Forget the gorgeous blonds or the pictures you see in the fashion magazines (they’re all too skinny anyway), what you as a guy should really be looking for is a reincarnated witch. The pros far outweigh the cons (although the cons list is a little scary, but only if you’re unfaithful, see point #5 below.) In Thirst: Blood of my Blood, Kira soon discovers she has roamed this earth before, and her best friend, Brenda, was her right-hand gal. But the key focus in the story is Kira’s relationship with Cory. Cory doesn’t run when he discovers she’s a reincarnated witch. When you see the Pros list, neither would you. 1. They’re Experts at Foreign Language Studies This depends on where the witch was raised initially. But a witch remembers the languages she has spoken before. Imagine how useful that would be in a French restaurant. No more ordering icky snails when you thought it was a rib-eye steak, or Macarons thinking it has something to do with pasta (it doesn’t.) Pain au chocolat is not a new method of cocoa torture, and Madeleine does not mean you’ll get a new waitress…called Madeleine. You might think a problem arises when…

One of the things I have a love/hate relationship with when it comes to writing is the research I do. Some of it can be fascinating and some of it’s boring. I learned early in my writing career when I did a lot more nonfiction writing that I needed to contact experts in whatever field I was writing the article in. I had to have their opinion to use as quotes and then fact checkers would make sure the information was accurate. Finding experts was sheer torture. I hated cold calling people I didn’t know to ask them to give an opinion for what I was working on. I always felt tongue-tied. I had to contact doctors and lawyers. I spoke to private investigators and firefighters and the list goes on. For the most part, everyone I spoke to was kind and eager to be helpful. The more I had to reach out to experts, the easier it became. With fiction, I’ll do the same thing I did with the nonfiction writing. When I have a question, I’ll call on an expert if I can’t figure out what I need to know. With STEALING THE BACHELOR, the heroine’s chocolate shop…

Just before Christmas, my partner in crime, Scout, was diagnosed with a large tumor on his leg. Scout is a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, a rare dog breed that looks a bit like a Golden and a bit like a collie with his pointy snout and white paws. He’s my writing companion and the guy I go to for a snuggle on the floor. We’d already taken him to the vet a year ago for a large fatty mass which luckily was nothing more than a nuisance. This time, the growth was cancerous and the tumor was taken out. I prayed I’d get my old dog back in decent health so he could hang with me for years to come. After the operation, my normally fluffy dog had one shaved leg. His entire leg. He appeared like a part poodle, a part retriever. Very strange, but who cares when he’s back in one piece. For Christmas, and his ninth birthday which happens to fall on Christmas day, we had him shaved completely. We started with a fluffy furball who preferred sleeping to playing, and we ended up with an energetic bundle of energy who seemed more lab puppy than…

Happy 2016 to you all. I’m so happy to be here today and to talk about my newest book, YOU ONLY. It’s a second chance at love story that takes place in a farming community in Indiana. Fifteen years ago when they were young, Finn and Hale were engaged. Hale, the town’s princess felt trapped by that life and future. One evening, Finn came home to a good-bye letter, a set of keys to his apartment, and Hale’s engagement ring sitting on his kitchen counter. Now Hale has returned to take over her family’s farming business. She must find her place in the tight-knit community where memories are long and she must face Finn’s wrath. He is still holding onto his anger and confusion at abrupt exit. They find that the chemistry is still there and they must put the past to rest before they pursue their future. This is my playlist for YOU ONLY. “When I Was Your Man” by Bruno Mars. The first time I heard this song, the entire story and character names popped into my head. “Just Give Me a Reason” by Pink and Nate Ruess. Sometimes it’s the thoughts in your head that cause the…

While writing The Book Club Belles, I enjoyed reimagining each of the three Jane Austen stories that I selected for the series— PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, SENSE AND SENSIBILITY and PERSUASION. It gave me an excuse to re-read those wonderful books yet again, of course, and to study them in even greater depth than before. When it came to borrowing those plots and characters, weaving them into my own stories, I knew I took on a formidable task. Austen’s novels have so many devoted followers, I wanted to be sure that my versions added a little something fresh and new, without spoiling the charm of her stories. But as a long-time fan myself, I was excited to face that challenge and, hopefully, I managed without offending anybody! I could never choose a favorite Jane Austen novel. That would be as impossible as it is to choose a favorite from among my own creations. Each story has characters I love as dearly as old friends, so how could I pick out just one? In each case, the characters Jane wrote are not just sketches, but fully developed and recognizable to us, even two hundred years later. We’ve all met a Mrs. Bennet,…

My first book sale was practically a fluke. I’d spent years writing two manuscripts that I loved with a passion. I found an agent. I had interested publishers. And while I waited for editors to make their final decision, I noticed a new publisher was looking for Christian romance stories set in small towns with cute names. To submit, all I had to do was write three chapters and a synopsis. I did it in a day, sent it to my agent, and forgot about it. My agent called with good news. I was so excited. Except the good news wasn’t about the manuscripts I’d spent years on. It was for a book I hadn’t even written yet. A sale was a sale. I’d take it. I pulled out my synopsis to remind myself what I’d be writing about. Ha! It included a chubby, unicycle-riding twelve-year-old named after Superman’s father. Writing that story was going to be fun. Except before I finished writing the book, my husband of ten years left me. And I had to write a romance novel while my own marriage fell apart. I never wanted to write romance again. And besides the Costco book-signing in 2010…

…sometimes it’s better. The cover of my new novel TERMS OF USE looks nothing like I had envisioned – and, boy, am I glad. I remember the very first time I stopped to consider the cover. My publisher Thomas & Mercer had sent a questionnaire in which I was asked, among other things, to describe my ideal cover and the mood I wished it to convey. They also asked me to submit images or other art to guide the cover designer. TERMS OF USE is a thriller about the dark side of social media, so I knew immediately the cover should feel foreboding. And my story revolves around a hero who goes on the run to save himself and, it turns out, pretty much everyone else. So I thought my cover should feature a man looking over his shoulder as he escapes a group of people linked together in a network of spokes and nodes. As a second option, I suggested a collage of a face of a woman, suggestive of the socialbots in my story. Many weeks passed as I lost myself in copy editing and proofreading my story. Then one day I received an email with two cover…

PROTECTING THE FUTURE is the last book in the SEAL of Protection Series. I’ve had many people ask me why I’m ending the series when it’s been so popular. For one thing I never intended the series to be thirty books long. I think I, and the readers too, would get bored. I also don’t want to be pigeon-holed into being a writer who only writes “SEAL” books. “But Susan, the series is popular, you’re crazy to end it when everyone loves it!” Maybe, but I’m hoping my readers will read my other books as well. Heck, I’m addicted to the “damsel in distress” trope and even though Cookie and Benny and the others won’t have books about them anymore, my Heroes will always have someone to rescue (and need to be rescued in their own way right back). “Maybe you can write about their KIDS!” Nope. I don’t particularly like writing (or reading) about the kids of my Heroes and heroines, because that means that those Heroes and heroines will get OLD….gasp! Can’t have that! I want them to live on in my mind exactly the same age they are on the pages of the books. “But I’m gonna…

After writing 34 mysteries (Cackleberry Club, Tea Shop, and Scrapbooking Mysteries) my readers always assume that I’ve developed some magical mystery template or foolproof system. The truth of the matter is, I haven’t. The closest I come to a workable process is jumpstarting each new mystery with a “what if” factor. You know what I mean – What if somebody whacked Crazy Aunt Bertha with a candlestick? From there I try to come up with an offbeat circumstance or plot device (haunted house, jewel heist, horse race, chase through the swamp) that I can spring on readers in the very first chapter. From there I move on to the most fun of all – spinning tales of interesting characters. My female protagonists are always drawn as independent, free-spirited, and highly creative entrepreneurs. That way they can be driven to seek out justice (i.e. solving a murder), tend to be feisty (sometimes nasty!) toward law enforcement, and are generally offbeat characters in their everyday lives. Plotting always comes easy to me as well. The truth of the matter is, I usually have so many ideas (murder, fire, car crashes, burglaries, chases!) that the hard part is fitting it all in. I’m…

When I started telling people that my second Spice Shop mystery was on the way, a surprising number asked how I could write about Seattle when I live in Montana. (Oddly, I don’t remember hearing that question when the first book came out.) Newer friends, obviously, and a reporter or two, who didn’t know I went to college in Seattle, moved back after law school, and practiced there for eight years. Or that Mr. Right and I make regular pilgrimages for research. By which I mean “eat.” So I started ticking off my favorite things in the Emerald City. Tomorrow’s list might be entirely different—cities are always in flux, and so is what we love about them. The gum wall. Okay, I’m joking. I hate the gum wall. It’s gross. For those who don’t know this disgusting feature—a travel company dubbed it the second germiest tourist attraction in the world, after Ireland’s Blarney Stone—a decade or two ago, people waiting outside the Market Theater starting sticking their gum on the wall when they went inside for a show. Really? They meant to come back for it? I saw many a movie in that theater and it never would have occurred…