Lisa Haselton's Reviews and Interviews: Interview with sci-fi romance author Victoria Pinder

Please welcome today’s guest, sci-fi romance author Victoria Pinder. She’s sharing a bit about her novel The Zoastra Affair.

Victoria will be awarding a $20 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit other tour stops and enter there, too.

Bio:

Victoria Pinder grew up in Irish Catholic Boston before moving to the Miami sun. She’s worked in engineering, after passing many tests proving how easy Math came to her. Then hating her life at the age of twenty four, she decided to go to law school. Four years later, after passing the bar and practicing very little, she realized that she hates the practice of law. She refused to one day turn 50 and realize she had nothing but her career and hours at a desk. After realizing she needed change, she became a high school teacher. Teaching is rewarding, but writing is a passion.

During all this time, she always wrote stories to entertain herself or calm down. Her parents are practical minded people demanding a job, and Victoria spent too many years living other people’s dreams, but when she sat down to see what skill she had that matched what she enjoyed doing, writing became so obvious. The middle school year book when someone wrote in it that one day she’d be a writer made sense when she turned thirty.

When she woke up to what she wanted, the dream of writing became so obvious. She dreams of writing professionally, where her barista can make her coffee and a walk on the beach, can motivate her tales. Contemporary romances are just fun to write. She’s always thinking whose getting hurt and whose story is next on the list to fall in love. Victoria’s love of writing has kept her centered and focused through her many phases, and she’s motivated to write many stories.

Member of Florida Romance Writers, Contemporary Romance, Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal chapter of RWA, and in Savvy Authors.

Welcome, Victoria. Please tell us about your current release.

The Zoastra Affair is a science fiction romance based on what I wanted to read growing up. Science fiction is male geared, and I wanted to read a space adventure where love and a space ship can happen. I grew up watching Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Farscape, Babylon 5, so how can I not think about space. This time it’s a female point of view and love can happen on a space ship.

What inspired you to write this book?

The books I wanted to read didn’t exist. First it was male oriented growing up. Then as a teenager, I loved reading about teenagers. But Wesley Crusher is the joke character on Star Trek for a reason. Teenagers are not smarter or more appealing then educated adults. It makes reading YA space adventure hard for me. But why can’t women fall in love with smart men?

Excerpt:

I’m going to have to steal someone else’s body to get out of here.

“Ariel, are you listening?”

Ariel Transcender stared dumbfounded at the mother superior of her prison, a/k/a Aulnale School for Orphans. “Yes, mistress.”

She had no idea what happened, though she pasted a fake simpering smile of appreciation on her face. Ms. Rochelle walked away.

A few minutes later, Ariel looked out the window again, tuning out Rochelle’s mind numbing lecture on what was proper behavior when near a man. The boarding home on this planet gave the stupidest lectures of the galaxy. Her lips curled into a sneer. Women were not excited to be bound to men.

Could I do this to someone else? Do I have any other choice?

Lenchena, the teenage girl who’d stolen her adult body and taken off on Ariel’s ship, needed to be found. And Ariel refused to listen to the daily drivel about always listening to a man.

What exciting story are you working on next?

I’m finishing my Collins brothers series, book 4. They are contemporary and the first book comes out next in April, 2014. And I’m working on the sequel to the Zoastra Affair, tentatively The Zoastra Betrayal.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I wrote all my life. Yet I hated English class so much as a student. So subjective, and English teachers never seemed to dwell on anything I considered important. And red curtains do not always means anger, danger and/or fire. Sometimes red curtains are mentioned because they are pretty and the author wants the character to exist in the real world. But at home, I always wrote bad fan fiction or horrible stories for myself. Writing was my way of getting out of my head and the stress of the world. But one day I spoke at length to a Jewish rabbi. No I’m not Jewish. I’m Catholic, but he looked at my hands and told me I have writer hands. Might have been the pen marks. IDK. But he told me if I enjoy writing, then I should be focusing on that. This was a eureka moment of my life. The answer seemed so obvious. But I needed someone to tell me it was okay to write and people do it.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

I wish. One day. So I’m a high school advanced placement teacher of US Government, Macroeconomics and US History. So work is stressful. And until the engagement/wedding planning took over, I went home and then took writing as a second job. In 2013, I went home and wrote 2000 words aday. Call me super dedicated. Then as I said my engagement took over my life. And I’ve taken the former writing time, and dedicated it to planning the wedding. I will be doing a lot of things myself, so the planning time is good. And come July, wedding is in June, I have a major promise that I get my own office. So the writing comes back big time then! But in this time, I’m enjoying every moment of the wedding planning stuff. And the time comes from being organized and not watching much television.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

My fiancé has informed me that when I’m thinking about what I write, I put the hot coffee/tea/lemon water on my cheek and tilt my head. Somehow he jokes this is how I get inspiration. But I’m just thinking. The doctors always said my cheeks had rosacea, but perhaps it’s the hot water I hold up.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A lawyer. And I did it. Then I realized what my thoughts about the law and the practice of law are very different. I’m not cut out to be a lawyer. So I walked away, and honestly don’t regret that moment at all. I love my life, and couldn’t trade it away for an 80 hour thankless desk job where I die a miserable lonely existence. Perhaps it wouldn’t have been that bad, but to me, it was death itself.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

Don’t let doubts get in the way of accomplishments. Sometimes I think the problem with adult hood is that we all go to sleep and stop pushing ourselves everyday. As a teenager and child we all had great expectations about life. Then when it was time, the direction of what to do goes away and we flounder until we sleep. But the best part of being an adult is directing our own lives and realizing that accomplishment is possible. So don’t forget to reward yourself for accomplishing and set the next goal to attain.

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