My first encounter with Zahra Owens’ writing was when we were anthology mates in Necking. I enjoyed her raunchy story, along with the others she wrote for the Dreamspinner anthologies Sindustry and Sindustry 2. I remember thinking she had a real gift for writing short stories (not something every author manages successfully), but didn’t get around to reading any of her longer stories.
The next time I read any of Zahra’s writing was when she submitted a couple of stories for the British Flash and Tea and Crumpet anthologies. Her sensual, haunting prose reminded me again how much I’d enjoyed those shorts, and I was spurred on to seek out more of her writing.
What’s more, I met Zahra at last year’s UK Meet and she was an absolute delight to chat with. She’d travelled over from Belgium to attend, and I’m so glad she did! Today Zahra has a guest post about book covers (coming up in an hour), and later there’ll be three reviews of her stories from me. Most exciting of all, though: Zahra has promised a flashfic she’s written in response to your prompts, with more to come over the next week!
I hope you’ll all join me in giving Zahra a warm welcome here today 
About Zahra:
Zahra Owens was born in Europe, just before Woodstock and the moon landing, and given a much less pronounceable name by her non-English speaking parents. Being an Aquarian meant she would never quite conform and people learned to expect the unexpected.
She started writing fairy tales in first grade; the same year she came into contact with her first group of English speaking friends, a group which would eventually grow to include people from all over the world. On the outside she was a typical only child, accustomed to being with adults most of the time. On the inside, she sought ways to channel her wild imagination.
During the daytime she earns a living as a computer specialist, but it’s her former career as an intensive care nurse that tends to seep into her fiction. Maybe this has to do with her weak spot for flawed characters and imperfect bodies, or maybe it’s just her sadistic streak coming through. You be the judge.
Check out Zahra’s website: http://www.zahraowens.com
Twitter: @zahraowens
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/zahra.owens
And her publisher: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com where you can find her 4 novels and countless short stories in genres ranging from Contemporary to Fantasy/SciFi.
Cool looking forward to checking out the other blogs today
This one will take more than a day. I wrote the prompt fics and I’m feeding them to Jo one at a time. She’ll post them over the next few days!
It’s a bit late so I’ll catch up with the rest of today’s blogs tomorrow.
*waves to Zahra*
Love the cover of Diplomacy!
Thank you! I still love it too. And to think getting it was like pulling teeth. Not with the Dreamspinner Art team. They were great! But I had this idea of what I wanted and it couldn’t be done and it took a while for me to adjust my ideas. Now I couldn’t be happier!