Hello! As a three-time SPFBO contestant, I’m doing interviews and spotlights with fellow entrants in the 9nth annual Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off. Today, we have author and artist, Daniel Maidman, with us, and his SPFBO9 entry …
The Exile of Zanzibar
Claire built a device to fold space and time.
It had a flaw…
When the smoke clears, she finds herself halfway across the world, thousands of years in the past, and no device in sight.
In bronze-age Florence, war has lasted for generations. All Claire wants to do is get home, but she’ll need help from the locals. She wins an ally in Marcus Diophantus, a pickpocket turned soldier turned general, who hopes to turn into something more than just her champion. Together, they broker peace between Florence and its enemy.
If Marcus is going to help Claire, he’ll have to survive. Peace has upset the balance of power in the capital city. The king stands increasingly alone against: the Constantines, a commercial enterprise as much as a clan, who aim to profit from peace as they have from war – the warrior nobles, descended from the founders of Florence and quick to turn against a weak throne – and Reburrus, the high priest of Florence, convinced Claire answers to hostile foreign gods. As the city comes to a boil, Claire and Marcus – and Marcus’s formidable army – will have to decide where their allegiance lies.
Claire becomes a reluctant participant in a savage campaign. While Marcus leads the battles, she tries to gain control of the unimaginably powerful Ctesiphôn – a ghost tower in the heart of Florence, shrouded in magic and myth.
Now with that unique premise and glorious cover …
Onto the Questions!
As a Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO) Entrant, you’re not just independently published, but self-published. Can you start by explaining a bit about why you chose that route and how it’s been for you?
It’s not a heroic story; I tried very hard to get traditionally published, but not a single agent or publisher was interested. Eventually I got the message. But I still believed in my book. So I began to wrestle with the mechanics of self-publishing, and found that it was a thriving field. At the last minute, a small publisher did offer to publish the book. That didn’t work out, but it gave me that institutional validation that I emotionally required. From there, I was ready to pull the trigger on self-publishing, and I am so glad I did. It’s been a complex challenge but very rewarding. Making a physical book has been rewarding, and seeing my book starting to connect with the readership which I was absolutely certain was always out there, has been even more rewarding.
LOL, most of the time it isn’t a heroic stories! But it’s these stories that help us understand each other – and, oh my goodness, making a physical book is soo rewarding!
So … why did you enter the SPFBO contest? How do you expect to find it? Refreshing your blog’s page every five minutes, or sit back and chill?
The contest just looked really cool: there was Mark Lawrence’s original act of creativity and generosity, and the dedication of the bloggers, and the enthusiasm of participants and readers. I’m trying to find my way in the fantasy community, and it seemed like an ideal venue to present the book. Of course now I have to deal with the anxiety of the next few months – once I figure out who my reviewer is, I will no doubt obsessively track their blog or youtube. But hopefully I’ll be able to chill out about that after a couple of weeks. The people I’ve met, the community structures I’ve encountered, and the attention I’ve gotten, have already more than justified entering the competition. Anything beyond that is icing.
Yes! SPFBO is a lot of what helped me find my way too, that first time. Despite my book being cut very early! So now you have the cake. 😀
Book titles. How did you pick on the title you chose?
I have been through so many titles for this book! It was originally called Florence and Genova, then when I had to break the manuscript in half it was Florence, and later it was The Patricia in the Gold Palanquin. That’s still my favorite, but it was pointed out that it’s long and doesn’t make sense or have action. So I brainstormed titles with a friend of mine who is an expert-level fantasy reader and prominent in the fandom, and she came up with The Exile of Zanzibar, and I liked it plenty, so that’s what it became.
The Patricia in the Gold Palanquin is intriguing, though! I can see why you like it … I think The Exile of Zanzibar meshes vibes with your cover art really well!
I won’t ask for your favourite scene since I know some people don’t have those (like me; I never have favourites), but can you share a (non-spoiler) scene you really like and you just can’t believe how awesome it is every time you go back to re-read it?
Let me phrase it like this: there is a location in the book which is extraordinarily difficult to access and the characters spend a great deal of time trying to get into it. Eventually one of them does, and the interior of the location is the most dream-like, trippy material in the book. I absolutely loved every page of that, and with great reluctance had to trim some because I went on and on about it, beyond what the plot really needed.
Ooh! I can relate to the going on and on! Trippy can be cool!
What are some elements or themes, or combinations thereof, that really make your book stand out to you?
I have been working on this thing for such a long time that the material became layered and it is only the earliest and latest threads that I am even really aware of any longer. I based a lot of the visual feel of the book on baroque paintings of classical mythology, and that sense of overflowing beauty, of figures and billowing drapery against opalescent afternoon skies, remains in the book (I think), and I really love that.
In terms of theme, something that emerged in the writing was the different relationships the characters have with the concept of honor. They live in an honor-driven society, and good or bad, they all wish to be honorable, as they conceive it. The effect of a pursuit of honor on each character is different. Moreover, they also struggle with the concept of freedom. Freedom is not presented as acting in opposition to honor, but the core characters each form their own unique syntheses of the two virtues. By the time I finished the book, this theme was quite conscious, and I was pleased with how it turned out.
Ooh, philosophical and ethical themes! I like that 😀 Honor and freedom, through different conceptions … nice.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with us here?
I’d like to address anyone out there who is also writing. I want you to know – well, first of all, buy my book. Super duper important. Buy my book. But second thing: this took a long time to write. I wrote the first word in 2005 and the last one in 2023. That was not how long it took me to write the book, but how long it took to write the book and also to learn how to write a book. I wrote eight major drafts – each one divided into four or five sub-draft-scale revisions. It takes an enormous amount of effort, patience, and pride-swallowing to complete a novel that is readable to strangers. That’s not necessarily a goal of all writing, but if it’s a goal of your writing, you have to go in understanding that this titanic and long-term effort is a likely cost. If this is truly your calling, it won’t be so terrible a burden. But definitely be realistic about what it will take, and never stop working hard and questioning what you’ve written and trying to find a way to make it better. Identify the kind of reader you want and when you find one, take their criticism seriously. In the end, your book won’t have you around to defend it. It has to stand on its own. Do everything you can to help it to do that.
Thank you for sharing that. I think the last part is critical, and I can’t emphasize it enough.
Daniel Maidman is an author and artist. His art is included in the permanent collections of the Library of Congress Department of Prints and Drawings and a number of American art museums. His art and writing on art have been featured in The Huffington Post, ARTnews, Forbes, W, and many others.
The Exile of Zanzibar is his first novel.
You can find Daniel Maidman on his Website (mostly just his art, right now), Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
And you can check out his debut novel and SPFBO9 entry, The Exile of Zanzibar, on Goodreads, and get it from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
Enthralled By Love 