Stephen Zimmer, the Author of Prowling the Darkness

One of the reasons I love bookblogging is the opportunity to connect with the authors behind the words I am reading. I got the chance to review Prowling the Darkness in response to author, Stephen Zimmer’s call for reviews. It has been an amazing experience reading Rayden’s story and getting to know her. It just worked out perfectly that Stephen had some time during his booktour of Prowling the Darkness to pop by on Armed with A Book for an interview. 🙂

Stephen Zimmer is an award-winning author and filmmaker based out of Lexington Kentucky. The Rayden Valkyrie novels, of which Prowling the Darkness is a part, is one of his works, others including but not limited to, the Rising Dawn Saga, the Fires in Eden Series, and the forthcoming Faraway Saga. Stephen’s visual work includes the feature film Shadows Light, shorts films such as The Sirens and Swordbearer, and the forthcoming Rayden Valkyrie: Saga of a Lionheart TV Pilot. He is a proud Kentucky Colonel who also enjoys the realms of music, martial arts, good bourbons, and spending time with family.

My thoughts on the Prowling the Darkness can be found in this post. I believe every fan of Terry Goodkind should read it. The story follows the protagonist, Rayden, as she uncovers the secrets hidden in the city of Sereth-Naga. She is an assassin for hire, willing to kill for a fair price. Stephen paints a vivid picture of the city of Sereth-Naga and the beings who live there as well as the politics and rituals of the place. Let’s hear what he has to say about Rayden’s life and world.

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My curiosity about Prowling the Darkness

1. Rayden is one of my favorite female protagonists. Where did you get the idea for her character? Is there someone in your life that she is inspired by?
   Strangely enough, the idea of Rayden came to me when I was going through a really difficult time personally, about six years ago. I envisioned her as a defiant warrior who was still standing strong despite having gone through tremendous adversity all through her life. In many ways, she was an inspiration to me at that time, and in her own way helped me get through that difficult period. If she could help me, I knew she could help many readers, and I was driven to tell her story.
   The key thing about her is that despite all of the horrific things she has witnessed and tragedies that she has suffered, she still carries a code of honor, is compassionate, and has empathy. She has not lost her soul, in other words, though she carries very heavy inner burdens that surface often over the course of the stories.
2. Tell me more about the world Rayden lives in.
   Rayden’s world is a very diverse and exciting one that will be revealed in full over the course of these tales and the Ragnar Stormbringer Tales. The lands feature many that are inspired by historical cultures in our own world and some that are more original in nature.
   I strive to bring all of these cultures, whether historically-based or not, alive, as best I can. Each has its own history, religious beliefs, and much more, and the supernatural beings encountered in each land often are tied to a culture’s deities or beliefs.
   In comparison to our world, Rayden’s world has an ancient feel. It is more equivalent to the BC part of our history than it is anything medieval or higher. Within that ancient feel, there are characters and creatures that hearken back to an even more ancient time that I have not fully explored yet. These powerful remnants are a lot of fun to work with in writing a story. I do plan on exploring the earliest ages of her world, a time when beings like the Sharir-Mord were out in the open alongside a lot of other fearsome things.
3. Why did you choose panthers to be the powerful creatures prowling the darkness?
   I have always found panthers and similar big cats to be majestic and graceful, and I wanted to have a creature like this represented in the struggle with the Sharir-Mord. With their midnight-black fur, they meld into the night perfectly.
   I have also found something otherworldly when it comes to panthers, and cats in general. There is a very unique quality about them that is mysterious, and that element of mystery is a great aspect of the panther-like creatures found in Prowling the Darkness.
4. I learned from this book that Rayden travels a lot and is a bounty hunter. What made her this way (feel free to mention the book that will give me this background)? What secrets does she hide?
   I have not fully told the story of Rayden’s childhood yet, but I have made it clear that it was very tragic, and that she was eventually brought up by the Gessa tribe, who are far to the south of the lands where Rayden was born in (Rayden comes from the same realm as Ragnar Stormbringer).
   Ever since that tragedy, she has had a restlessness deep within her and a desire to find a true home, which has created a “wanderlust” of sorts that has seen her travel far and wide.
   She is an adventurer who has no sense of a tether to any one place (Though she has an affinity for the Gessa that took her and raised her). She goes where she is pulled, all the while keeping herself open to discover that call to a true home.
   Rayden’s story is ultimately the story of finding her way home.
5. What are some books that you would recommend to your readers who loved this novel?
   If readers loved this novel, I KNOW they would enjoy the Dark Sun Dawn Trilogy, which also features Rayden Valkyrie and begins with Heart of a Lion, continues with Thunder Horizon, and ends with the upcoming When Shadows Fall.
   Currently, there are four other stand-alone Rayden novellas, Winds of War, The Sun’s Caress, Blood of a Queen (which has a connection to Prowling the Darkness), and Across Desert Plains. 
   There are also the Ragnar Stormbringer Tales, now up to four titles, which are stand-alone novellas set in the same world. Ragnar is a distinctly different character than Rayden, but I think Rayden readers would still enjoy him a lot.  (titles are Depths of Night, When the Cold Breathes, Tears in the Snow, and Altar of Gods). 
6. You recently released a video about Rayden’s adventures on YouTube. What is it like to see your characters become real people on the screen?
   It is a surreal experience seeing your literary characters on screen.  The Rayden Valkyrie: Saga of a Lionheart TV Pilot is an independently produced proof-of-concept project that we did to demonstrate the concept for a full television series.  It features both Rayden Valkyrie and Ragnar Stormbringer, along with an ensemble cast that, for the most part, have not appeared in any of the books yet (except for Markos, who appears in the Winds of War novella). 
   I find myself very interested to hear from readers who watch the show, in regard to their thoughts on whether the Rayden and Ragnar they see on screen matches up well with the ones in the books. 
   Ultimately, books and movies are two entirely different things and need to be enjoyed on their own merits, and I do take that approach when it comes to my Rayden Valkyrie world and the differences that may exist between what’s in my head and what is on screen. 
7. Where will Rayden’s adventures take her next?
   Rayden’s adventures will take her all over her world, very literally.  The novellas will be filling gaps while novels will tell broader parts of her story.  Eventually, I would like to see all of the novels, novellas, and any short stories line up in a continuum that tells Rayden’s life story. 
   In the near future, expect another novella by the holiday season, following the release of When Shadows Fall, and next year I will embark on a new duology that I have sketched out, which is going to be a real thrill ride!

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My curiosity about Stephen Zimmer’s writing routine and more

1. What inspired you to become a writer?
   I have always been drawn to storytelling, but it was my mother reading me the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit at the age of 7, followed soon after by a gift of the Chronicles of Narnia novels, that really set me in motion with a passion for genre-fiction. It took until late high school before I began to think that writing was something I could become serious about, in terms of having a career as an author.
2. How do you select the names of your characters? Are they just names that appeal to you, did you look them up for a special meaning?
   I am a little of both.
   Sometimes the names do have meaning, where I combine words from other languages to give a subtle hint to the nature of a kind of creature or character, while at other times I find something that resonates with the character I have in mind, when spoken aloud.
   I do try to make sure I don’t have things clashing in terms of having several character names sounding alike, as that can be somewhat confusing for some readers.
3. Are there any books that you would say influenced and shaped you as a writer?
   There are so many that I would cite as influential to me as a writer and storyteller. As a child, the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. As I got older, authors like Roger Zelazny, Clive Barker, Glen Cook, Guy Gavriel Kay, Robert E. Howard, Terry Goodkind, R.A. Salvatore, George R.R. Martin, David Gemmell, and many others had big impacts on me, each for their own reasons.
   Lately, I have come to love the works of Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist, The Valkyries, etc). I am reading a Paulo Coelho novel right now in fact, The Devil and Miss Prym.
4. What would you tell your younger self when it comes to writing?

I would tell my younger self to keep my focus on my writing and not to become frustrated with the state of the industry. The book business can be a real soul crusher for a writer, with all of the pirating, people expecting an artist’s work for free or next to nothing, all of the advertising “secrets” and algorithm tricks that some know how to manipulate to drives sales, and everything else that ultimately has nothing to do with whether the writing is quality or not.

Those things can be really dismaying for writers that put their heart into their writing and push themselves to develop their craft, and I would warn my young self to brace for dealing with those kinds of frustrations.

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So here was a sneak peak into Rayden’s world as well as Stephen’s. Hope you enjoyed it!

Prowling the Darkness is now available in stores. My thoughts on it can be found here.  🙂
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Cover image: Photo by Willian West on Unsplash