Addicted Zane A Reader''s Guide A Conversation with Zane Q: Zoe Reynard is a wonderful character: straight-talking, heartfelt, and insightful. It''s so refreshing to come across such a strong black heroine in contemporary fiction. Did the nuances of Zoe''s voice come easily? A. I wanted Zoe to be strong-headed, determined and have control over every single aspect of her life except one: her sexuality. Throughout the book, Zoe is very determined when it comes to her business and keeping her best friend from making devastating mistakes, but her sex life is in shambles. Writing about Zoe came very easily to me because I actually felt her pain, and creating her vibrant personality was fun. A lot of her dialogue is based on the way I tend to speak, in exaggerated detail and bluntness. As for the different time periods, those are just based on memories.
Q: A talented, successful businesswoman and a devoted mother, Zoe is also totally plugged into her own sexuality and dares to wear her passion on her sleeve -- and, most inspiring of all, she ultimately displays the self-confidence and bravery it takes to confront her own vulnerabilities and fears head-on. What was the inspiration for Zoe''s story? A. I felt like Zoe''s story was one that needed to be told. Addicted was originally going to be a story from The Sex Chronicles, but after I started to pen the story about a woman who had taken on three lovers outside of her marriage, I decided that there was too many angles to be explored for it to be confined to a short story. So I sat the few pages aside until I completed my erotica collection. Once I picked it back up, I was so engrossed in the character and had thought out her dilemmas so well in my mind that I wrote the book in nineteen days from start to finish. I even wrote part of it by hand in a ski lodge while I watched my son go down the slopes from the window. Q: Women are going to love this book, no question.
But what about men? Guys are of course going to be coming at Addicted from a completely different perspective. What sorts of feedback have you gotten from male readers so far? A. Male readers love Addicted. I often get e-mails from women who have to fight their men to get the book back so they can read it. Some women are glad that their men are actually reading something other than magazines or professional manuals because it gives them something to discuss. I have had dozens of men e-mail me to say that Addicted has given them a clearer vision of what their women need in and out of the bedroom. One man told me that he wished he had read this book a few years ago because it might have prevented his divorce. He felt like his ex-wife had a lot of similarities to Zoe.
Often times, men are responsible for inhibited behavior in their women. Because women are taught from a young age that there are certain things girls should not think or do, they often fear being judged by the men they care about. Thus, it is sometimes easier to be uninhibited with strangers, as in Zoe''s case, than with their life partners. They do not have to be concerned about what casual lovers think because it is so easy to walk away from them. I think a lot of men read Addicted and begin to examine what they may be doing wrong in their own relationships. Last but not least, they love the sex scenes in the book. Q: On the strength of its dialogue and erotic scenes alone, Addicted is a great read. But Zoe''s story is so much more than this.
Tell us about some of the issues and themes you set out to illuminate in your portrait of Zoe. A. I had four main goals when I sat down to write Addicted. First, I wanted to make it clear that seeking mental health counseling is not a sign of weakness, a stigma that is often associated with it in the African-American community. I purposely had Jason react the way a typical person would react when Zoe mentioned that she had met a psychiatrist. After he made degrading remarks about the profession, Zoe felt like there was no way to admit that she had actually paid for Dr. Marcella Spencer''s services. Thus, her lies continued.
Secondly, I wanted to show that we really are what we attract. Because Zoe had issues, she was attracting people around her that also had issues and one of them was so mentally unstable that he resorted to murder. Ironically, Zoe realized her problems and sought help; not realizing that she was one of the least troubled ones. Thirdly, I wanted to explore the connection between a person''s childhood and how they handle certain situations as an adult. We are all products of our environment and ultimately, what we become and how we behave is all a culmination of everything we have ever seen, experienced, or been taught. Lastly, I wanted to show that women are sexual beings and have just as many wants and desires as men. Too often we are expected to be submissive and "go with the flow," but that is unfair when the man falls to sleep with a smile on his face and the woman lies there in misery or disappointment. If the lines of communication can be opened up, both parties can be benefit from that.
Q: Recent publishing news indicates an explosion in popular fiction by black authors. Now more than ever, it seems like the rich diversity of interests, voices, and concerns of African-American readers is finally being reflected and represented in books produced by traditional, mainstream publishing houses. Do you think the self-publishing movement, in which you''ve played a hugely successful role, is responsible for helping to pave the way for this evolution? A. Absolutely. To this day, more than three-quarters of the books I read are self-published. I love risk-takers, and because of the self-publishing explosion and the ease of print-on-demand, more people are stepping up to the plate realizing that they have nothing to lose. When I first started, no one would touch African-American erotica, and several published authors encouraged me to write black romance novels or sisterfriend novels because they had proven sales records. They said that I would kill my career.
Interestingly enough, I see some of those same authors spreading the word about their story in an upcoming erotica collection or boasting that their next novel is erotic. Just like I predicted the explosion of African-American erotica years before it happened (which I am convinced will die down after a few years and only leave those who are truly passionate about the craft), there are other authors out there breaking ground who are not followers. Authors like Michael Presley (Blackfunk) and Laurinda Brown (Fire and Brimstone) are making their own paths and leaving a trail. Most people have not heard of them yet, but they most definitely will. Q: Like you, Iyanla Vanzant, Omar Tyree, and E. Lynn Harris -- along with so many other African-American writers -- all began their writing careers as self-published authors. To what degree were you directly influenced or inspired by these authors? How did you learn where to begin when it came down to really making it happen and getting your work out to readers? A. I was inspired by them to the degree that I knew it was possible.
After receiving rejection letters from a few agents, some of them repetitively, I made an almost immediate decision to self-publish because I was convinced they were wrong. I even told them that it was not a matter of whether or not I would sell a ton of books. It was only a matter of whether it would happen with or without their assistance. I put three stories on the Internet and within three weeks, I had more than eight thousand hits from word-of-mouth alone. The three hundred plus e-mails I received daily -- one day I received more than eight hundred -- from people asking me to put out a book told me everything I needed to know. In the beginning, I started by selling ten of my stories for ten dollars by mail-order, and after getting tons of orders from people willing to pay ten dollars for what amounted to fifty pages of Xeroxed material, there was no question that I could sell a book. If only ten percent of the people who claimed they would purchase a book actually did, it would mean serious book sales. Originally, I was selling paperbacks for twenty and twenty-two dollars (Addicted and The Sex Chronicles respectively) and they were selling like hotcakes.
At the urging of distributors, I lowered the price to fifteen and the rest is history. Q: As a trailblazer yourself in the realm of frank, erotica-flavored African-American fiction, what advice do you have for up-and-coming writers whose main concern is that their work reach as many readers as possible? Where should they get started? A. That is an easy one. They need to get started on the Internet. They need to give a taste of their work to as many people as possible and build up a readership base way before their book ever comes out. They should join several of the online discussion groups to learn about marketing techniques and distribution outlets. They also need to do a lot of networking with published authors. Some will be amicable and extremely helpful, and some will be too busy working on their next book or negotiating their next contract to be bothered.
They should only concern themselves with the ones that believe in mentoring new authors -- those who realize that they have a deeper purpose than self-gratification. Success definitely leaves clues, and learning from someone else''s past mistakes is always vital. Most importantly, they need to read at least five books on the subject. I do that about any subject I am interested in to make sure that I can make an informed decision, before I leap head-first into foreign te.