Welcome to the Coffee Chat!
This week’s guest is young adult author Susan A. Royal, featuring her book, In My Own Shadow, a fantasy romance, rated PG-13.
Nice to meet you, Susan! How do you take your coffee?
SAR: I like it strong, with ½ and ½ and a spoon of sugar. There’s nothing better than that first cup in the morning.
Ally: Coming right up. While I pour, pleasure introduce yourself to readers.
This week’s guest is young adult author Susan A. Royal, featuring her book, In My Own Shadow, a fantasy romance, rated PG-13.
Nice to meet you, Susan! How do you take your coffee?
SAR: I like it strong, with ½ and ½ and a spoon of sugar. There’s nothing better than that first cup in the morning.
Ally: Coming right up. While I pour, pleasure introduce yourself to readers.
Bio:
Born in west Texas and raised in south Texas, Susan makes her home in a little cottage in the country outside a small east Texas town.
She has three children (six counting their spouses) and six grandchildren. Her family is rich with characters, both past and present. Her grandmother shared stories of her life with three sisters and three brothers on a farm in Oklahoma Territory and working as a telephone operator in the early 20th century. She learned what it was like to grow up in in the depression from her father, and being a teenager during WWII through her mother’s eyes.
When Susan isn’t writing, she does her best to keep up with her grandchildren. Music and painting are two of her passions. She also loves to bargain shop anywhere there’s a sale and began repurposing long before it was popular. She is a firm believer in getting what you want without breaking the bank. She paints, crafts and sews. Her office/craft/sewing room is littered with all her latest projects.
She loves to take her readers through all kinds of adventures with liberal doses of romance. So far, she’s written two books in her It’s About Time series, Not Long Ago and From Now On. Time travel adventures with romance about two people who fall in love despite the fact they come from very different worlds. In My Own Shadow is a Fantasy Romance. Xander’s Tangled Web is a Fantasy. Look for her books at MuseItUp/Amazon/B&N.
Something unique/unusual that isn't in your regular bio: Susan used to share a 100 year old farmhouse with a ghost who harmonized with her son when he played guitar and pulled the covers up over her feet on cold winter nights.
Author Contacts:
Want to know more? Visit her blog: susanaroyal.wordpress.com or website: susanaroyal.com for a peek inside this writer’s mind and see what she’s up to. You never know what world she’s going to visit next.
Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/susanaroyal
and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/susanaroyalauthor/
Born in west Texas and raised in south Texas, Susan makes her home in a little cottage in the country outside a small east Texas town.
She has three children (six counting their spouses) and six grandchildren. Her family is rich with characters, both past and present. Her grandmother shared stories of her life with three sisters and three brothers on a farm in Oklahoma Territory and working as a telephone operator in the early 20th century. She learned what it was like to grow up in in the depression from her father, and being a teenager during WWII through her mother’s eyes.
When Susan isn’t writing, she does her best to keep up with her grandchildren. Music and painting are two of her passions. She also loves to bargain shop anywhere there’s a sale and began repurposing long before it was popular. She is a firm believer in getting what you want without breaking the bank. She paints, crafts and sews. Her office/craft/sewing room is littered with all her latest projects.
She loves to take her readers through all kinds of adventures with liberal doses of romance. So far, she’s written two books in her It’s About Time series, Not Long Ago and From Now On. Time travel adventures with romance about two people who fall in love despite the fact they come from very different worlds. In My Own Shadow is a Fantasy Romance. Xander’s Tangled Web is a Fantasy. Look for her books at MuseItUp/Amazon/B&N.
Something unique/unusual that isn't in your regular bio: Susan used to share a 100 year old farmhouse with a ghost who harmonized with her son when he played guitar and pulled the covers up over her feet on cold winter nights.
Author Contacts:
Want to know more? Visit her blog: susanaroyal.wordpress.com or website: susanaroyal.com for a peek inside this writer’s mind and see what she’s up to. You never know what world she’s going to visit next.
Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/susanaroyal
and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/susanaroyalauthor/
INTERVIEW:
Ally: Describe your editing process, from first draft to submission.
SAR: I get an idea, keep all my thoughts in a folder until I’m ready to start. I have a vague outline that changes, because my stories have the habit of veering into directions I don’t expect. I write about a third of the story, edit, then begin again. Once I’m finished with it, I edit again. Then I’ll send it to my beta readers.
Ally: How do you choose and name your characters?
SAR: Names are very important. Sometimes I’m 3 or 4 chapters in before I decide. Other times the name comes first and I write the story around it. It has to project the right vibe for the character or it doesn’t work for me. I’ve used ancient Scottish, English, Irish names for their meanings or I’ve used the name of a place. Whatever strikes me at the time.
Ally: Tell us about your favorite hobby (non-writing).
SAR: I love to haunt flea markets, garage sales and antiques malls, looking for something unique to repurpose.
Ally: Have you thought about one of your books being made into a movie? Who would play the parts?
SAR: In My Own Shadow…Tom Hardy would play Rhys and Bryce Dallas Howard would play Lara
Ally: What is your next writing project? Anticipated release date?
SAR: Mere (working title) is a young adult fantasy about Mere, an 18 year old girl living in Titusville, a small town in east Texas, located smack dab in the middle of Ferry Woods. It’s filled with pine trees, Spanish moss and creepiness. Strange things happen there. Mere’s practical side says they’re only stories. Yet, she's drawn to the place.
Mere has spent her life trying to be ordinary. An impossible task in her family. Women in the Borchers’ family are witches. And Mere has powers. Even though she tries to ignore them. But with everything that’s been happening, she’s no longer sure that’s what she wants.
I’m hoping to have it finished by late 2018 or early 2019.
Ally: Let’s try a few quick get-to-know-me questions.
Ally: Describe your editing process, from first draft to submission.
SAR: I get an idea, keep all my thoughts in a folder until I’m ready to start. I have a vague outline that changes, because my stories have the habit of veering into directions I don’t expect. I write about a third of the story, edit, then begin again. Once I’m finished with it, I edit again. Then I’ll send it to my beta readers.
Ally: How do you choose and name your characters?
SAR: Names are very important. Sometimes I’m 3 or 4 chapters in before I decide. Other times the name comes first and I write the story around it. It has to project the right vibe for the character or it doesn’t work for me. I’ve used ancient Scottish, English, Irish names for their meanings or I’ve used the name of a place. Whatever strikes me at the time.
Ally: Tell us about your favorite hobby (non-writing).
SAR: I love to haunt flea markets, garage sales and antiques malls, looking for something unique to repurpose.
Ally: Have you thought about one of your books being made into a movie? Who would play the parts?
SAR: In My Own Shadow…Tom Hardy would play Rhys and Bryce Dallas Howard would play Lara
Ally: What is your next writing project? Anticipated release date?
SAR: Mere (working title) is a young adult fantasy about Mere, an 18 year old girl living in Titusville, a small town in east Texas, located smack dab in the middle of Ferry Woods. It’s filled with pine trees, Spanish moss and creepiness. Strange things happen there. Mere’s practical side says they’re only stories. Yet, she's drawn to the place.
Mere has spent her life trying to be ordinary. An impossible task in her family. Women in the Borchers’ family are witches. And Mere has powers. Even though she tries to ignore them. But with everything that’s been happening, she’s no longer sure that’s what she wants.
I’m hoping to have it finished by late 2018 or early 2019.
Ally: Let’s try a few quick get-to-know-me questions.
- a. an author (living or dead) you'd love to take to lunch: Ray Bradbury
- b. manicure or pedicure: Pedicure (Don’t like polish or fake nails)
- c. favorite book boyfriend: James Malcom Alexander McKenzie Frazier
- d. favorite song: I Wouldn’t Be - Kodaline (a new favorite)
- e. last book that made you cry: Hawthorne and Heathcliff – R. K. Ryals
- f. favorite place to write: Next to the window in my bedroom, looking out at the bird feeders in my crabapple tree.
In My Own Shadow
Genre: YA fantasy, adventure, romance
PG-13
Blurb:
Talk about the worst day 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.
Lyra, her alternate in another dimension, has left clues to the whereabouts of the Book of Secrets explaining the mystery of time travel in Lara’s subconscious. Or so Rhys thinks. Power-hungry telepaths who pursue them will stop at nothing to get it, even if it means breaking Lara’s will. 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 she return to her world safely.
Book trailer: https://youtu.be/Wbg8Z-12ojY
Buy Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/My-Own-Shadow-Susan-Royal-ebook/dp/B00CPN41YQ
MuseItUp: https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore/index.php/now-available-in-ebook/in-my-own-shadow-detail
Also available at B&N and through Goodreads.
Other works by this author:
Not Long Ago (time travel, adventure, romance) Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/85vgye3
Not Long Ago Book trailer: http://youtu.be/vOIQVdWUigU/
Xander’s Tangled Web (fantasy, mystery) Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/yconklde
From Now On (time travel adventure romance) Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Now-Its-About-Time-Novel-ebook/dp/B00KIA3UW2
All books available Amazon, B&N, Goodreads and
MuseItUp: http://museituppublishing.com/bookstore/index.php/our-authors/68-our-authors/authors-r/367-susan-royal
Not Long Ago (time travel, adventure, romance) Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/85vgye3
Not Long Ago Book trailer: http://youtu.be/vOIQVdWUigU/
Xander’s Tangled Web (fantasy, mystery) Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/yconklde
From Now On (time travel adventure romance) Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Now-Its-About-Time-Novel-ebook/dp/B00KIA3UW2
All books available Amazon, B&N, Goodreads and
MuseItUp: http://museituppublishing.com/bookstore/index.php/our-authors/68-our-authors/authors-r/367-susan-royal
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