I don’t know about you, but I love a story where characters go back in time and find love in a different era. The challenges they face adapting to change is always interesting.Today, I’m happy to have Susan Royal, my friend and author of great time-travel novels, (along with some adventure, romance, and fantasy) take part in my first ever Five on Friday! I hope her choice of questions… and her answers provide you with some inspiration.
Be sure and check out her books and website. You may discover she’s your new favorite author! And don’t forget to leave a comment! AND, if you don’t want to miss seeing your favorite author featured on Five on Friday…be sure and subscribe to my email list. The sign up is in the left hand column!!
Born in west Texas and raised in south Texas, Susan makes her home in a 100-year-old farmhouse in a small east Texas town that comes complete with a ghost who has been known to harmonize with her son when he plays guitar.
Susan is married and the mother of six (she counts her children’s spouses as her own) and five grandchildren who are all unique and very special. Her family is rich with characters, both past and present. Her grandmother shared stories of living on a farm in Oklahoma Territory with three sisters and three brothers and working as a telephone operator in the early 20th century. Her father told her about growing up in San Antonio in the depression, and she experienced being a teenager during WWII through her mother’s eyes.
Susan loves to take her readers through all kinds of adventures with liberal doses of romance. Her latest book is From Now On, a time travel adventure/romance. It’s the stand-alone sequel to Not Long Ago in her It’s About Time series. In My Own Shadow is a Fantasy adventure/romance. Look for her books at MuseItUp/Amazon/B&N. Odin’s Spear, one of her short stories is featured in a Quests, Curses, and Vengeance anthology, Martinus Publishing, available on Amazon.
What makes me laugh? Funny movies like Young Frankenstein or Monty Python. Listening to my son when he’s on a roll…he should have been a comedian. When we spend time together, my daughter and I usually end up at one point or another laughing hysterically. We might boogie to seventies music in the middle of a store or make faces at each other across the aisle. One or the other of us is always doing something klutzy. I laugh at myself a lot. I laugh at my grandkids. They say the craziest things and are so humorous. I love laughing so hard it makes my stomach hurt.
Do you write in silence or listen to music? Music has always been a big part of my life. I use it to create a mood for whatever scene I’m writing. I have an IPod downloaded with mood music. Strings…especially cellos make me cry. Lately I’ve been playing The Sky Boat Song from Outlander. I love listening to the score from The Last of the Mohicans or Braveheart if I’m writing an action scene. In the morning I play something lively like Avicii, Imagine Dragon or Kodaline. Something to get the blood pumping.
Do you have a secret? Doesn’t every woman have at least one locked away somewhere deep inside? Something she never talks about and something no one else knows?
What is one strong memory that has stuck with you since childhood and why? I can still see my childhood bedroom, the afternoon sun filtering through the venetian blinds and turning the walls a rosy pink reflected in the hardwood floors. A light breeze stirs the curtains. My sister and I have been put to bed for a nap and my mother is sitting in a chair in the corner of our room, with a book. She read stories to us about how people lived in faraway places…exotic, dark and mysterious places I could only imagine. I’d listen until my eyes got heavy and drift away. For a long time, I wasn’t sure how much was real and how much was imagination…not until I found the book in my mother’s things.
If you could be a character from one of your books, who would it be and why? I’d be Erin, of course. She’s young and pretty, fresh out of college and willing to try most anything. She goes on what I would consider the adventure of a lifetime when she finds herself transported to a medieval world. And not only that, but she finds her knight in shining armor. Sir Griffin is a compassionate and honorable man, not to mention tall, dark and handsome. What more could a girl want?
It’s About Time Series: From Now On (time travel, adventure, romance)
In My Own Shadow (fantasy, adventure, romance) http://tinyurl.com/knda4dy
Book Trailer: http://youtu.be/Wbg8Z12ojY/ It’s About Time Series: Not Long Ago (time travel, adventure, romance) http://tinyurl.com/pepshqd
Book trailer: http://youtu.be/vOIQVdWUigU/ All books available at MuseItUp, Amazon, B&N, Goodreads http://susanroyal.moonfruit.com http://susanaroyal.wordpress.com
Thanks so much for having me stop by, Ann. Great interview, by the way. I enjoyed answering the questions. I realized some things about myself I had never thought about before!!