SUSAN SQUIRES-Interview with the Author

New York Times bestselling author: Susan Squires has released the first novel in her new CHILDREN OF MERLIN SERIES-Do You Believe In Magic?

TRC: Hi Susan and welcome to The Reading Café. We would like to start with some personal information. Please tell us something about yourself.

Susan: That’s a tall order! Well, I’m a Californian, born and bred. I lived most of my childhood in small towns in Northern California. I met my husband at UCLA when he was a screenwriting major and I was an English major. We’ve been married a long, wonderful time. I used to ride horses, but my exquisite horse, Finny (Finlandia) passed away unexpectedly, and I have had a few too many trips to the ER, so I have not gotten another. We have three Belgian sheepdogs. I train Violet in obedience and rally, and Belle (our rescue) in agility. Blitz is Daddy’s boy entirely. I love to knit. I worked as an executive for a Fortune 500 company until last year, when I got to quit my day-job. My fellow executives thought it was amusing that I wrote books (ones that had sex scenes! Oh, my!) I’m lucky enough to live at the beach in Southern California. We’re remodeling our house, which is driving us both crazy, but will be over soon.

TRC: You have had a very successful career as an author. What inspired you to write your first romance novel?

Susan: Believe it or not, my husband, Harry, introduced me to romance. He read me Georgette Heyer’s THESE OLD SHADES. I thought it was a nearly perfect book (except it didn’t have enough sex in it.) I also read a lot of sci-fi, mysteries, and historical novels. I had always wanted to write. I was reading a book one day with an interesting premise, but I didn’t think the author delivered on the idea. I said to myself, “I may not be Jane Austen, but I can do better than that!” And I started to write my first novel, which (much later) turned into SACRAMENT, a vampire novel set in the Regency that owes much to Georgette.

TRC: Has there been anything particularly challenging in your writing career that you would like to share?

Susan: I would say two things. Working at least 55 hours a week on a day job while meeting contract deadlines for 12 years was a challenge. I got so I was able to write in the middle seat of an airplane. No waiting for the muse to arrive, you had to snap your fingers and expect her to appear. The second challenge was persevering in learning how to write well. I was a fairly horrible writer when I started out. But I joined a critique group lead by a pro, and took classes at UCLA, and just kept at it. I still try to keep improving my craft.

TRC: Your husband is the author Harry Squires aka H R Knight. Have you ever considered co-authoring a series of books together?

Susan: We’ve kicked around several ideas. Let’s see–there’s the one about a detective man and wife (a sort of modern Nick and Nora Charles) who solve mysteries at famous luxury hotels. So of course we’d have to go stay at luxury hotels everywhere and write it off. J And there was the reincarnation romance. We almost did that one. But we always end up chickening out. We have different work styles as well as prose styles. Writing together would either be wonderful, or endanger a very happy thirty-five year marriage.

TRC: Many authors bounce ideas and information between each other and family Do you and your husband share ideas?

Susan: Definitely, yes. He helped me out of a corner just two days ago. He’s a wonderful writer with a fabulous sense of story. And I’ve helped him as well. It’s great to have a significant other who knows what you’re going through. We read each other’s first drafts and make suggestions. The rule is: you have to say something nice first. Then you can be brutally honest. It took a while to come to the point where we can do that without egos getting the way. As far as sharing ideas, we do–up to a point. He came up with a wonderful phrase the other day while we were at the farmer’s market. We both looked at each other and he said, “Don’t you dare. That one’s mine.”

TRC: Many artists (including authors) are perfectionists and sometimes have difficulties making deadlines. With two authors in the same household, how do you handle the anxiety levels during ‘crunch-times’ for deadlines etc?

Susan: Oh, you don’t want to be around the Squires household when we’re both having the same problem at the same time–whether that’s deadline crunch or writer’s block. The difference is that with writer’s block, the house is VERY clean. When we’re both working as hard as we can…not so much.

TRC: The Children of Merlin is your new fantasy romance series. Please tell us the premise behind the idea for the series?

Susan: In THE MISTS OF TIME, my last DaVinci Time Travel novel from St. Martin’s Press, the heroine went back in time to Camelot. Merlin was a character in it. I found I was thinking about him a lot, wondering what the rest of his life would have been like. I decided he would have wanted to have progeny who were more powerful even than he was. So I made up a history for him. He did have children, but the magic dispersed and was lost. The magic gene embedded in his DNA was passed down, however, through the ages. Now the magic itself is bent on strengthening. When one who has the gene meets their destined true love, it’s because they share that ancient DNA. The urge to mate is strong. The magic becomes active and they gain a power–some small portion of what Merlin had. And they will pass it to their children. The magic will grow strong in men again, and change the world, for better or for worse.

The Children of Merlin series is about the Tremaine family. They live in modern day Los Angeles and have the magic gene. Brina and Brian Tremaine, the parents, found true love and their magic before the start of the series proper. Now they have hopes that their children will follow in their footsteps. But there are those who got their magic gene from Morgan Le Fay, and they have their own plans. They’re the adversaries of the Tremaines throughout the books.

TRC: DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC is the first novel in The Children of Merlin series. Please tell us something about the premise?

Susan: Tristram Tremaine has never fit in with his large and successful family. He certainly doesn’t believe in true love, or that he will share in some magical purpose. After disappointing his parents one too many times, Tris, the bad-boy brother, leaves his life in LA and hits the road on his cycle, drifting away from his destiny. That is, until he meets Maggie O’Brian, a spitfire rodeo rider with a strange ability to calm wild horses. Maggie lives on the road too, avoiding relationships. Her mother left her, the boy she loved left her–even her dog left her. Her secret desire for enduring love and a family seems far away. The last thing she needs in her life is a tomcat with “love ‘em and leave ‘em” written all over him. But the connection between Tris and Maggie is instantaneous. After a mysterious accident nearly kills Tris, he and Maggie must learn to believe both in their destiny and each other to stay one step ahead of those who will do anything to prevent them from claiming their future.

TRC:The Tremaine family is the focus of the new series, and you have introduced a number of Tremaine siblings as well as extended family members. Do you have plans for each sibling’s storyline? How many books do you have planned for this series?

Susan: There will be six books, I think. Each one will follow one of the Tremaine children. I have a synopsis finished for each book. That doesn’t mean the story won’t change, but I know where I’m going generally. It’s really a challenge to show how each Tremaine grows and changes over the arc of the books, which will cover a time frame of about ten years.

TRC: Brina and Brian Tremaine are the head of the family unit. Have you considered a pre-quel to the series to explain how they met and acquired their powers?

Susan: Oh, you clever woman! I’m just about finished with book two in the series, and I thought I’d pause and write a novella with Brian and Brina’s story. That scares me a little. They would have met in the early eighties. I wonder if readers will connect with a story set in the recent past.

TRC: I (Sandy) love prequels. There are alway established characters in any series, where there is limited information, so prequels help alleviate the curiosity factor as well as filling in the blanks. 😉

TRC: HE’S A MAGIC MAN is Drew’s story. Please tell us about the premise for this storyline?

Susan: Drew is the oldest girl. She is very sure of her future. She knows she’ll find true love and her power, it’s just a matter of when. Lightning strikes when she glimpses a gorgeous man on television and gets a vision of the future. Her power has arrived and she’s off to the Florida Keys in search of the man who she’s sure is her destiny. Dowser can find things, anywhere, anytime. But he only uses his gift to find sunken treasure for rich dilettantes when he needs money to stay drunk, trying to numb his pain. When Drew finds Dowser, she’s shocked. This derelict can’t be her destiny. Still, they’re attracted to each other. But fate has played a cruel trick on them both. Dowser is still in love with his dead wife, Alice. Now a shadowy group wants Dowser to find a Talisman handed down from Merlin which will intensify their power, and in return they will give back to Dowser the one thing he wants: Alice. Both Drew and Dowser will have to make choices, and they look like they’re going to be painful.

TRC: The Tremaine family is gifted musically as well as magically. Do the titles of the novels have any significance to the storylines or what was the deciding factor in naming the novels?

Susan: Lanyon is the brother who’s the musician. He’ll get his story in book five. While the titles aren’t directly related to him, I chose song titles for all but the last book because they’re evocative and easy to remember. Each title does relate to the content of the books. For instance, DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC? is about the brother who doesn’t believe, and HE’S A MAGIC MAN is about the sister who doubts that the man who raised her power has magic of his own.

TRC: Which character do you feel will be the most difficult to write and why?

Susan: I may not know until I get farther into the books, but I suspect it may be the villainess. I want to make her pure evil, but also understandable. That’s hard. Then there’s Tammy, the youngest daughter. She goes through a lot during the course of the books, and we see her grow up. Hers is the last story, and that may be hard as well.

TRC: On what are you currently working?

Susan: I’m almost finished with the first draft of HE’S A MAGIC MAN and looking forward to re-writes. I always revise a lot. Then it will be off to do Brian and Brina’s backstory novella. Novellas are hard! They have to be short, and yet complete and deeply felt. Not easy. But I think I’ll be well on my way into the third book in the series by the fall.

TRC: Would you like to add anything else?

Susan: Only that I’m really enjoying writing these books. I’ve always wanted to write a big, loving family who make mistakes and have misunderstandings, and yet are always there for each other.

LIGHTNING ROUND

Favorite Food – Lobster

Favorite Dessert –Harry’s sorbets (he’s a wonderful cook!)

Favorite Movie – Kate and Leopold is a guilty pleasure.

Favorite TV Show – Right now–True Blood.

Last Movie you Saw – The Avengers with Harry.

Dark or Milk Chocolate? – Milk. Sorry

Last Vacation Destination- Florida Keys and Caribbean Islands

Favorite Song – I’ve been walking around singing an old Tim McGraw song, “Live Like You Were Dying” for the past two weeks.

TRC: Susan, thank you for taking the time to answer our questions. The Children of Merlin series is a refreshing new concept in the genre of fantasy-romance. We wish you the best of luck with the new series.