Zara Scott On Her Writing Career

On The Table Read Magazine, “the best entertainment eBook magazine UK“, Zara Scott discusses her mafia romance and historical novels like Forgive Me and The Experiment, challenging stereotypes and empowering women through vivid storytelling.

Zara Scott

Hello my name is Zara Scott. I am a new author who writes stories mainly for young to older adult women. I left East Anglia in the UK and moved to Scotland, where life is quieter and slower. I had the misfortune of reading a dreadful book about a mafia romance, which was all porn, with no plot or story or anything to do with mafia!

I see a lot of such books in print which is sad as it lets female authors down, as being people who have little imagination, so I decided to do a real book about a mafia romance, one which had a beginning, middle and end. Frustration at inept writers is a good motivation to prove female authors can do better than lewd porn scene after scene, chapter after chapter.

A Sprinkle Of Pepper

I started A Sprinkle of Pepper in 2022 and it took me six months in all. Initially it was just for my own amusement, to see if I really could write a better story and as it progressed, I knew I had done that. My problem is that I am an introvert, and I really don’t have any self-esteem, so when I hit the inevitable writers block/brick wall, I had to trust my work to a third party to read, who was my partner. He was very enthusiastic about it and I honestly thought he was just being kind, lol, but he did genuinely love the story, so here I am fifth book on, though it has taken me longer to write, a year in all.

Forgive Me

My latest book is called “Forgive Me”. It presents a lot of thought towards certain stereotypes that we have about relationships and monsters within us. In the synopsis I ask the question “What is love?” Everyone has a different idea about it and reality is often different again, so I set out to explore what those situations meant. Often in bad relationships there is a hidden sorrow, which is the case in this powerful story. I wrote it as a support for women in violent relationships, to tell their story, to imagine a way of escaping, but the question then becomes “Escaping to what?”

Writing Challenges

My greatest challenge for the story was to contemplate how far I could go with the violence. My stories often contain violence and for the most part I don’t hold back, just limit the amount I include. This means that the true violence of bad relationships is probably not exposed as much as those women have known it.

Avion isn’t based on any one person but a general group of victims and Gabriel isn’t based on any one person, but he belongs in a mafia type family, loving violence where Avion lives in terror of it. Damion her boyfriend is loosely based on a violent man I once had the misfortune of meeting, but he also personifies a type cast of dominant male in an abusive relationship. Avion has become an introvert because of her relationship with Damion, and a lot of the story is about her inner turmoil in trying to break free of his control.

Writing Style

My stories are all free writing. If a scene presents itself in my mind, I challenge it to go further. If it becomes two scenes, I will seek to join them up. This is how I create a story. Many don’t travel far enough and fall by the wayside, but some, five of them now, get as far as being published.

My historical book The Experiment, due to be published by Pegasus sometime this year, did require some planning as the story is quite long and I put a great deal of historical facts into it. I don’t generally have an editor, but my partner Ken, edits and proof reads my works, though I keep my stories on a tight reign so they don’t turn into waffle!!

Advice For Others

I’m not sure I would give advice to anyone wanting to write. I never took any myself. I think writing is a personal thing and your gut has to advise you. Further books …umm. I have some ideas knocking around in my head but I couldn’t tell you if they will ever amount to a story in completion. I think anyone who manages to work out KDP publishing is entitled to feel rather proud of their achievements. Seeing your book in print is a real moment for a smile, as for it being worth it? If you self-publish I think it is. If you are fool enough to go with a publisher, you are bound to feel regret, I do.

Find more from Zara Scott now:

A Sprinkle of Pepper

Kindle: https://amzn.to/41h3OSc

Paperback: https://amzn.to/4bnmBjt

The Trial of Hazaar Armeen

Kindle: https://amzn.to/45b2Bit

Paperback: https://amzn.to/3H8nkdH

Under Roman Skies

Kindle: https://amzn.to/45oYbTV

Paperback: https://amzn.to/45xPZ3T

Forgive Me

Kindle: https://amzn.to/46LFyMo

Paperback: https://amzn.to/4mANULu

The Experiment, to be released later this year by Pegasus publishers.