Today's guest is Susan Royal. She'll tell you a little about herself.
Born in west Texas and raised in south Texas, I make my home in a 100-year-old farmhouse in a small east Texas town that comes with a ghost who harmonizes with my son when he plays guitar. I’m married, with three children and four grandchildren.
I am from a family rich with characters, both past and present. I spent my childhood listening to my grandmother’s stories of growing up in a large family on a farm in Oklahoma Territory and working as a telephone operator in the early 20th century. My father shared stories of growing up in San Antonio during the depression, and through my mother’s eyes I experienced how it felt to be a teenager during WWII.
Yesterday, the first piece I ever submitted, won first place in author Cody James Wolfe’s Flash Fiction Newsletter Contest. My entry, Lost Souls, won 2nd place in the 2009 short story contest of the Northeast Texas Writers’ Organization and My Father’s House won 3rd place in the 2010 competition. Not Long Ago is a time travel romance filled with adventure, available through MuseItUp/Amazon/B&N. I am currently working on a sequel.
Traveling to another world through time has always intrigued me. Maybe because I love history and learning how different cultures lived in different times, and I can still remember the first time travel book I ever read. Three Hearts and Three Lions, by Poul Anderson, followed soon after with The Glory Road by Robert Heinlein. That's all it took to hook me on the genre. Actually, I had the beginning written for at least half a year. Young woman walking down a busy sidewalk passes a coffee shop window and catches a glimpse of a handsome stranger. When their eyes meet, the connection she feels stops her in her tracks. She's drawn to this man and she knows things about him she couldn't possibly know. Who is he? Why does she feel this way? It could have gone in so many different directions.
Q) How long did it take you to write?
I have a full time job. I'm wife, mother and grandmother of four. Not Long Ago took about a year. While writing it, I learned my writing style and how to plan my writing time effectively. The sequel is going much quicker.
Q) What is your favorite thing about writing?
I love it when a scene unfolds before my eyes. I can envision everything about it. I know what my characters are thinking. I know what they'll say. I feel what they're feeling. I'm in the moment.
Q) What is your least favorite thing about writing?
The waiting. Waiting for a response from your query. Waiting to start edits after you've signed a contract. Waiting to finish edits. Waiting for your cover art. Waiting for the book to finally be a reality. Can you tell I'm an impatient person?
Q) If you could be any famous person for one day, who would you be and why?
I would love to be Jim Butcher (The Dresden Files) for a day. The man has an imagination that won't quit.
Q) What is the oldest thing in your fridge and how old is it?
My ice pack(s). Technically, they are in the freezer, I know, but I've had them for years (along with the migraines).
Q) What can readers expect from you in the future?
I have just finished In My Own Shadow, a fantasy/adventure/romance that takes place in an alternate universe and am in the process of querying.
Talk about the worst first date ever! Lara lets her friend Carrie talk her into a blind date, only it turns out the handsome stranger waiting for Lara after work isn’t Carrie’s cousin after all. And, when they’re chased through a portal to another world, Lara realizes Rhys really is out of this world.
Rhys believes Lara’s alternate in his dimension, Lyra, has left clues in her subconscious to the whereabouts of the Book of Secrets which explains the mystery of time travel. Power-hungry telepaths pursuing them will stop at nothing to get it, even if it means breaking Lara’s mind. To complicate matters, Lara gets tangled up in her feelings for Rhys while exploring her connection with Lyra.
With Rhys as her guardian, a bear of a man named Azle to guide her, and the spirit of Lyra haunting her dreams, Lara must find the Book of Secrets before it falls into the hands of those who want its power. Only then can Lara return to her world safely.
I am currently writing a sequel to Not Long Ago, titled From Now On. After reading the first book, my daughter insisted I write more of Griffin and Erin's story. Look for a mysterious island, smugglers, magic, little people and more.
Thanks so much for hosting me, Pembroke. You can find me at http://susanroyal.moonfruit.com, http://ssnroyal.blog.com/, http://tinyurl.com/85vgye3. (Thanks for being here!)
