Instead, the Port Credit author uses rejection letters to keep him grounded in his pursuit of creating books that inspire, entertain and educate readers.
In his latest book, Entopia - Revolution of Ants, Zdero tells the story of a hard-working dreamer ant, Gazer, who ends a curse to bring a new order to Entgora, a fictional ant colony, along with her friends Tenspeed and Digdirt.
The author says the plot of his third book has all the ingredients guaranteed to make for a racy and riveting read — intrigue, faith, adventure and mystery.
At the core of the story is a pale white Gazer, an ant who dares to dream despite living in a colony where anarchy and punishment are the norm.
“I am quite interested in the idea of ordinary people accomplishing extraordinary things in the face of some of the centralized power structures that exist in society,” Zdero explained.
Zdero earned his PhD in mechanical engineering from Queen's University, specializing in orthopaedic biomechanics. He works at St. Michael's Hosptial in Toronto as director of a research laboratory.
In his spare time, he enjoys writing books, poems and songs and creating art and music.
Entopia is about conflict that exists within the hierarchal organization of society in areas such as religion and the corporate world.
In order to write about ants, the author said he researched extensively on the type, behaviour and physical characteristics of ants and the manner in which they communicate.
“I did do actual research on ants and discovered there's a large variety, but I tried to find a middle-of-the-road character, a generic ant,” Zdero said. “The one thing that fascinates me about the ants is their single-minded purpose, their focus and that they're not swayed; the flip side of that is they would appear to be dull and regimented. The characters in the book, however, depart from the typical ant mentality.”
Entopia - Revolution of Ants is published by Capstone Publishing Group.
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