Interview with Jo Zebedee

The first book of The Inheritance Trilogy turned heads when Jo Zebedee’s debut novel Abendau’s Heir was released last year. Small press debuts aren’t supposed to become bestsellers. Nobody told Jo that. The last time I spoke with Jo I questioned her decision to self-publish Inish Carraig. That book didn’t follow the self-publishing-doesn’t-sell script either. Now she’s back with the second book of The Inheritance Trilogy, Sunset Over Abendau – not that she ever left the arena.

Best Seller in Waterstones and on Amazon, surely this success has gone to her head. But wait. Sunset Over Abendau is the second in a series and every reader knows the second book isn’t as good as the first; there’s a reputation to uphold.

Welcome to SFFWorlds Jo. On the subject of reputations I understand your work has earned you a Campbell nomination and is making peoples Hugo’s recommendation lists. How does it feel to be considered for awards like these?

The award thing was a surprise, from left field. I didn’t even realise I was eligible for the Campbell and had to go and check their criteria to discover I was. Their criteria is quite strict but, as my eligible work is from 2015, I can be considered in both 2016 and 2017.

I think it shows a couple of things. Firstly, as writers, it’s easy to overlook the importance of short stories in the market. As well as supporting the Campbell eligibility I was listed in Ellen Datlow’s recommended reads list for a short story last year. They’re great for raising visibility and for providing at least a small amount of income (but, it is small.) I’m in at least four anthologies this year, and I now take my short story writing much more seriously, taking more time over the stories, and polishing more.

The Hugo mention was fun, and a nice boost, but I think I’d need considerably more people to have read my books for it to be anything other than that! What it has been great for is confidence. Despite my breezy online persona, like most writers I have doubts about what I write. To get the mentions, and the recognition, has helped with that a lot.

In fact, if I’m taking anything from my first year, it is the critical feedback. Sales wouldn’t have been such a shock (I’ve done well, above average, but not astonishingly well) – I know many writers with small presses or who are self-published doing very good kindle sales. But the sort of reviews I’ve had, for both my first two books, have been incredible. And pretty humbling – that the people who have read my stories have liked them so much. It’s given me a huge amount of confidence, going forwards.

Critics of Abendau’s Heir (yes, there were one or two!) believed that the grimness was a little to black. Is Sunset Over Abendau as brutal?

There were a few! As there should be.

Firstly, I think the important thing is that Abendau’s Heir is one book of a trilogy and it set up an awful lot of the world. Until the trilogy is complete, I don’t think it’s possible to decide if the balance is there. I’m confident it is, but it is unashamedly a dark world.

Sunset Over Abendau is different from Heir. We know what can happen now. The fear of that is established in the characters – which gives room for a lot of the chill-factor to build.

Is it as dark? I don’t believe so. Do the shadows still stretch over the series? Absolutely. Am I still unflinching in showing it – I think so. Certainly, there is one scene in it which I found harder to write than any other. If the reader doesn’t feel some horror at it, I didn’t write it well enough.

But, even in Heir, the darkness has hope to mitigate some of it. The ending is bleak, yes, but not the whole book. Hope, strength, they’re all good things – and I hope that balance is there over the trilogy.

One of my reviewers commented on the darkness being a bit much, but they then reviewed Inish Carraig – my self-published book – and felt it was balanced in that, which gave hope for the trilogy. I think that hope will be repaid by book three.

Your success to date has come about from your own efforts. Does being un-agented hamper you when it comes to book promotion, market awareness or even in your writing process?

Some of it has been my own efforts but I do have the support of a publisher behind me. However, like most writers with small presses the expectation is that I will pull my weight – and I have!

Going at all this without an agent wasn’t what I expected. (My writing career has been akin to the gods rolling dice on it in Discworld.) When I signed with the trilogy I was with a great agency. I had a book (Inish Carraig) on submission, and another being reviewed by my agent. I had no reason to believe I’d end up doing this unsupported.

But the dice thought I needed more of challenge and I’m agentless (all very amicable) and juggling contracts (I’ve contracted for a fantasy book next year with Inspired Quill and signed an audio contract with Tickety Boo for the trilogy), self-publishing (because I was darned if I was going to waste a book I loved – and had worked as hard on as Inish Carraig), work (I run a consultancy) and family commitments.

As a result, it’s been a crazy, exhausting year. Basically, I’ve said yes to anything offered, pleaded for opportunities, and tried not to waste time. But it’s been hideously hard.

Have you felt any pressure of audience expectation as you’ve worked on Sunset Over Abendau?

Not really. Sunset was actually written before Inish, so has been knocking around for a while. Also, the book I was most nervous about was Abendau’s Heir. It was a monster of a debut, with a big backstory and some dark, dark scenes. There are places where I think pace suffered a little for clarity – but I think, over the three books, that clarity and scene-setting pays back. Heir was my hardest book to write, for sure – but also my most exhilarating.

Sunset, on the other hand, was a blast to write. Characters are established, the world has been created and is ready to go, and there is a blinding, fast-moving plot. I can honestly say of all my books it is the one I have most enjoyed writing (although I’m enjoying an edit of book 3 at the moment) and the story I feel is, in many ways, the most fun.

But I do feel I now have a lot to live up to. Two well-received books, three more contracted – can I keep it up? And it’s so much harder writing now just due to lack of time – writing isn’t paying anywhere like enough for me to reduce work to accommodate the massively increased workload this year. So, yes, I do sometimes bite my lip, worried.

And then I remind myself this started as my relaxing hobby and I can give up anytime. If I never write another book, I’d be happy. Which allows me to sit and write and not worry.

At the end of Abendau’s Heir you left Kare rather battered and scarred. The events in Sunset Over Abendau happen a number of years after. Is there a reason why you’ve decided let him and the other characters brood over the injustices you served them?

Yes, poor Kare was left in a bad way.

The ten years were very deliberate. What happened to Kare was horrific. It could not be addressed quickly, if at all, and I was determined not to downgrade that by having the usual quick recovery of protagonists, which undermines those who suffer trauma in real life. It’s something I was very clear about when I embarked on the trilogy – that the characters would be well rounded and real. And that means there are certain things not possible, including any quick resolution.

Also, frankly, a book with an unremittingly miserable main character is hard to sell – I needed to give space for the dust to settle. The ten years give that space from Heir. It establishes patterns of behaviour. It allows the characters to mature and to become characters who are proactive rather than reactive to their grim history.

On a practical level the 10 years allowed me to introduce two new characters, central to the plot.

The Inheritance Trilogy features a manipulative Evil Empress, is there a particular reason you opted for a female antagonist?

I find the anti-maternal aspect of her fascinating. But, also – she’s all the more shocking for being female and so utterly unredeemable.

As she’s grown, it’s been interesting contrasting her female traits with the nastiness. She is aware of her garden, for instance, in a very sensual way. But, mostly, she’s the antagonist because she is fascinatingly awful, more than because she’s a woman.

The Space Roamers which feature in Sunset Over Abendau are based on your love of Barge boats. If you could spend time exploring the cosmos on a Space Barge what antics would you get up to?

I assume it should be a family-friendly response? (Joking! Joking!) I quite fancy the idea of finding a new world and seeing what things would be like before humans caused chaos. But, also, some of the astronomical things – the birth and death of a star – would be fabulous to see.

Mostly, though, I’d like to indulge my inner geek and do all the sf stuff – planetary landings, space walking, faster than light zipping along.

And, being me, I’d like a sexy space pilot to go with my nice new ship.

Here’s me thinking you were clear of the gutter! Sexy Pilots indeed. Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions Jo.

Thanks so much for having me!

Sunset Over Abendau is available to pre-order from Amazon. You can follow Jo on Twitter, and even find her lurking on the SFFWorld Forums when she’s not furiously writing.

If you want to read more about Jo, you can find out more on her website or on her blog.

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