Guest blogger: Zoe Winters! Back to Blog
Today I’m happy to welcome Zoe Winters to my home on the web. 🙂 Zoe has a great paranormal novella, KEPT, that she is offering for free to readers on her site. (Come on, free! That’s the best kind of Christmas present.) Welcome to my blog, Zoe!
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Persona
I’m learning VERY slowly, that I cannot regurgitate every single thought in my head the second that I have it as “Zoe Winters.” For a long time I believed not doing that, to have any kind of “persona” was an act of dishonesty. But more and more I see it as playing smarter chess. People who stumble upon me on my blog don’t know me well enough and don’t understand my thoughts and feelings in context of everything else in my life enough to not misread me sooner or later.
In order not to come off as a bitch, or a jerk, or a know-it-all, there are times when I will have to learn to be more diplomatic.
We all have personas. (And sometimes I wonder if my bitchier side is a persona even I’ve fallen for.) Probably very few people in our lives know everything there is to know about us and all the nuances surrounding it. Everybody is on a “need to know” basis. Your garden club knows different things about you than your church friends, or your family. Your spouse probably knows more about you than anyone, though there are probably sides to you he/she doesn’t see.
In my current release, KEPT, Dayne is a sorcerer who is very much a hermit. A few decades before this story (magic users have very long lifespans), he fell in love with a werecat named, Jaden. But she wasn’t what she appeared. She’d been sent in to play the femme fatale and lure him to his doom under pretense of rescuing her. Being a good guy, he was “in the way” of the tribe’s plans.
The tribe underestimated both Dayne’s love for Jaden, and his power, because when he went to “save her” and found himself in a trap, he’d juiced himself up with enough power and strength that he was able to escape. Though not without killing a large portion of the tribe.
Word got out that he was evil. A dangerous sorcerer. It wasn’t true, but he’d been burned and didn’t want to be burned again, so in order to protect himself from doing something so stupid again, he let the rumors spread and let the reputation build. That’s Dayne’s persona, at least until he meets Greta, someone from the same tribe who actually IS in trouble.
Do you have a persona? Do different parts of who you are come out with different groups?
KEPT is a paranormal romance novella and is available as a free download here: http://zoewinters.wordpress.com/kept/
Dayne’s story sounds intriguing. Looks like I’ll be adding this to my “to be read” stack. I think we all use personas to some extent. I’m much more conservative at work than I am with my friends and family.
Happy to have you here today, Zoe! I look forward to reading more of your books!
Definitely! Although, I was just talking to my best friend last night about this. I’m pretty everything-out-there on my blog, and her sister just joined Facebook. I was a little worried she’d know me to be my heathen, crazy self, you know? Because I met her offline, she only knows the facets of me she needs to know.
While online, I put it all out there. So it’s pretty much a done deal, you know? LOL! Except for one aspect of myself I still keep secret, which is my relationship with my husband and my sex life, but everyone keeps their sex life secret! Mostly, LOL!
Zoe, unlike you and Spy, I don’t put everything out there on the blog. I always remember anyone can read it. But I think the essence of ourselves do come through. (Unless the blogger is one of our villains.)
I have a choice who I want to be in life, and that choice shows up in my blogs, even if I don’t reveal everything going on in my life. Like Spy says, that includes my sex life. 😉
Hey Ashley, Thanks! I hope you like it!
I’m far more conservative with my family than I am with my friends. I have family members who don’t know about 10 different things about me, haha!
Hey Cindy, thanks for having me!
If you like vampires and werewolves, you’ll really like the second and third novellas in the series. The second one features Anthony and Charlee.
hahahahaha Spy yeah 😀
hehe Edie, oh, I don’t put everything out there on the blog. You’d be so proud if you knew all the stuff I was editing, hahaha! Though I think some of it, most astute readers could figure out on their own. I’m just not blatant and in your face about “everything.” Shocking, but true haha. 😉
I am more out-going with my family, but being shy not so much with others. That’s why I love my blog. I can be ME without the risk or fear of rejection I feel around people. And no, I don’t talk about my sex life on my blog! *G*
I really enjoyed your post, most of my friends know the real me, but there are a few (who are ever becoming more computer savvy, lol) that don’t know a-l-l of me. You know, like they think I’m quite and um shy. Humm. I’ll have to check out your website and add Kept to my tbr!
Hi Zoe! Great post, and great cover! *g*
Cynthia, I’m picking up my copy of Midnight Sins on Sunday. It’s all waiting for me at Borders! 🙂
Your post was really interesting, Zoe. Very thought provoking. I’m not really sure if I have a different persona for the different groups I’m around, such as friends, family, coworkers, but I know I try not to. I’m pretty much the same no matter who I’m with.
Hehe Brandy,
I just want to point out, I don’t talk about my sex life on my blog either. hehehe. 😛 (I know you weren’t saying that I was haha.)
And I know what you mean, the internet I think is “safer” for people to be who they are. Sometimes it results in drama though, lol. 😀
Thanks, Rhonda! I’m glad you liked my post, and I hope you enjoy Kept!
Hi Larissa, Thanks! It’s good to see you!
Hey Karin,
I think if my family wasn’t SUPER strict religious I’d probably be able to be more “me” around them too. But they definitely can’t handle, Zoe-uncensored. (I can’t even deal with me uncensored some days.)
But Zoe uncensored is a fun lady. 🙂 I censor myself too–particularly around my husband’s family. I always tell him…one day, I’m gonna let go and they’ll see the real me. Then, they will be very, very afraid.
Just wanted to come buy and say hi – Zoe. Your story looks really exciting. I’ll be downloading it this weekend.
Hi Cynthia (I’m so enjoying Todd!) Hi Zoe. Thanks so much for the book. I do love reading paranormal romances and too I love to read new to me authors, its great meeting you!
I tend to see mostly the ‘positive’ in all I discover
and people who have seen me post or talk, think its false because it seems repetitive. I can’t put alot into words and tend to use the same ones often, but inside the feelings can be overwhelming. See I can’t even explain it here 🙂
Hi Zoe, this sounds like an interesting story, and I do like sorcerers. I’m usually more of an introvert until I get to know people better, but find myself sometimes a bit more outgoing chatting in some of my books groups.
hahahaha, Cindy. Zoe-uncensored needs to be given a Valium or something hahaha. You’re so nice though, I can’t imagine anybody being freaked out by you.
Hey Greta, Fabulous! I hope you like it. And I hope it isn’t too weird that the heroine has your name haha. THat was a coinkidink.
Hey Caffey, thanks! I hope you like it! When I was a teenager I knew another girl like that. She was one of the nicest people I knew, always saw the best in people, and always made me feel like I was a valuable human being. That’s an important quality to have. I thought she was “fake” until I’d gotten to know her really well. It seemed incredible that someone could genuinely be “that nice.” But she was.
Hi Pam, believe it or not, depending on the venue, I can be a little shy haha. I know that sounds like complete BS, but there are some social situations I’m not sure exactly what to do with and sometimes I get social anxiety. But on the computer it’s easier to be me. And of course in groups of my friends.
I hope you like the novella!