Heba Hamzeh Interview Published on: 30, Mar 2022

I am from and was born in Beirut, Lebanon. Although I have lived in Hertfordshire and London, United Kingdom, since I was about 1 years of age.

I am pursuing my passion and writing novellas, novels, books and poetry. Right now I am focused on The Prince Zaaki Series of books. As for sacrifices, yes of course I have made sacrifices as I believe in going after your dreams and not looking back. I want to show my children that you should always work towards your dreams in life and have no regrets. Everything and anything is possible if you work hard and keep going and sometimes you have to make sacrifices to keep your dreams in reach.

I love to write at night because the phone doesn’t ring and no one disturbs my train of thought.

Learning the process of publishing has been very interesting from the editing, illustrations, book layout and then print. It is surprisingly exciting to be involved in the process although it can take quite long from when I write the book to being published.

I have just finished the third book and I have already planned book 4 of The Prince Zaaki Series. I am not going to put a number on how many books will be in the series as I do not know where every plot I dream up takes me and leads me but I definitely am still enjoying creating and developing the characters, locations and plots in The Prince Zaaki Series.

Prince Zaaki is a young man about to finish his teenage years and enter into adulthood. But in addition to this, he is heir to the throne and will be King one day thus he has been groomed to take his father’s place. Prince Zaaki has a kind heart and cares about his Kingdom and the people of his Kingdom. Throughout the books, it will become more evident, Prince Zaaki’s courage, strength and wisdom to protect his people from danger and evil. As for Hollywood actor that most resembles Prince Zaaki, I am not sure. My children were my inspiration and so the three main characters, Prince Zaaki, Goddess Lulu and Goddess Ella are based on them. I do know that whilst I was writing about the Leader of the Sizzlites, Goldy, I imagined Lady Gaga for that bold, courageous leader. She popped into my head as I created Goldy and remained there ever since.

For me, I always want to instil some kind of wisdom within my leading characters so that children and teenagers learn from it. For example within my books there’s parts about unity and being united, respect, courage, compassion, being truthful, using your strength in a positive way and much more. I also try to make the plots relevant to what’s happening around the world so children, teenagers and adults can relate to it.

All of it was fun to write so I cannot pick a favourite but I suppose the hardest scene to capture fully with words was probably the fighting scene. Actually, there’s quite a few throughout the books. I had to research weapons and duels for that. But I loved writing all of it and I am excited to start writing the fourth book very soon.

absolutely loved it. My son’s name is Zaaki and so it feels great.

I would probably call my books novellas and not novels because they are under 50,000 or thereabouts. I wanted to make my books big enough to keep teenagers entertained but not too big that they feel like it takes too long to finish the books. I think children and teenagers are so busy with school and activities that their time is full. I am speaking from raising three children, my kids were and are always busy with netball, football, table tennis, American football, etc… and it was during the weekends which meant weekday evenings were jam packed with a lot of homework. For my children and I, holidays and bedtime were the perfect opportunities to read together and that’s where Prince Zaaki was created and began.

I try to keep a balance of both.

I have never been fed up of writing but I have had moments, hours, days even weeks where I have writer’s block and everything I write goes in the bin or even worse I don’t write. I sit and stare at the empty word document on my computer screen. It stares back at me and it’s quite daunting. Sometimes I will go for a run or a swim to clear my mind and then attempt to write again.

The hardest part for me is the opening chapter, once I have that down, the rest of the book flows and I can easily finish the first draft in a couple of weeks. It takes a lot of focus and determination and reading positive affirmations helps as well as talking to my children, which really motivates me to write.

My writing has come from a love of reading when I was younger and so it was from books not really websites or magazines.

I am so happy to announce that the third book in The Prince Zaaki Series will come out later this year, in 2022 and I am very excited to share it with all of you.

I am enjoying AllAuthor and the products available on it are great.