Interview--SUSAN KEARNEY 2

BIO: Author Susan Kearney is a native of New Jersey, writes full time and has sold books to the industries' top publishing houses. As an award-winning author, Kearney earned a Business Degree from the University of Michigan. Her knowledge and experience spans throughout the romance genre, and her fifty plus books include contemporary, romantic suspense, historical, futuristic, science fiction and paranormal novels-- with Lucan available now as part of this series, and Jordan coming in March 2010. She resides in Tampa, Florida with her husband and children.

Thanks for being here again, Susan. It’s a pleasure. Thanks for asking me to do this interview, Kelly.


#1- Tell us a little about yourself outside of your writing career… I like sports. Currently I’m into figure skating and belly dancing. I also dabble in real estate and travel when I have time. I’m currently planning my daughter’s wedding.


#2- You write in various sub genres of romance besides futuristics. Is it difficult to genre-jump and do you work on more than one book at a time? Genre jumping is always a challenge. Different genres require different pacing, different amounts of description and emotion. For example in a futuristic, I world build—but not as much as I would in straight science fiction. For the futuristic reader the romance is primary. The hero and heroine’s falling in love is important. Or course their falling in love depends upon their backgrounds and that includes the world they grew up in—and that’s where the world building comes in. Proper world building shows what is important. For example Rion’s world has been enslaved. Saving his people is more important to him . . . than almost anyone or anything. He’s willing to break laws, kidnap a woman, do things he normally wouldn’t do . . . to free his people from slavery.


#3- Authors now have to take a leap into marketing as well as writing. Do you find that connecting with future readers on social media sites and blogs help? I don’t know. Of course as an author I like to talk to readers. I like to tell them about my books. I hope they’ll give a futuristic a try. I always attempt to convey that while my books are set on other worlds and that while my characters can morph into dragon, that the characters are still human—with the same hopes and dreams and goals as all the rest of us. For who doesn’t want to love and be loved? And the more opportunities I have to talk to readers about my books, the more I can share a genre that I love.


#4- Where you feel you get most of your inspiration and story concepts from? I get story ideas from the strangest places. The idea of humanity becoming sterile came from a recent newspaper headline stating that male sterility was down 30% worldwide. And I thought what would happen if it went to 100%? The idea of Merlin came in a hobby shop. I saw this owl that could turn his head and I wanted him but couldn’t justify the cost. So I thought, I’ll put him in my book, he’ll be tax deductible . . . Ideas are everywhere.


#5- Assuming you get any time to read, what authors do you like to read, and were there any books that stand out from your childhood as favorites? I read anything and everything. As a kid, I loved the NODDY books. They were a series from England about kids traveling to other planets. I grew up reading science fiction. As a teen, I found romance. I always wanted more romance in my science fiction and now I get to write about dragons, starships and men and woman who save planets as they fall in love. What could be better?


#6- Are there any upcoming releases we would like to know about, and could you give us your web site so readers can check it out? JORDAN is the third book in the Pendragon Legacy and I have to admit, it’s not only my favorite cover, it’s one of my all time favorite stories. An excerpt and cover is up on my website. www.susankearney.com And I’d like to add that if you’ve already read LUCAN and RION, you’ll be familiar with the hero. If you haven’t read the first two book, the third book stands on its own.


#7- This about concludes it. Thank you again for joining us. Is there anything else you would like to share? I would like to thank you Kelly for allowing me to do this interview and for being a fan. And I’d like to thank the readers out there who read my books and write to tell me how much they enjoy them.