Kirk Zurosky - Divorce, Vampires, Werewolves, and Mermaids

Kirk Zurosky has practiced plaintiff’s personal injury and workers’ compensation law in North Carolina and South Carolina for over twenty years. He finds working as an attorney helping those that have been injured to be incredibly rewarding. He has enjoyed writing poems, and fiction stories, since he was a child. Writing was his first love, or so he thought until he met his wife, Susie. That is when he realized what love really was all about, and that he could write one Hell of a love scene. In Kirk’s spare time he enjoys traveling the world with Susie, world history and cultures, fitness, and experiencing all the wonder that life has to offer. As our Author of the Day, he tells us all about his book, My Ex-Wife said Go to Hell.

Please give us a short introduction to what My Ex-Wife Said Go to Hell is about.

Sirius Sinister keeps sleeping with the wrong women. And this time, it’s led to his imprisonment in Hell. Literal Hell. Immortal vampire assassin Sirius Sinister has a healthy libido that constantly results in bad relationship decisions. But when he’s served divorce papers by Bloodsucker Number One—a shady woman from his past—he realizes there’s a major problem: he was never even married to her, or so he thought. Regardless of the truth, Sirius is put under the jurisdiction of Immortal Divorce Court. You would think by now he’d know having sex can lead to horrific consequences like marriage, children, and ex-wives—but some habits just won’t die.

What inspired you to create an Immortal Divorce Court and write it into a series?

I have practiced law for over twenty years, and most of the time what we do isn’t all that exciting. But, every once in a while the reality of what we see in court is indeed stranger than fiction. Immortal Divorce Court evolved out of my experiences as a lawyer, and my going through a rather long (nearly immortal!) divorce. It led to the premise of what zany things could happen if you were a powerful and supposedly superior immortal, but made really bad relationship choices. And, not only were you dealing with being taken to Immortal Divorce Court by your slighted paramours, but also making some dangerous enemies, and great friends along the way.

Tell us more about Sirius Sinister. What makes him tick?

When the story opens, Sirius is a young, rather naïve man, who though he intends to do the right thing, and make the right choices, just can’t get out of his own way when members of the opposite sex are involved. He has a really big heart, and is the kind of person that will do anything for those he loves, and his unique cadre of friends. Life is also one big party for him, and giving into his primal and carnal instincts keeps getting him into trouble. He is very relatable in that all of us also have made the same mistakes again and again in relationships without learning from them the first time. Sirius, however, better wise up, because his mistakes could be a whole lot more deadly than most of ours!

Why Fantasy? What drew you to the genre?

I have enjoyed the Fantasy genre since I was child, reading anything I could get my hands on. Back in the days where you only had a library to get books from, I was the kid that would bring home bunches at a time. I loved the big epics such as Lord of the Rings, The Sword of Shannara, and the Xanth series. Reading was a great way to learn about the real world even if it was through a fantasy novel in terms of human relationships, science, world cultures, history, and the like.

Besides writing, what other secret skills do you have?

My wife, Susie, tells me I am especially talented at leaving cabinet and cupboard doors open, and not cleaning up after myself. I also excel at breaking things I am supposed to be repairing, and turning “do it yourself” projects into “hire someone to help me fix what I messed up” projects. In my younger days, I was a competitive bodybuilder, and did a lot of martial arts. I could break a ridiculous amount of boards with my fist back in the day, but now I just break shit.

Although this is all fantasy, your characters and the relationships between them are very relatable. How did you pull this off?

One of the best things about being a lawyer is the amount of real characters I have met in my career. Essentially, being a lawyer is about managing relationships, and being able to assess not only what people really want, but also being able to talk to anybody, anywhere, and at any time. I am also lucky to have a great group of friends, and an amazing wife, Susie. The conversations I have had with my friends and my wife about life and relationships I absolutely treasure, and some aspects of those conversations definitely made it into Immortal Divorce Court.

Why did you decide to add a vampire Maltese to the mix?

Our family includes our Maltese, Daisy, who was the inspiration for the vampire Maltese, Garlic. Daisy has a big personality, and is one of my favorite people on the planet. She is smart as a whip, and if she could only talk, and had opposable thumbs, she would probably be plotting how to corner the market on dog treats. She also has an actual sonic bark, and can set off alarms with it.

Does writing about surreal worlds and enigmatic scenes present any particular problems?

I have always had an overactive imagination. In the course of writing the Immortal Divorce Court series, it was so easy to write the scenes where all hell is literally breaking loose. From the courtroom scenes to the relationship scenes, my goal was to push the envelope as much as possible. It was kind of like what is the worst possible situation that can happen if Sirius Sinister does something, and then I took that to the next level. Susie does often ask – how did you come up with that, and the truth is I have no idea!

What did you have the most fun with when writing this book?

Without question, the most fun I had writing this book was writing the dialogue. When you have the dynamic of people behaving badly, and then suffering the consequences of said bad behavior, it makes for writing some entertaining dialogue. If I categorize Sirius Sinister as the “typical” guy, his actions and reactions, though sometimes knuckle-dragging are also real life, and real fun. Lastly, as a lawyer, I took special joy in writing the lines of Sirius’ lawyer, Maximillian Justice, who says and does things over the course of the series that any lawyer would love to say and do.

When working on a new book, what’s the first thing you do?

I try to work from a loose outline, and then just start writing and see where it goes from there. Once, I have a base for the story and the character arcs, I then make a more detailed outline. But, truth be told, I vary from the detailed outline a good bit, and I just try to let things flow organically.

Talk to us about your writing routine; what’s a typical writing day for you?

A typical writing day for me starts after my work as a lawyer ends. I am usually thinking about what I am going to be writing during the day. I get up early in the morning and exercise, and often things will just pop into my head while I am swimming, or walking on the treadmill. Every time I sit down to write, my goal is to write at least 1000 words. I find if you do that on a daily basis, you end up with a sizable manuscript pretty quickly.

What are you working on right now?

I am about finished with the draft of the first book in the successor series to Immortal Divorce Court. I have loosely outlined the rest of the new series, and should be moving on to book two in the next few months.

Where can our readers discover more of you, or interact with you?

I would recommend readers check out my website www.kirkzurosky.com where they can learn about the upcoming books in the series, read Daisy’s Dog Blog, and check out the Sirius Sinister™ Gear store. We have come up with some great Immortal Divorce Court merchandise. Daisy also has inspired Got Garlic?™ vampire Maltese themed merchandise. I am relatively new to social media, but I do have a Facebook fan page – Immortal Divorce Court by Kirk Zurosky, and I am on Instagram @KirkZurosky.