Diana Zimmerman, author of the Kandide fantasy series shares her thoughts on storytelling, magic and moving from Scholastic to DIY.
YaYaYa: How did you get started writing?
Diana: Writing has been both a passion and a form of relaxation for me all my life— starting when I was four years old with little stories. I learned to write and spell so I could jot them down. Okay, I still haven’t quite mastered spelling or punctuation, and the computer eventually took the place of my pencil and paper, but I can’t remember a time I didn’t write. As a young girl, my stories were mostly about magic and faeries. My bestselling fantasy-adventure “Kandide” novels, (www.kandide.com) still are. Around seven or eight, I began writing plays. My friends and I acted in them. I also wrote the scripts for my magic acts.
As an adult, when I realized someone would actually pay me to write, I was in heaven. I began writing sales and marketing materials for my clients, as well as TV commercials, magazine articles, and executive and TedX speeches. Two biographical novels, two business books, and three fiction novels later, I’m still writing.
YaYaYa: How does magic inform your writing?
Diana: The world is truly a magical place—sometimes good, sometimes bad, but always magical. We simply need to be open to unlocking it. The “art” of magic teaches us exactly that. It rewires our brain to think “Why?” instead of “Why not.” “I can,” instead of “I can’t.” It’s about believing everything is possible, even becoming best-selling author—and I have.
Gravity prohibits a person from floating in the air. But magicians have been floating people in the air since the beginning of time. Why? Because we don’t let what we think we know dissuade our ability to explore—to achieve the impossible. We find solutions outside the limits of possibility, beyond what others believe to be “true.” A really good writer does the same thing—she or he stretches the boundaries of our thinking and our imagination. Magic, as with writing, is also experiential. It transports us to places we cannot normally go. And great magic, like great writing, has an unexpected pay-off. It intrigues, but it also astounds.
Which is exactly what I try to do in virtually everything I write, be it an executive speech, TedX talk, magazine article, marketing communique, a business book, or my bestselling Kandide novels. They are all crafted to be experiential, to tell a story that evokes a sense of curiosity, of wonder. They inspire outside-the-box thinking by swerving my audiences toward an array of different perspectives.
YaYaYa: What is unique about writing for a YA audience?
Diana: Each demographic—YA, Middle Grade, Adult—requires a decidedly different approach. And yet each demographic also has many aspects in common—a great story. My business books are written for adults. My biographical novels are written for both YA and adults. And my “Kandide” fantasy adventure novels, while the story is extremely poignant, are written for Middle Grade—though we are aging them up for the TV series. But all have a captivating, dynamic story.
YA demands a more sophisticated “cool” factor than Middle Grade, as well more in-depth characters, story line, and a faster pace. It also requires a strong grounding in authenticity, especially if it is fantasy based. Today’s YA audiences are smart. They have a passion for stories that both educate and inspire, that have a relatable message and connect with real issues, all while being entertaining and engaging. This true for every genre—Fantasy, SciFi, Dystopian, Drama, Adventure, and Comedy.
Because of “Kandide’s” powerful and universal message of pro-social acceptance, its legions of fans bridge all three demographics. Approximately 45% of the novels’ readers are adults, and 30% are 18 to 24-year-old males. Though unusual due to the protagonist and antagonist both being female, the male fanbase does make sense: Kandide is an action-packed adventure with a highly relatable and overtly powerful subtext that rings true regardless of age, gender, or race.
YaYaYa: You do lots of things: magic, marketing consulting, writing, and are a passionate animal rights activist. How do you balance all that?
Diana: Each of these fulfills a different and important aspect of my life. Companies hire me to consult so that pays the bills. I founded the youth program at the Magic Castle, so that keeps me connected with teens and allows me to push the boundaries of my latest magical thinking. Writing is, and always has been, my passion. It fulfills my creative needs and allows me to explore, learn, and develop new ideas and theories. My soul is nourished through animal activism. Providing a voice for those who cannot speak for themselves is what really matters in life.
The combination of all these is what gives my life balance—what I love and what I enjoy. I don’t watch much television. I rarely spend time socializing—it’s just not my thing. My preference is to always be creating, learning, exploring, growing, pushing the boundaries, and conquering ever-more difficult goals.
Life is full of challenges. But winning requires unrelenting passion. It demands a strong belief and commitment to an ideal. It also requires the dogmatic persistence and dedication to make it happen. I love figuring out how to win. The bigger the challenge, the more excited I get.
YaYaYa: What things have made you a better writer?
Diana: That’s easy… Writing. Rewriting. Then rewriting, again, and again, and again, and again, and again. I also listen to my fans. They can be brutal. But almost always provide good insights. I have also been privileged to work with extraordinary mentors such as Ellen Stieber, Brooks Wachtel, Steven L. Sears and hopefully smart enough to listen to what they have to say.
YaYaYa: Do you have a writing routine?
Diana: Whenever I can. I don’t do well with regimented schedules. Writing is a creative process. For me, it needs to have a life of its own. So I enable that and write when I’m inspired. Which is most of the time.
YaYaYa: What do you consider your creative roots?
Diana: Poverty. Nothing inspires creativity more than figuring out how to survive. I grew up very poor. At five years old, my sister, my mother, my father, and I picked cotton in 118 degree weather to get money to buy food. As a kid, I also picked grapefruit and sold them door-to-door to pay for my magic tricks.
My entire life has been about finding creative ways to succeed. To creatively transform a “no” into a “yes.” Which is why I don’t waste time with people who are negative or who make excuses why they don’t succeed. And while creativity can certainly be inspired by negativity, it cannot flourish in a negative environment. The most important thing to success is to only allow positive people in your life.
I was bullied and laughed at when I said I would become “The world’s greatest lady magician.” I did. I was laughed at when I said I was going to create an innovative new approach to Marketing Communications. I did. I was told I could never become a highly successful Consultant because I don’t have a college degree. I am.
There are only 24 hours in a day. Spend them developing your passion, not destroying it… winning not whining. My passion is to always push the boundaries of creativity. I do.
YaYaYa: What do you read?
Diana: Everything—fiction, business, biographies. My preference is based on my mood and/or what I want to learn. Right now, I’m learning to write for television, so I’m reading a lot of pilot scripts, in every genre.
YaYaYa: What books would you recommend today? One old and one new. And why do you recommend them?
Diana: For enjoyment, my Kandide novels, for sure. They have a powerful message, and are extremely inspirational. My favorite fiction books are the Tolkien stories, as well as “Mists of Avalon.” Both are fantasy at its best. For personal development, there is no better book than Robert Ringer’s “Looking Out for Number One.” And for business “Ovitz” by Robert Slater. Though it is technically a biography, it is the best book ever written on business. These books are older, but I have yet to find any newer books that are better.
YaYaYa: What got you interested in fantasy?
Diana: My mother read stories about magic and faeries to me as an infant. Being poor, those worlds were a place for me to escape, to be a princess, to aspire to a have a magical life. And I do.
YaYaYa: What makes a good fantasy work?
Diana: Good is such a difficult word. It’s probably easier to say what makes a bad fantasy not work… The same things that make any story work or not work.
First and foremost, Fantasy must have a compelling, believable, and relatable story. Fantasy is rooted in magic, but without a story that is rooted in reality—that is compelling, relatable, and believable—it cannot work.
People relate to people. So even if the characters are Fae, as in my “Kandide” series, or animals or aliens, the issues they face must be relatable human issues. The characters must make us care deeply about them. And no matter how powerful they are, their magic must be credible and have limitations.
YaYaYa: Do you base your characters on people you know?
Diana: For the most part, yes. Kandide, the protagonist in the series, is based on a girl who bullied me as a child. Princess Tara, Kandide’s sister is more like me, and Prince Teren, their brother, is more like a prankster friend I know. Lady Aron, the antagonist in my Kandide series, is a complex composite of several people I have known throughout my professional and personal life.
YaYaYa: Were there any rules of fantasy fiction you wanted to challenge?
Diana: Rules can only successfully be broken or “challenged” if you truly understand the why they are rules. In Kandide, I wanted a protagonist that you actually hate for about half the book. In the TV series we are softening that, due to the medium.
I wanted the reader to really dislike her. To become angry that someone could be so vain, shallow, and callous. Kandide appears to have no redeeming qualities—unusual for a protagonist. I made her that way because, even though the books are set in a fantasy world, she is very real, very much like someone each of us has probably known.
Kandide gets her comeuppance and does change, but not completely. Part of her irresistible charm is her vanity. As a reader, we learn that it is her protective device, covering her insecurity. That never changes, though she does become more compassionate.
YaYaYa: What would you add and what would you take away from your writing life to make it better.
Diana: An additional four or five hours added to every 24 could really help. And I probably should have learned to type. I’ve written seven books and hundreds of speeches and articles—all typed with two fingers.
YaYaYa: What are your thoughts on self-publishing and on departing a major publishing house?
Diana: I am a massive believer in self-publishing. It no longer has the negative stigma it once had. And it enables everyone to publish a book. Unless you are a “name” or get very lucky, you likely won’t get a publisher. Even if you do, you will still need to do the promotion to sell your books. And probably make very little money. Which is why so many highly successful authors have begun self-publishing.
I self-published my first “Kandide” book. Because of its remarkable success, Scholastic picked it up. Being a Scholastic author does have a certain amount of prestige, but it is also has a downside—loss of control. Which is why my third Kandide book—also an Amazon.com bestseller for fantasy—is published through Braveship Books, a consortium of best-selling authors. We support each other, but we also maintain total control of our own properties. Braveship is, in my opinion, the best of all worlds.
You can find out more about Kandide at www.kandide.com
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