Interview with Author Susanna Fraser and Giveaway

Today I would like to welcome to RFTC author Susanna Fraser. Susanna is celebrating the release of her book An Infamous Marriage and has stopped by to answer some questions. Please give Susanna a warm welcome.

Susanna Fraser wrote her first novel in fourth grade. It starred a family of talking horses who ruled a magical land. In high school she started, but never finished, a succession of tales of girls who were just like her, only with long, naturally curly and often unusually colored hair, who, perhaps because of the hair, had much greater success with boys than she ever did.

Along the way she read her hometown library’s entire collection of Regency romance, fell in love with the works of Jane Austen, and discovered in Patrick O’Brian’s and Bernard Cornwell’s novels another side of the opening decades of the 19th century. When she started to write again as an adult, she knew exactly where she wanted to set her books. Her writing has come a long way from her youthful efforts, but she still tends to give her heroines great hair.

Susanna lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and daughter. When not writing or reading, she goes to baseball games, watches Chopped, Castle, and The Legend of Korra, and cooks her way through an ever-growing cookbook collection.

Places to find Susanna:

| Site | Blog | Facebook | Twitter |

First off, can you tell us a bit about you? 
I’m a Southerner by birth, mostly happy in my adopted Seattle home, though every so often I have to get back down South for some proper barbecue. I love Celtic folk and bluegrass music (which, if you think about it, often sounds like Celtic with a twang), trying new recipes and restaurants, watching SEC football, and going to baseball games (though my favorite teams, Auburn and the Mariners, haven’t made it much fun this year!). I’m married with an 8-year-old daughter who’s already a bookworm, though she favors graphic novels and manga.

Did you always want to be a writer? 
Yes and no. I wrote my first book in fourth grade. It featured talking horses in a magical kingdom clearly based on Narnia, only I didn’t see the need to clutter it up with other kinds of Talking Beast when I could just have lots of horses. All through high school and college, I’d start manuscripts, get 3-4 chapters in, lose interest, and abandon them. I concluded I wasn’t REALLY meant to be an author, or else I’d finish something, and stopped writing for most of my 20’s. Then, not long after my 30th birthday, I got an idea for a story that just wouldn’t go away. To get the characters in my head to shut up, I said, “FINE! I’ll write you,” thinking that after 50 pages or so the itch would go away. A little over a year later, I had my first manuscript, and I haven’t looked back since.

What kind of writer are you? Panster or Plotter?
In between, but closer to being a pantser. I begin a story knowing how it’s going to end, along with a couple of major scenes and turning points that need to happen along the way. Those scenes are landmarks I write toward, though I don’t know the exact path I’ll take to get there until I write it.

Where do your ideas come from? 
Different places. Sometimes I start with a historical event or situation I want to explore or a traditional plot I want to tweak, but other times I start with a character and build the story around him or her.

A la Twitter style, can you describe your book (or series) in 140 characters or less. 
An Infamous Marriage - a rakish officer and a curate's straitlaced widow marry & are forced to learn fidelity and forgiveness the hard way.

What are some of your favorite kinds of stories to read? 
As much as I love romance, the books I re-read again and again tend to be science fiction, fantasy, or mystery series with strong romantic elements--things like Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan saga, Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel trilogies (all three of them), or Dorothy Sayers’ Lord Peter mysteries.

Do you have a favorite book and if so what is it? 
At the risk of being a Regency writer cliche, if I could have only one book on a desert island, it’d be Pride and Prejudice.

What are the scenes that are the hardest for you to write?
Action scenes. I’m more a verbal than a visual thinker, so getting the choreography right and coming up with vivid visual details is much more challenging than just turning my characters loose and letting them talk.

If you could have dinner with any three authors, who would you choose and why? 
Lois McMaster Bujold, Julia Spencer-Fleming, and Diana Gabaldon. I preorder all their new releases the instant I find out they’re available, so I’d love to talk shop with them and see what I could learn from their experience and expertise.

Last question, are you working on anything right now? 
I’m working on edits for my first-ever novella, an interracial historical romance set with Wellington’s army in Spain in 1813. Title and release date TBD, but sometime next year. I’m also putting together a proposal for a full-length sequel to the novella set in America in 1815-16--the hero is a British officer wounded and left for dead at the Battle of New Orleans who’d love to make it home someday--only there’s this beautiful woman wanted for murder who needs his help (a murder which she committed, but the man needed killing).

Northumberland, 1815

At long last, Britain is at peace, and General Jack Armstrong is coming home to the wife he barely knows. Wed for mutual convenience, their union unconsummated, the couple has exchanged only cold, dutiful letters. With no more wars to fight, Jack is ready to attempt a peace treaty of his own.

Elizabeth Armstrong is on the warpath. She never expected fidelity from the husband she knew for only a week, but his scandalous exploits have made her the object of pity for years. Now that he's back, she has no intention of sharing her bed with him—or providing him with an heir—unless he can earn her forgiveness. No matter what feelings he ignites within her…

Jack is not expecting a spirited, confident woman in place of the meek girl he left behind. As his desire intensifies, he wants much more than a marriage in name only. But winning his wife's love may be the greatest battle he's faced yet.

Purchase | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | All Romance |

Want to win some goodies from Susanna? Check out what's up for grabs.

Up for grabs:

• 1 lucky commenter will win a eBook copy of An Infamous Marriage
• 1 lucky commenter from Susanna's ENTIRE tour will win a $50 Gift Card to Amazon/Barnes & Noble

To Enter:

• Please leave a comment answering the following question: Do you re-read favorite books? If so, which ones do you go back to most often?
• Please leave your email address along with your comment to be entered to win the gift card
• Please fill out the Rafflecopter form

Good Luck =)

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