] Shawna: do? Yes.

[00:03:46] Shawna: Yes. Well, there you go. That's, that's something people find hard to believe about you. I love it. So, so you've written multiple books, but of the most recent book, the one you have coming out, what, what did you find was the hardest part about that book to write?

[00:04:36] Zachary: It was really hard. It was really bleak at times. I had to really focus on the fact that this was a love story. It was, it's a, uh, big adventure about a, a sweeping epic love between these two type of characters, but also the fact that death is there the whole time. The reason why these two characters are even getting together, is to take somebody from this earth, and so it was, it was pretty sobering. I didn't want to be flippant about it. I didn't want them to be so comfortable with death that there wasn't a respect for it in the book. It was some dark places at times. It was, uh, it was a very serious undertaking. Really had to go back to some feelings that I've had losing people, losing family members.

[00:05:42] Shawna: Wow. That's intense.

[00:05:50] Zachary: I do like magical stuff. I, I have kind of a, a darker sens of humor and so that sensibility always comes. . But, uh, with this one especially, I, I think, I thought it was gonna be a lot lighter than it was when I came in. I thought I was gonna do, Holly Black, Maggie Stiff Lader style, , fun, young love story.

[00:06:18] Shawna: Yes. And you mentioned, like we talked about, like you do a little bit of snarky as kind of a little bit of your style. Do you think that that's still kind of there, but this, but that kind of faded out more as you went into doing this specific book?

[00:07:05] Zachary: Uh, and so he gets to be snar. In a way that a teenage guy really would be snarky, resenting his family and being embarrassed of them. But he thinks he's not, he thinks he's above it. He doesn't think he's being human. He thinks of himself as this otherworldly presence when in actuality, he's a teen guy.

[00:07:44] Shawna: Isn't that amazing? Like all the layers with the characters that you can have, so you still get to have all of those pieces that can come to life in your book, even you have this gravitas to some of the

[00:08:23] Zachary: But, but at the end of the day, I think they both realize, uh, the seriousness of the situation and their surroundings and that, uh, what they have is e each other to keep it from getting too dark for themselves.

[00:08:46] Zachary: I gotta say, if you think that you might have a book in you, I believe you have a book in you. I think you can do it. If you have tried to write that book. 10 20. 100 times and you can't do it. I think the 101st time is the time that you do it. I think you're gonna be able to pull it off. I volunteer with my local library for NaNoWriMo, national Novel Writing Month, and we, uh, we do a program there to get people in to try, try their hand at it.

[00:09:37] Zachary: Uh, but it really, I, it's, it's just putting your work in, putting your time in, loving the story, trusting yourself that you're the right person to tell this story and leaning into. What makes your voice great? What makes you creative? Uh, finding the, the, the Venn diagram between what you love and what you're good at and just absolutely leading into it.

[00:10:18] Zachary: But I'm cheering for folks out there that are thinking about it, that are on the cusp, that maybe have a, a pile of self-doubts that bears down on 'em every single time they see a blank white page right at the top of that page. Zachary Jeffries thinks I can do it. Write that at the very top of your blank page and then move on from there. If you follow me on TikTok, uh, I'm on TikTok as at Zach Jeffries. I do tons of writing prompts. I'm always encouraging writers. I'm telling Andy writers, how I do it, how I function. Selling my books to, in local small events, and that's how I've built my readership and I'm really here to be your cheerleader folks.

[00:11:04] Shawna: That's incredible. And actually that's a good thing for listeners to know. So listeners like, I know Zachary Jeffries from probably two, no, four, probably three or four years ago when I was working on my novel, he and I connected somewhere in a Facebook group and he sent me a book on craft on writing.

[00:11:33] Zachary: And it's been fantastic seeing your career grow.

[00:11:37] Zachary: I, remember us connecting and, and obviously everyone feels maybe a little lonesome,

[00:11:44] Zachary: when it starts out, when it's just you and the laptop and everything like that. Now you're out here.

[00:11:56] Shawna: I'm my thank you very much. Yes. I think it was back in pandemic days too, when I was trying to finish my novel and very lonely. So it was very nice to have that connection. So he's good people and yes, you can do it in pandemic , if you have that book in you, .

[00:12:22] Shawna: It'll be up on, Amazon and on ku, which is amazing if you have ku. So what good ways to reach you?

[00:12:53] Zachary: See if it's right for you. And I have to say angel of fate. The one thing that I love about this, uh, I know a lot of us kind of feel like romance is a very specific type of, Story type of book that, that we can find on the Hallmark channel and maybe isn't for us.

[00:13:38] Zachary: So this would be a great book if, if there's a guy that reads fantasy and he's with a person that only reads romance or, or, or whoever's out there, and you got some opposites attract. This is gonna be a great book. Both of you pick it up. Read it. Uh, talk about it with each other, a wonderful Valentine's Day gift to each other.

[00:14:01] Shawna: That's fantastic. I love it. That is really great. And what book inspires you the most? Zachary.

[00:14:51] Zachary: I think I ate that book in like a day and a half and the way that she would. Describes emotion and so evocative and it's one thing that I love about young adult is, uh, everyone's emotions are right at the surface cuz they're full of all these hormones and they don't have years of trauma and defense mechanisms and they don't have to worry about paying the car payment or the mortgage and familial obligations.

[00:15:37] Zachary: Raven Boys really stuck with me. I love her pros. I love her characters, even the characters I dislike. All the angsty boys that I, that I can't stand. I love disliking them. I

[00:15:52] Zachary: Reading about the main girl blue, having a snarky comeback and shutting them up. I just absolutely love that book. And that really told me that maybe I was wrong to look down at this whole genre and maybe I should keep reading.

[00:16:20] Shawna: That's amazing. It was great to get to know you better.

[00:16:45] Shawna: Thank you so much. Take care everyone. Get out there. Get that book. Check it out. Take care.