Why Zi? Behind the Name

No, I'm not Chinese or even remotely Asian. The name originates from an old character I created in my friend's copy of an old MMO. Some of you might remember it; the game was Asheron's Call, that Microsoft came out with in 1999. I named the character Zai Hitika. Hitika was a character in an old story I wrote (and lost, along with tons of other work due to the total loss of a laptop and none of that work having been backed up. That was a sad day, as I lost not only my work, but pictures and the vast music collection I had as well). I think I put Zai in front because it sounded good with Hitika. Anyways, looking at the name, "Zi" popped out at me and from then on, I adopted it as my nickname.

My real name can be difficult for people to pronounce. As I writer, I'd like people to easily be able to talk about me. I realize my last name is difficult to pronounce for some as well. If you're going to be public, why not make the name easier for people? Everyone can say Zi; it's pronounced the same way as the letter itself.

Anyway, that was my thought process behind it. Besides, the name Zi fits right to me. It means graceful, beautiful, and increase in number/grow. I really like the idea of growth, and have certainly achieved that in my writing since adopting it.

If you could choose any name or nickname for yourself, what would it be?

The idea for Pixie

I want to talk a little about my book. Pixie the cat came to me back in 2007 I believe. I actually wrote the first draft of the first short story for a class. I got a little flack for writing a story for kids in an Intro to Fiction class at my university, but Pixie never left my thoughts. Mind you, that first draft was vastly different; it's certainly been through many changes.

I left the young cat aside while I worked on other projects and didn't think about him again until March 2011, several months into volunteering at an animal shelter. I wanted to make a bigger difference, and also establish myself as a writer.

So I thought again of Pixie and decided that the orange tabby needed a book of his own, to live somewhere outside my head. Motivated by my love of animals, I decided that I would donate a substantial amount of all royalties made to help save real life cats and/or dogs.

Which brings me to today, where my book sits waiting on its Amazon page, hoping to get noticed. And maybe, Pixie will get to help a cat or two.