Zoe Greenberg Publishes a Fantasy Novel

While most of us have trouble gathering our thoughts for an essay, SHS Junior Zoe Greenberg just published a fantasy novel – and illustrated it too! She stopped by, just before finals, to discuss her book, Vie, that is now available on Amazon.

What inspired you to write and illustrate a book? Did it begin with the plot or your artwork?
I’ve always wanted to be an author– it’s been the plan since elementary school. There were a few gap years when I was convinced I wanted to be a roller coaster engineer, but after taking some high school math classes, I’m firmly back to my writing roots.

The story of how Vie itself came about is interesting, though. It was right after Covid, and my mom had forced me to go with her to the Brooklyn Museum. Now, in a typical 8th-grade angsty fashion, I was moping around and acting like she’d just done something horrible– like, she just told me she was sending me off to Alcatraz, or something. But, while I was there, I saw a sculpture. It was of a tree, and embedded in that tree was a piano, which played entirely on its own. Of course, the piano was automated– it was one of those things you sometimes see in hotel or movie-theater lobbies. But as I was looking at it– and I stood looking at it for a while, while my mom was desperately trying to move on to the next room. I wondered, “what kind of invisible creature would play that piano?” And somewhere along the way, that character became Hehma, and the story grew from there.

In regard to whether the art or plot came first, it was pretty simultaneous. I came home that day with character-creation in mind and started drafting my first drawings of Hehma. I moved on from character to character until I had a full cast of people– thinking up what sorts of characters they would be, drawing them, changing them a bit, renaming them. The two processes were intertwined.

How did you go about getting the book published? How did you produce it?

It was surprisingly easy. There’s this platform on Amazon called “Kindle Direct Publishing,” and if you make an account, you can publish basically anything (for free!). I’m pretty sure the books are printed on demand– so they don’t have inventory ready, they just make a new book every time someone orders one. So, it doesn’t cost me any money. Amazon takes a big cut of my profits. Which is sad, but fair.

Would you call it a graphic novel? Who are some other authors who you admire in this genre?

I wouldn’t say it’s a graphic novel. It’s a fantasy novel. Most of the book is just strict writing. But there are a few illustrations here and there—there’s 11 of them, including the front-cover and the map.

There are a whole bunch of authors whose work influenced my book. My biggest influence is J.R.R Tolkien, simply because he invented the fantasy genre as we know it today. I also adored (and still adore) Harry Potter as a kid. It was truly all I thought about for a good three years of my life, which is probably a little concerning, but it’s too late to ruminate on that now. It was the series that really made me realize that I wanted to write fantasy, too. Other than those two, I also loved Ransom Riggs’ Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson. I also take a lot of inspiration from movies and television, especially Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli movies, like My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko’s Avatar the Last Airbender.

Who do you envision as the target audience or readers of your book?

I might be a little biased as the author, but I feel like my book could appeal to anyone. I mean– if you’re 7 months old and don’t understand English yet, then that’s a different story. But I’ve shown my book to people of all ages (my age, 20s, 50s, 80s) and they’ve all really enjoyed it. Or, at least, they told me they did– so I’m just gonna choose to trust them. I would say it’s probably best suited for older elementary school kids to younger high school kids, but it’s certainly not restricted to them.

Explain the title.

I can’t say too much without spoiling the book, but I will say that the name Vie (pronounced Vee, like how the francophones say it) belongs to a “lost spirit of mortality” that the main character, Lucia, is tasked with finding. Which isn’t ideal for Lucia, because she has a very shoddy understanding of what’s going on most of the time. But she’s trying her best, so I suppose that counts for something.

Are you promoting it?

I am! I’ve been making videos on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts (those who are familiar with YouTube Shorts know that that’s a pretty desperate resort but I gotta do what I gotta do, so oh well). I will say, the marketing has probably been the hardest part of the whole process, both because I enjoy it the least and because it’s really difficult to truly catch someone’s eye and get them interested in what I have to offer– interested enough to spend their money on it. But I’m trying my best and hoping that my book, if not taking off on social media, will do its own rounds by ear and recommendation from those who’ve already read it!

Do you plan to continue to study art/writing in the future?

I do. Being an author is definitely Plan A for me. I would talk about my Plan B’s, but I feel like having a Plan B in the first place usually undermines Plan A, so I’ll just leave it at that– my goal is to make a living off of my writing!

Tell us about yourself.

Well, other than my writing and art, I’m a big animal-lover. I have two cats, a crested gecko, and was a volunteer at the Greenburgh Nature Center (until school got in the way– but I’m planning on returning soon!) I also really love video games– to my fellow video game lovers, God of War Ragnarok, Baldur’s Gate 3, Undertale, Assassins Creed Odyssey, and Minecraft are my favorites. I have two older brothers (23 and 26), one of whom spends most of his time showing me old YouTube videos from 2006, and the other coming into my room, throwing random objects onto my floor, and then leaving. And I love to read, which I think goes without saying. My recent favorite (other than Harry Potter) is As I Lay Dying, for my fellow Faulkner fans!

Check it out and buy your copy here: