Setting Priorities with Guest Blogger: Zvi Zaks

Meet Sci Fi author Zvi Zaks today
at the Book Boost!

Here's what he had to say...

I've been writing off and on literally for decades with little luck in publishing. I could blame it on my schedule as a doctor -- too many years having a 24-7 call schedule -- but plenty of other doctors have managed to combine writing and medicine. The real problem was the off and on had too much off and not enough on. Internet workshops improved my work enough to sell a few short stories, but what I really wanted was to publish a book.


Second only to becoming a grandfather—something I had no say about—becoming a published novelist was my biggest goal.


I thought my writing was good, but an unrelenting series of rejections almost had me ready to give up. Then Lilly Press accepted my novel Implac, an evil robot story. I was ecstatic. Even the editing process was a joy. Unfortunately, Lilly went bankrupt and it was back to the slush pile for me. At least now I knew that some professionals valued my work.


Sites like Query Tracker taught me how to write a decent query, I sent out a batch of letters to small publishers, and in 2010 Eternal Press accepted A Virtual Affair. No ecstasy this time, but I was still happy that at age sixty-eight I would finally have a book for sale. It's never too late to pursue your dream.


The book was published on January 8th of this year. A week earlier, my son called me, "Dad, Rosemarie has gone into labor." Eight hours later, Aliana was born. I flew down to see her the day the book was published, and, even though I had striven for many years to get published, I didn't care.


I have my priorities.


A Note from the Book Boost: Zvi, thanks for joining us today at the Boost. Your story is highly relatable to many of us. There is nothing that compares to the birth of new life and CONGRATS on that baby girl. Let the spoiling begin! Please tell us more about your book.


Blurb:

Think how great virtual sex must be.

Now think again.

Barbara is a sexual simulation designed to make men happy. When flabby, neurotic Jack tests the program, he triggers a feedback loop that makes it self-aware. The erstwhile pornbot becomes a 'she' and discovers that sex is not the same as happiness. Who knew?

Making Jack happy is difficult. Barbara develops elaborate and sometimes sneaky ways to help him, and she succeeds. After all, her abilities are awesome. She can hack into any computer and is not above using sabotage and blackmail for the benefit of Jack--and everyone else. The problem is, though Barbara thinks she knows what's best for humanity, she isn't human.

This computer program could end up a virtual messiah, or doom us all to cheerful mindlessness.

Want More Zvi?

Visit his website here:
http://home.comcast.net/~fiddlerzvi/klezmaniacs.html


Pick up your copy of the book today! Click here.