PrachestaPrachesta
  • Home
  • Business
    • Management
    • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Cars
    • Yoga
    • Self-care
    • Home & Interior
  • Technology
    • SEO
  • Entertainment
    • Books
    • Interviews
    • Movie
  • Best
  • About
    • Our Authors
    • Contact
What's Trending

Interview with Author Julie Canfield

March 27, 2019

Why Business Communication Is Essential For Your Business

June 4, 2021

Is Working from home benefits also a employer?

November 27, 2021
Facebook
Prachesta Prachesta
  • Home
  • Business
    1. Management
    2. Leadership
    3. View All

    How to be a better manager? 10 ways to become a better manager

    June 3, 2021

    Why is leadership development important for every successful manager?

    March 22, 2017

    Best Leadership Books for Managers

    March 23, 2022

    How to be a better manager? 10 ways to become a better manager

    June 3, 2021

    Best Leadership Books for Managers

    March 23, 2022

    Must Have Technologies for A Startup to Succeed

    December 18, 2021

    Why Business Communication Is Essential For Your Business

    June 4, 2021

    How to be a better manager? 10 ways to become a better manager

    June 3, 2021
  • Lifestyle
    1. Food
    2. Cars
    3. Yoga
    4. Self-care
    5. Home & Interior
    6. View All

    What are the healthiest flour for weight loss?

    November 27, 2021

    7 Types of Healthy Morning Drinks for Weight Loss

    January 11, 2021

    Polestar 2 HighTech Car Review 2022

    December 29, 2021

    2022 Hyundai Kona Electric SUV Car Review

    December 29, 2021

    What is Yoga? Benefits of Yoga for mental and physical well being

    November 27, 2021

    What are the benefits of Yoga? 5 best books with Yoga Advice

    January 12, 2018

    The 10 Best Ways To Reduce Your Stress

    December 22, 2021

    How to balance your priorities in life? Advice for Better Life

    December 22, 2021

    What is Yoga? Benefits of Yoga for mental and physical well being

    November 27, 2021

    How to Motivate Yourself at Work | Free Motivational Advice

    January 15, 2021

    10 Best Curtains For Living Room

    April 8, 2022

    Top 10 Budget Decor Items for your Home

    April 8, 2022

    10 Best Furniture For Your Office

    April 8, 2022

    10 best Furniture for your home

    April 7, 2022

    10 Best Curtains For Living Room

    April 8, 2022

    Top 10 Budget Decor Items for your Home

    April 8, 2022

    10 Best Furniture For Your Office

    April 8, 2022

    10 best Furniture for your home

    April 7, 2022
  • Technology
    1. SEO
    2. View All

    What is seo link building? 4 Steps to a Successful Link Building Campaign

    December 6, 2021

    What is SEO and how does it work?

    November 27, 2021

    Why SEO is Important for digital growth of a business?

    February 11, 2021

    Is SEO a good career choice in 2022?

    January 17, 2021

    10 Best Twitter Marketing Tools To Promote Your Brand

    April 9, 2022

    How To Identify a Target Audience

    March 9, 2022

    Troubleshoot Windows: How to factory reset Windows 10 PC?

    January 19, 2022

    Best Free Antivirus Software for Windows and Mac in 2022

    January 18, 2022
  • Entertainment
    1. Books
    2. Interviews
    3. Movie
    4. View All

    Review: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People By Dr. Stephen Covey

    March 24, 2022

    Review: Moments Like This by Anna Gomez and Kristoffer Polaha

    March 16, 2022

    Review: Summer of Love and Evil By Michael Kinnamon

    March 16, 2022

    Review: Misty Dreams By Josephine Strand

    March 16, 2022

    Interview with Author Mark Zvonkovic

    June 22, 2022

    An Interview with author Julie Gianelloni Connor

    May 7, 2022

    An Interview with author Jennifer Brozek

    May 3, 2022

    Meet Dr. David Schein: What’s his advice for aspiring writers?

    April 26, 2022

    Love Hard 2021 – Movie Review

    December 21, 2021

    The 15 best books of all time that have been made into films

    December 2, 2021

    Review: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People By Dr. Stephen Covey

    March 24, 2022

    Review: Moments Like This by Anna Gomez and Kristoffer Polaha

    March 16, 2022

    Review: Summer of Love and Evil By Michael Kinnamon

    March 16, 2022

    Review: Misty Dreams By Josephine Strand

    March 16, 2022
  • Best

    Best All in One PC 2022

    February 17, 2022

    Best Wireless Routers in 2022

    December 30, 2021

    The Best Desktop Computers for 2022

    December 30, 2021

    Best synthetic winch ropes in 2022 – Reviews & Buying Guide

    December 30, 2021

    The Best Digital Cameras for 2022

    December 29, 2021
  • About
    • Our Authors
    • Contact
PrachestaPrachesta
You are at:Home»Interviews»Interview with Author Mark Zvonkovic
Interviews

Interview with Author Mark Zvonkovic

By Piaus PaulJune 22, 2022Updated:July 1, 2022No Comments8 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Email
Mark Zvonkovic
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

Mark Zvonkovic is a writer who lives in Rosarito Beach, Baja California Mexico with his wife Nancy and their two dogs. Finn and Cooper. He has written three novels, and he also writes book reviews and essays that appear in online publications. Before retiring to Mexico, Mark practiced law for thirty-five years at three multinational law firms in Houston, Texas and New York City. He attended college at Southern Methodist University and Boston University, and his law degree is from SMU School of Law. Mark grew up as an oil company brat and lived in Latin America, Texas and New York.

Contents hide
Mark Zvonkovic! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
How many hours a day do you write?
How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?
How long on average does it take you to write a book?
Where did you get the idea for your recent book?
How did you develop your plots?
How do you select the names of your characters?
If you didn’t write, what would you do for work?
How did you get inspired to write your recent book?
What is your favorite childhood book?
Have you read anything that made you think differently about fiction?
What are you currently working on?
Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?
What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer?
What’s your advice for aspiring writers?
What was the best money you ever spent as a writer?
What’s the best thing about being a writer?
Will you have a new book coming out soon?
What are your preferred method to have readers get in touch with or follow you (i.e., website, personal blog, Facebook page, Goodreads, etc.) and link(s)?

Here is an interview with Mark Zvonkovic

Mark Zvonkovic! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I live in Rosarito Beach, Baja California, Mexico, with my wife Nancy and our two dogs, Finn and Cooper. We have three adult daughters, who live in New York City and Petaluma, CA. I have written three novels, and I also write book reviews and essays that appear in online publications. Before retiring to Mexico, I practiced law for 35 years at three multinational law firms in Houston, Texas, and New York City. I attended college at Southern Methodist University and Boston University, and my law degree is from SMU School of Law. I grew up as an oil company brat and lived in Latin America, Texas, and New York.

How many hours a day do you write?

Between 2 and 6.

How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?

A couple and they’ve been in a desk drawer for a long time.

How long on average does it take you to write a book?

Belinda took about 3 years. A Lion In The Grass also took 3 years. But The Narrows I could say took almost 30 years of stopping and starting. I had a law career all that time and sometimes I would get up at five in the morning and work for a few hours. Of course, the real work came near the end of my career when I rewrote most of what I had written earlier.

Where did you get the idea for your recent book?

During my years of practicing law at a big law firm, I had the good fortune to mentor several women associates. It made a tremendous impression on me that these women in a professional setting always had to overcome the fact that the prevailing ethos around them was so male-slanted. It wasn’t the blatant misogynistic attitudes, like the ones displayed so prominently in my novel by the antagonist, Patrick Brashner. The more difficult obstacles grew out of subtle attitudes and proclivities of many men, which often made the women feel as if their bodies were being evaluated as much as their brains, if not more. And for me, this is what Belinda is about, how dedicated this woman was to her profession and how elegantly she managed to make herself a success despite the male ethos she encountered daily. It’s a story that needed to be told about a woman’s career in a big law firm.

How did you develop your plots?

I have a general sense of what is going to happen. Some writers create their characters to fit a plot. I do the opposite. I create the plot to fit my characters. My novels are character-centric. As I develop my protagonists, I devise a plot around them to make the observations about their lives that I want to make.

How do you select the names of your characters?

It depends on the character. Sometimes I find a name I like from another novel. For example, the name of Jay’s horse in Belinda is Patsy, who was a character in Larry McMurtry’s Moving On. Mostly, I just choose names based on how they sound. I always avoid using the name of someone I know. And, in fact, none of my characters resemble anyone I know. If anything, they are each a conglomeration of many people I have met or I have read about in books.

If you didn’t write, what would you do for work?

I’m retired and not inclined to go back to practicing law or starting a new profession. I love photography.

How did you get inspired to write your recent book?

I had written an earlier novel in which Jay Jackson was a character, and I had wondered for a time how it would work when he retired from his rather unusual profession. But it really was the concept of mandatory retirement that got me thinking about how difficult it would be for a woman who dedicated her life to the law to pass on to a new stage of life when she wasn’t really inclined to do so. Lyn Larkin in Belinda is such a woman.

What is your favorite childhood book?

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.

Have you read anything that made you think differently about fiction?

Every book I read makes me think about how fiction works. So, I try to read a lot of different genres and books from different historical periods. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man had a tremendous effect on me and still does. The novels of Kingsley Amis taught me a lot about voice in character development, and Hemingway’s novels exposed me to writing style and straightforward prose. Every book I read enhances my understanding of many books I’ve already read.

Read: How to Make Money Online Quick with a Niche Blog?

What are you currently working on?

Right now, I’m spending most of my time on the launch of Belinda. But I have been thinking lately about a character from one of my earlier novels, Larry Brown, who was a young man who dealt with the difficult circumstance in the early 1970s in The Narrows. A lot has happened in the world since those years. Perhaps it would be interesting to see how Larry has made his way to the present day.

Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?

Yes, I do. I’m not sure there are any bad book reviews (if you eliminate ones that are poorly written). Every reader provides me with a reaction to my book that I welcome, whether or not that reaction is negative. So, I’m happy that some of my readers are sharing their reactions. I write reviews of books myself, which I publish in online magazines (such as Midwest Book Review) and on my website.

Professional book reviewers are sometimes troublesome when they direct their feelings about a character in a book personally to the author. An author creates characters and uses points of view to develop them. An author is not personally a character. A reviewer’s personal attack on an author cheapens the review, in my opinion, and makes it more about the reviewer than about the book. But that’s all part of the process and I don’t take it personally. Rather, I try to recast the criticism as it should be. An awfully bigoted character in a novel doesn’t mean the author is a bigot. When I am reviewing, I try very hard to direct my criticism to the context of the novel, and I never personally attack the author.

In any case, even a personal attack from a reviewer for me is better than no comment at all.

What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer?

I have developed friendships with several authors over the years on account of reviews I have written about their books. It makes reading their novels more personal, and the connection with them, and their books, always makes my own writing improve. Good writers are good readers.

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Sit down and spend a lot of time thinking before you start writing. And spend a lot of time reading other works written about the idea you are going to develop. And, finally, find a good professional editor. One doesn’t run a race without training and a coach.

What was the best money you ever spent as a writer?

On a professional editor.

What’s the best thing about being a writer?

What I most love about writing is creating characters, and putting them into circumstances that result in their gaining perspective about life. It is a way of collating all of my experiences and all of the stories from books I have read. Sometimes it strikes me as enjoying old photographs and sharing them with others.

The reactions from readers, whether good or bad, keep me going. For me, it’s making connections with a lot of different people.

Will you have a new book coming out soon?

Belinda will be released on June 14, 2022.

What are your preferred method to have readers get in touch with or follow you (i.e., website, personal blog, Facebook page, Goodreads, etc.) and link(s)?

I have a website at www.markzvonkovic.com where one can contact me or sign up for a newsletter I occasionally send out. I have an author page on Goodreads and an author page on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/MarkZvonkovicAuthor
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7664041.Mark_Zvonkovic

There people can follow me and also see when I have book reviews or essays published online.

Write a Comment
Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Email
Previous ArticleAn Interview with author Julie Gianelloni Connor
Piaus Paul
  • Website

Piaus Paul is an editor in Prachesta

Related Posts

An Interview with author Julie Gianelloni Connor

May 7, 2022

An Interview with author Jennifer Brozek

May 3, 2022

Meet Dr. David Schein: What’s his advice for aspiring writers?

April 26, 2022

Interview with author Chris Denmead

April 23, 2022

Comments are closed.

Select By Topic
  • Best Products (5)
    • Camera (1)
  • Business (5)
    • Leadership (2)
  • Car Lease (1)
  • Cars Reviews (2)
  • Education (1)
  • Entertainment (18)
    • Books (18)
  • Food (2)
  • Human Resource (1)
  • Interviews (63)
  • Lifestyle (13)
    • Home & Interior (5)
    • Self-care (7)
  • Management (2)
  • Movie (2)
  • Others (6)
  • SEO (4)
  • Technology (9)
    • Antivirus (1)
    • How To (3)
    • Social Media (1)
  • Website Development (2)
  • Yoga (2)
Latest Posts

Interview with Author Mark Zvonkovic

June 22, 2022

An Interview with author Julie Gianelloni Connor

May 7, 2022

An Interview with author Jennifer Brozek

May 3, 2022

No Money Down Lease : Best Car Lease Deals – Zero to $99

May 2, 2022

10 Best Gaming Keyboard

April 27, 2022

Prachesta is a magazine that creates useful content on current trends such as fashion, entertainment, business, and technology. Prachesta team make every effort to give the most up-to-date information and reliable resources.

Our Featured Books
Sign Up for Email Updates
Sign up below to get the latest from Prachesta, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!

Loading
Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest LinkedIn YouTube
  • Home
  • Terms Of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclosure
  • DMCA Policy
  • Write for US
  • Submit a Book for Review
  • Contact

Copyright © 2022 Prachesta.com. All rights reserved.
Prachesta is an initiative of Technosmith Limited and any content or trademark of Prachesta.com may not be used by third parties without explicit permission. The display of third-party trademarks and trade names on this site does not necessarily indicate any affiliation or the endorsement of Prachesta.com.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linked In
  • Write For Us
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Ok