Welcome!
Please introduce yourself.
Hi! Thank you so much for having me here. I write as Lilian Zenzi. I am a middle-aged queer woman who gardens and crafts when I’m not working on new books. I live in Colorado with my partner, teens, and two big dogs.
1. When did you start writing?
I was 8 or 9 when I wrote my first story for the fun of it; as an adult, I’ve mostly written for myself, making a few forays into publishing with long breaks between efforts. The last break lasted for about a decade.
This pen name— and this book—began in summer 2021, and was an accident. At that time, I didn’t have any intention of writing seriously again, but I fell in love with the characters and the story and reconnected with what made me write in the first place.
2. What motivates you to write?
Some days it is escapism, some days it’s rage at the state of the world, some days it’s a need to connect to the universe outside of my tiny place in it, some days characters just demand their turn on the page. Usually it’s a bit of each, in wildly varying amounts.
Lately, there’s a new element, which is reader response! I hadn’t shared much of my work before a very early draft of Spark and Tether released on a web serial site; having regular readers waiting for the next chapter to drop and cheering me on as they waited was extremely motivating. It sounds obvious now, but as someone who primarily wrote for my own enjoyment, it was a big surprise. I love hearing from readers, and some days that’s what gets me in the chair ready to work.
3. What genre do you write in and what made you chose this particular genre?
Most of my stories have a speculative element of some sort in them, but I don’t tend to think about genre until the story is written and I need to figure out where the readers will be. Spark and Tether is queer science fiction romance. I have a cozy novella also available, and a queer urban fantasy in the works for next year.
I love science fiction and fantasy of all varieties because there are truly infinite possibilities and very few real limits, and romance offers so much space for exploring connection and growth and happiness. The books I like best tend to combine and/or interrogate genre conventions, and there’s an element of that in much of my work, as well.
4. What is your goal in writing? Do you have dreams where your writing should take you?
The ultimate goal is connection; all art, on some level, is communication and/or connection at its core. To that end, I’m hoping to build an engaged and active community of readers while keeping some balance between my working and personal life and producing new work regularly. Easy, right?
On a more practical and less lofty level, that means I’m focused on finishing the next two books in the Synchronists series, launching the queer urban fantasy series on Ream in early March, and keeping space in my schedule for rest and recovery and play.
5. Do you ever suffer from writer’s block and if yes, how do you deal with it?
Oh, absolutely. All the time. I find I have two kinds of blocks, and it’s sometimes difficult to determine which one is stalling me. The first is that if there’s something wrong with the story, I get stuck and can’t go on. I have learned to trust this; I edit as I draft, and when I get to a point where the words just won’t come, it usually means there’s something broken. Once I find it, I can continue; this usually means I need to walk away from the manuscript for a while to let my subconscious think it over. I’ll work on another story or dig into a little more research.
The other kind of block happens when I’m just worn out. I have a chronic illness that includes intermittent fatigue, and I often don’t realize I am having a flare until I’ve been staring into the document for a few hours and nothing comes. After a lifetime of working long hours and just willing myself to have more energy, I am learning how to listen to when my body needs rest. There is no pushing through this one. The words won’t come back until I take time to recover.
6. What advice would you like to give new, hopeful authors?
The biggest lesson I keep coming back to in this process is that the joy must come from the work itself. Write what you love. Publish and promote in ways that make you feel good about it. If you try to force something you don’t like for the sake of market or sales…it will drain your energy and eventually your reasons for doing this in the first place. This business is hard, and so often you will have too many decisions to make and not enough time or resources, and when all of that adds up, the thing carries you through is the love of the work itself.
7. Please, tell us about your work.
Sacheri is a synchronist, a human enhanced with embedded myconeural networks that allow him to gather and interpret vast quantities of data. On a salvage run to an abandoned moon, he meets the wry, reserved, and strictly-by-the-rules archivist Jin and finds a signal left by a group of synchronists who vanished decades before. Pursuing answers might cost Sacheri everything he loves—including his exciting new relationship—but Sacheri’s never been able to turn away from someone in need, and there’s a voice in the void calling for aid…
Spark and Tether is an adult queer sci fi love story with gothic themes in an optimistic, queer normative, far-future universe.
Thank you for being my guest. It was such a pleasure to have you here!!
Thank you so much for having me!
Get to know Lilian
Lilian Zenzi writes science fiction and fantasy, sometimes with romance and usually in queer normative worlds. Genre agnostic as a writer and a reader, she likes to keep space for comfort, hope, and joy along with the kissing, conflict, and big ideas. She resents having to write a bio and would rather be in the garden or making art.
Author Website: https://www.lilianzenzi.com
Author Facebook (Personal): https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100093325026648
Author Facebook (Author Page): https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100093193813533
Author Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lilianzenzi/
About the book
Author Name: Lilian Zenzi
Release Date: Friday, January 19 2024
Tour Type: 7-Day Blog Tour
Tour Start Date: Friday, February 2 2024
Publishing Company: Lilian Zenzi, LLC
Cover Artist: design by Damonza Studios, art by Lucas @newmoonnero
Primary Plot Arc: Speculative Fiction
Pairings (if a romance): Pansexual MMC, Non-binary love interest
Genres: Romance, Science Fiction
Story Type: Novel (>50k)
Word Count: 103k
LGBTQ+ Identities (if applicable): most main and supporting characters are LGBTQ+/nonbinary/pan/queer/gender fluid
Keywords/Categories: gothic, far future, queer normative universe, biomodifications, ai, sprawling space civilization, science fiction, sci-fi, pan, pansexual, non-binary, enby, NB, gender fluid, LGBTQ, romance, queer romance, new release, announcement
Is This Part of a Series?: Yes
Position (Number) in Series: First
Series Title: Synchronists
Book Blurb:
Working odd jobs across the Outer Ring gets a little lonely sometimes—not everyone loves having a synchronist with supraliminal perception around. But all Sacheri wants, he tells himself, is to wander the stars.
Then he takes a salvage run to an abandoned moon where he meets the wry, reserved, strictly-by-the-rules archivist Jin. Mesmerized by their confidence and charm, Sacheri can’t resist showing off his abilities–and instead of the damaged ai he was tracking, he stumbles onto a signal left by a synchronist who went missing decades earlier.
Sacheri knows from previous experience that pursuing the truth—never mind justice—could destroy everything he loves. He would defy his employers, the institution responsible for the myconeural networks that make him a synchronist, and the leadership of several worlds.
And it would complicate his new, passionate, and impossibly sweet relationship with Jin. They might be the best thing that’s ever happened to him, but they work for the very entities that ended Sacheri’s last investigation.
He knows better than to risk it.
But he’s never been able to turn away from someone in need, and there’s a voice in the void calling for aid…
Non-Exclusive Excerpt:
PROLOGUE
Orinus Station, present day
Sacheri woke with a shiver in his nerves tracing his limbs like a lit fuse.
His synplants drew his awareness out into the station, into the whisper of leaves and the low hum of the machines, endlessly seeking. He had no solace to offer them, so he tried to sleep through it. Maybe inebriant would douse the burn; he’d have to find one, which meant leaving bed… but then, a walk might also help. The drink could keep him company on the return.
There was a certain maudlin poetry to wandering with the ghosts of memory, anyway.
#
He regretted his choices before he could finish the first bottle.
The empty corridors echoed, even the ones with lush vine-planted walls, fully surrounded by sound-absorbent tiling. The unsteady sound of his steps reminded him of less lonely times; the chatter of more populated halls made him sad. His synplants cleansed the inebriant from his system faster than he could drink, so he diminished them, set a timer on his standard implant, and ducked into a maintenance corridor, heading for the lifts that would return him to his temp residence.
He’d forgotten how many ghosts were in his head.
He drank more.
He passed through too many familiar places, muttering curses to himself about the council for bringing him to Orinus Station in the first place. He should have departed with Paradis, gone away to her fancy little moon, where he could wallow in heartbreak on a lakeside beach while she teased him about his lack of ambition. She’d have been careful not to remind him of anything—anyone—else.
Three more nights until he left for Elysia, into the far reaches of the Outer Rings, away from the myriad reminders, the constant calling of what should have been, all of his aching regrets.
He avoided the halls that would have taken him past Paradis’s private suites and the memories lying in wait for him there, and then he wandered past the next set of lifts, because it was what he and Jin had always done: long walks and quiet talks, so close their shoulders touched, their bell-clear, mesmerizing voice low and loving. He tried not to think about how much he missed them, and, failing that, tried not to think at all.
He trudged along, hugging the shadows at the edges of the walkways, arms heavy at his sides, until it was late enough that he could reasonably hope to get a lift to himself, and he had some hope of sleeping. The only humans he’d passed in maintenance took no notice of him, which was the whole point of using the back ways. But they might make small talk if they found him alone in a lift car, or, stars forbid, they might ask if he was okay.
And then what was he supposed to do? Cry on them? Tell them to mind their own business? Explain how he helped bring something like justice to a few long-forgotten synchronists and how much it took from him? Or should he ask if they’d seen a certain lithe, black-haired investigator for the Council of the Outer Rings anywhere nearby? His eyes burned from both the inebriant and the exhaustion and the constant threat of tears. He wanted to sleep until the transport to Elysia was ready.
The bottle was empty, but he wasn’t ready to let it go; he thought he might sleep better with it nearby, just for company, even if the synplants wiped all traces of the inebriant from his system. He leaned against the rounded corner of the lift alcove, one heel against the wall to hold him steady, arms crossed over his chest, bottle dangling loosely from the fingers of his right hand.
His luck almost held.
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