Welcome to the 2024 ARIA Author Showcase and Giveaway Event! 

  

  

How to enter – Comment on the daily showcases to enter the daily giveaway. Comments close four days after the initial Showcase post. GRAND PRIZE drawn on Dec 5th (1 -$250, 1 -$100, or a 1 -$50 Amazon gift card. One grand prize pp) – For every showcase you post on, you automatically gain one entry to the grand prize. 30 Authors = 30 entries.    

Rowena Zahnrei will be at the Rhode Island Author Expo.

On to the Showcase! 

 

What name do you like to write under? Rowena Zahnrei

Where do you call home? Rhode Island

What genre(s) do you write? graphic novels, middle grade and YA fiction, informational fiction, fantasy, science fiction, biography

What genre(s) were you drawn to when you were younger? Was there a reason that genre(s) appealed to you the most? 

I'd have to say science fiction and fantasy and the kind of humor that involves clever wordplay. When I was little, I read through nearly my entire school library and the local library (skipping the kissing books and darker stuff) and by high school I was obsessed with authors like Isaac Asimov, Diana Wynne Jones, P.G. Wodehouse, and C.S. Forester. I enjoy the possibilities inherent in stories of multiple worlds and, being autistic, I identified very strongly with Asimov's Positronic Man, Andrew Martin. Also Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation and Nightcrawler from the X-Men because they tried to understand others' point of view. I think that's what I was trying to do, reading my way through the library back then. It's what I'm still trying to do with my stories.

What were some of your favorite books growing up? Why?  

The Count of Monte Cristo, The Little Prince, The Positronic Man, The Phantom Tollbooth, Charmed Life, A Tale of Time City, Flatland, Tom's Midnight Garden, Maniac Magee, Foundation, The Last Unicorn, Flight of Dragons, The Code of the Woosters, The Horatio Hornblower series, The Great Brain series, Sherlock Holmes, Nate the Great, The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Five Children and It, My Teacher is an Alien series, Sideways Stories from Wayside School series, The Twenty-One Balloons, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series, The Goosebumps series, The Cat Who Wished to Be A Man, Hatchet, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Mouse that Roared, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler, The Sneeches and Other Stories, Basil of Baker Street, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, The Oz series, Matilda, The Indian in the Cupboard series, Wind in the Willows, Bunk Mates, The Lampfish of Twill, Afternoon of the Elves, Stonewords, Something Upstairs, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Miss Nelson is Missing, The Whingdingdilly, Vampires Don't Wear Polka Dots, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, The Wish Giver, The Witch at the Window and many, many, many, many more because they all stuck in my head, influenced my imagination, and never, ever left.

What are some of your favorite books today?

See above, plus Gankutsuou, I, Claudius and Claudius the God, Simplicissimus, Kingdom Come, Justice, Identity Crisis, Far From the Madding Crowd, Harpo Speaks, Emma, Jane Eyre, The Million Pound Bank Note, The Lives of Christopher Chant, Conrad's Fate, Archer's Goon, The Dalemark Quartet, The Green Futures of Tycho, Singularity, Flight, Feed, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds, the Cadfael series, I Want To Eat Your Pancreas, Tuesday, The Three Pigs, The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, Flatterland, Tamsin, Q-Squared, Doctor Faustus, The Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok, Dove Isabeau, and so many more!

What inspired you to become a writer? 

I've been making up my own stories since before I could write and I've kept creating and working on my stories and characters ever since. I've tried a few other things but it's too much of a compulsion: I can't not write.

 

The Adventures of Nicki and Ricky Series

Nicki likes to speculate. Ricky would rather investigate. These sibling sleuths may not share the same attitude but, together, they seek to solve nature's mysteries with curiosity, a magnifying glass, and the scientific method!

Tell us a little about how the “Adventures of Nicki and Ricky” series came to be. Did it start with an image, a voice, a concept, a dilemma or something else? 

A long time ago, by a beach not too far away, a very young me stalked the back trails of Goddard Park, searching for Smurfs, dinosaur tracks, interesting shells, and whatever else I could find. With me trekked two stalwart (and slightly sandy) stuffed companions: a blue bear named Nikki and a raccoon called Raccy. Each wore a vest, hand-scissored from finest felt. And on each vest was glued an initial: N for Nikki; R for Raccy. Together, we hiked behind my dad, a biology teacher and naturalist, checking my plastic Smurf House decoy for signs of smurfy activity and listening as Dad identified each tree and wildflower along the trail. Some years later, after Nikki, Raccy, and the Smurf House had been cleaned and placed, with honor, on my Shelf of Special Things, I sat at my computer to write of our adventures. But the story didn’t get anywhere. The time was not yet right. Something was missing. Sarah. Across the internet, I showed her Nikki and Raccy, still resplendent in slightly-smudged felt. I shared my woefully undeveloped story. And Sarah suggested: “We should make them kids.” On went the light bulb. Inspiration sparked! In less than three hours, I’d drafted a script – a Nicki and Ricky adventure drawn from one of the strangest beach-side discoveries my dad and I ever made. The Mystery of the Shell Tree! 

 

 The Adventures of Nicki and Ricky: Baffling Birds! was inspired by real adventures I had with my dad, a science teacher and naturalist, on the nature trails of Rhode Island. When my friend Sarah and I decided to stretch our skills and collaborate on a graphic novel experiment, we chose to develop those adventures into nature mysteries for our sibling sleuths, Nicki and Ricky, to solve. We've been continuing to grow the experiment ever since, from developing the ideas to creating the comics to crowdfunding the books. Our Nicki and Ricky graphic novels have taken us to San Diego Comic-Con and beyond!

Which scene, character or plotline changed the most from first draft to published book? 

Nicki and Ricky were inspired by two of my stuffed toys: a blue bear (Nikki) and a raccoon (Raccy). I used to sometimes bring them along on nature hikes. As Sarah and I developed the story, we decided to make them kids instead: sibling sleuths Nicki and Ricky! (Nicki and Ricky still wear Nikki and Raccy's favorite colors).

Which character was the most challenging to create. Why? 

In The Hummingbird Conundrum there's a little dog who causes a great deal of mischief. We had a fun time figuring out his (mostly illustrated) subplot and connecting it to the story without distracting or detracting from our detectives and their mystery.

What do you like best about being a writer? 

I needed books so much when I was younger, so it's related to that. The best part about being a writer is creating the characters I felt were missing back then, in hopes my ink and paper friends will always be there for someone else. If they help even one person, just a little bit, then my books were brilliantly successful.

If you could collaborate with any author past or present, who would it be? What would the title of the book be? (If possible) - Give us a one sentence blurb.  

Diana Wynne Jones: she is one of my all-time favorite writing idols because of the way she could introduce the worlds inside and outside a character with brevity, wit, and depth. The title of the book would be The Stairway, and it would be the first of a quartet.

 

You can follow Rowena Zahnrei here - 

Website - www.rowenazahnrei.com 

 

Rowena Zahnrei is giving away a signed hardcover copy of her graphic novel trilogy, The Adventures of Nicki and Ricky: Baffling Birds!

 

To enter, comment below →  Growing up, was there a book that offered a more insightful and authentic portrayal of the world in a way textbooks just couldn't?

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