An Interview with Zoë K.M. Foster

Zoë is a shamanic artist, creating immersive energy landscapes for magical and sacred spaces. She is also the creator of her SacredExpression™ method, combining sacred geometry, Jungian mandala psychology, and fully embodied, energy-expanding self-expression.

Into her work, she brings over twenty years of training and experience as a cognitive psychologist, yoga teacher, energy worker, and spiritually-creative misfit.

Zoë’s debut book, It’s Written in the Stars: Poems, reflections & transmutations on becoming, launched in May 2023, and is a multi-sensory, energetic immersion like no other! She is also an author of the collaborative books Wake Up Mother and Shakti Farts: What really happens when wild women gather, and co-hosts the UK Health Radio show Mother Speaks.

From her barn studio space in the wilds of mid-Devon, she hosts energy-shifting women’s circles, messy art workshops, and energy-art open days.

Learn more at zoekmfoster.com / IG/FB/YT: @zoekmfoster / Community: zoekmfoster.substack.com.

Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

I’ve always written. As a child, it was fantasy and adventure, which mutated into poetry of existential angst as a teen, and then passionate articles for values-driven magazines as a new mum. I blogged too, and organically found my way into the online spaces where others wanted to hear my words.

In the 2000s I was so inspired by prominent Hay House-type authors that I earnestly began to write my first “proper” book. I can describe that book attempt as a cross between Joe Dispenza and Gabrielle Bernstein. I slaved at it diligently—and queried it out to agents and publishers—until I realised that this wasn’t the book I was meant to write at all! That’s where Stars crept in….

What inspired you to start writing this book?

It’s Written in the Stars was 100% an awakening for me. I’d been trying to fit a mould, to conform to expectations (whose?!), and when I finally let my guard down, this book whooshed right through me!

I’ve always found writing quite painful, laborious…but Stars came together so quickly and organically it was like it had been waiting for me to evolve enough to let it through.

Working with The Unbound Press, together with their magical community, was the biggest inspiration and motivation I could have dreamt of. It finally gave me permission to just let loose and have fun, and be as crazy as I really wanted to be in what I created!

Tell us the story of your book’s title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

The title, which may seem quite unoriginal (and I’m an Aquarius so that’s always very important to me!), actually came to me when I ‘met’ my book in a meditation that Nicola at Unbound led me through. It gave me such shivers I knew I had to go with it, and put all ego aside! And it truly fits the themes and nature of the book perfectly.

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

Oh, what a fab question! Without a doubt most of Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s newest album, including the songs “Beyond the Universe” and “Hearing in Colour.”

And of course, a lot of Ayla Nereo, Birdy, Mogli (including “Portals” performed with Christian Löffler), Beautiful Chorus, Leucadia, One Hundred Years, Wave System, and Hammock.

On top of those, a generous sprinkling of Patti Smith, James, and Florence and the Machine as a bare minimum!

Describe your dream book cover.

Yikes, I feel I could go well over the top easily on this. I think it would have a lot of gold and cosmic colours. I’d definitely want the gold leaf-style treatment. It would be a real zinger that jumped out at you!

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

I’ve actually worked in academic publishing, which funnily enough was my one and only “real” job!

But I’ve also worked in a bunch of academic research positions—mainly to do with parsing language for early speech recognition & synthesis systems. There was also a great project which involved pictorial communication and how simplified/symbolised the pictograms quickly became between two people.

Other roles include working in a very traditional pub, a variety of editorial assistant jobs, working in a charity-based call centre, and being a digital support worker for a photographer.

I’ve been self-employed since I was 26, so that’s almost twenty years’ worth of creative business evolution, which has included becoming a yoga teacher, selling my bespoke jewellery and crafts at national fairs, and going through the coaching right of passage.

What books did you read (for research or comfort) throughout your writing process?

As I recall, a big pile of really beautifully written historical fiction and fantasy! Natasha Pulley (I’ve devoured everything of hers), The Winter Garden by Alex Bell, The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams, and Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman to name a few.

I also read The Magdalen Mysteries, which was mind-blowing (and I need to revisit, actually)!

What is one thing you hope readers take away from reading your book? How do you envision your perfect reader?

I just hope each reader finds something that eases open their spirit and makes them simultaneously sigh in relief and wonder at how truly magical they are, and how much more is available to enrich their soul journey.

As a bonus, I hope my book shows others that you are free to create whatever you want in this world, and not fit rigidly into one particular niche. There’s a place for that and I genuinely believe more and more people want something different and exciting in a physical format. It’s about adding something real, tangible, and spiritually visceral to the world.

Are you a writer, too? Submit your manuscript to Atmosphere Press.