Today's interview is with the talented Susan Helene Gottfried.
Susan, I sincerely thank you for joining us.
For more about Susan, please visit her
website or
blog.
Brief Bio:
Susan Helene Gottfried is the author of
ShapeShifter:
The Demo Tapes — Year 1,
ShapeShifter:
The Demo Tapes — Year 2,
Trevor’s Song,
and
ShapeShifter:
The Demo Tapes — Year 3. She can be found online at
http://westofmars.com, where you can find
The Meet and Greet, among other goodies.
A tone-deaf rocker-at-heart, Susan worked in retail record stores, in radio
stations, as stage crew, and as a promoter while earning two college degrees in
creative writing.
Susan walked away from a continued career in the music industry in order to
write books, so it makes sense that most of her fiction revolves around rock
bands. Once you get those record stores, radio stations, and fellow roadies and
promoters under your skin, they never leave.
To fill her time, Susan takes on freelance editing projects.
1.)
What made
you want to be a writer?
2.)
How long
have you been seriously pursuing a career in writing?
That’s actually
hard to answer, because I’ve been doing it so long. Was it when I was in
college and my professor sent a copy of the manuscript I’d been working on to
his agent? In graduate school, when the department would pay for us to send out
manuscripts to agents and for short story submissions? When I landed my first
agent? When I retired from freelance editing the first time to pursue writing?
When I published ShapeShifter: The Demo Tapes (Year 1)? Maybe someone would say it was when I was ten
and decided to write my first novel. Who knows? Like I said, I was born this
way.
3.) If you had to choose three words to describe your writing
nook/office, what would they be?
4.) Where do you draw most of your inspiration from
Everything and anything. I like to
look at life around me and wonder how this character, or that would, would
interact with what I’m seeing. If I had to pick just one source of inspiration,
though, it would be music. I’m constantly inspired by what I hear on the radio
5.) Give us a one sentence pitch for your first novel.
Trevor Wolff, bass player for rock darlings
ShapeShifter, may have to make common cause with his mortal enemy – his best
friend’s girl -- if he’s to survive the
fallout from the secrets he’s been hiding.
6.) What are some of the projects that you are currently working on
completing?
King Trevor, the follow-up to Trevor’s Song,
is scheduled for an April 12 release. I’ll follow that up in October with
ShapeShifter: The Demo Tapes (Year 4). Behind that will be a stand-alone
featuring new characters. I’m still drafting it, so we’ll have to see how it
comes out.
7.) What are some of your recent publications?
Last summer, I put out
ShapeShifter: The Demo Tapes (Year 3). More info.
here.
I’ve also had a few short stories
in anthologies, which is always a fun way to meet new readers (and for readers
to meet new authors). Visit
here to check out my short stories.
I continue to post blog fiction
every few weeks. Whenever I’ve got time to write something, really. It’s worth
keeping an eye on my blog for, as I’ve got some recurring characters, such as
the Roadie Poet, who aren’t in book form yet.
8.) Are you an outliner or a seat-of-your-pantser?
Definitely a seat-of-the-pants
writer. To me, the whole purpose of the first draft is to figure out where the
story is going. From there, you can craft the beginning and middle into the
right shape. Yes, it usually changes the ending, too, but… that’s why writing
is a craft.
9.) If you could only own one book, what would it be? Why?
Hmm. That’s a tough one because I
rarely re-read books. There are just too many out there to limit myself to one.
But if you’re going to make me pick, I’d have to say it would be some
compendium that’s thousands of pages long and chock full of great reads. Like
100. Full length.
Yes, I’m breaking the rules.
10.) Favorite childhood book/books?
Ooh, this is also hard. Let’s go
with a series I don’t mention often:
Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain series. I have vivid memories not only of the books
but of going to the library and going downstairs into the dark hall before
getting to the juvenile room, and taking the books off the shelves. It was a
very grown-up feeling to do all that by myself, whereas before, my parents or
sisters had always come with me.
11.) If you could meet any author, living or dead, who would it be?
Why?
Hmm. I’m not sure. I’ve met so many, and what
I take from each one has been so different. I don’t want to limit myself. What
if I choose Janet Evanovich so I can learn the secrets of writing comedic
characters, but Christie Craig would have been the better teacher?
12.) If you could meet one character in a book, who would it be? Why?
Trevor. Definitely Trevor. Why?
Well, he comes off at first as this abrasive jerk no one wants to be around.
But as you get to know him, you see how deep the guy really is. Add in the fact
that he gets away with a brutal honesty that no one else in life gets to show,
and you’ve got a slam-dunk. Trevor’s got a magic to him that I simply envy.
It’s part of what makes writing him so much fun.
13.) Where do you hope to be as a writer in five years?
14.) Favorite quote/personal motto:
15.) If you could give any advice to other writers, what would it be?
Learn the industry! I can’t stress
this enough, and it’s become my #1 piece of advice. Learn every last thing you
can, from craft to the business end of publishing. Make sure your book is ready
to be published; learn what happens when you hit PUBLISH too soon. Learn what
it’ll take to market your book, how to approach a book reviewer, the value of a
writer’s conference. Learn how to do a reading and how to revel in your fellow
authors’ successes. And be sure to learn everything I haven’t mentioned here,
as well.
