about zusana's work
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Whether writing in speculative, gothic or realist genres, I frequently come up with characters beset by covert or cumulative bad luck. These are people burdened by disadvantages of the sort that rarely stimulate compassion in others. The strokes against them are more likely to provoke irritation, distaste and maybe even a desire for abuse. Yet intrinsically there's nothing of the loser about these figures. Just as their suffering is hidden to much of the world, so too is their strength and guile, their wit and tenacious capacity for joy and finding worth in life.
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about zusana
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I've lived in five countries and well over forty homes of disparate sorts, these in all sizes of place, from remote countryside to vast capital cities. I've had nine careers to date (though career is an overly generous description of some of them), and I've been part of various social classes and cultures and numerous, diverse communities. The result of all that is that I'm profoundly un-tribal in outlook and have lots of stories to tell. Some of these tales are very nearly incredible.
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what I'm up to just now
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december 2025/january 2026
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Aside for looking for an agent and publisher for my debut novel Qhuarrance, I'm working on revised drafts of a second novel Willow Knoll, this dissecting a profoundly loving relationship stifled by pragmatism. Essentially a realist piece, a substantial part of the novel takes the form of an extended ecstatic vision arising from hopes willfully unfulfilled. I've found myself entranced by the lives of Willow Knoll's two protagonists, Jon and Madeline, and confess I'll miss them greatly when the time comes to move on.
Post Willow Knoll, my aim is to resume work on a third, modern gothic novel, Clavos Valley, which started off life a few years ago as a novella. It's a curious - and demanding - process to move from novella form to novel with the same story. There's reluctance to lose the succinct quality of the novella, an unwillingness to let the story relax into a bigger space. Also, with this book I know exactly where the tale is going, there's scarcely any surprise left, so I'm not giving myself many thrills. I think some sort of elation is essential when writing anything, but especially a long text like a novel.
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Some things don't change. Aside from way too many 'completed' short stories and flash-fiction pieces (and even a novella) sitting in storage devices, I confess to still having several unfinished shorties loafing on my desktop. Fortunately these tales remain happy to wait for handouts of occasional new paragraphs. They're joined in their patience by an embryonic novella-in-flash.
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