1.)
What genre do you typically read?
I typically read the same genre I write in-humorous
cozy mysteries. I read mainly humorous cozy mysteries because I enjoy the
challenge of solving puzzles without the excessive gore associated with
traditional mysteries. I also read women’s fiction because as a woman, I find
the female characters ones I can relate to.
2.)
Share a favourite childhood memory:
When I was six years old, I accompanied my
maternal grandmother and great-grandmother on a summer-long trip to California.
I experienced my first airplane flight. This was before planes were equipped
with jet engines and the overnight flight on the propeller-equipped plane from
New York to San Francisco took twelve hours.
We spent a month in San Francisco visiting my
great-aunt and uncle’s family. I got to visit Chinatown, the Wharf, Golden Gate
park, and take a boat cruise around San Francisco Bay and see Alcatraz Prison. We
took side trips to the wine country and the redwood forest.
At the end of the month our San Francisco
relatives took us to Lake Tahoe where we met up with my great-aunt and her
family from Los Angles. After a week at Lake Tahoe, we went to LA with our
family. Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm had both just recently opened that
summer and I was fortunate to visit both remarkable parks.
I am fairly
certain I was the first girl in all of New Jersey to have visited both parks.
When school started in the fall, my elementary school had an assembly and,
wearing my Mickey Mouse ears, I got to tell the whole school about those two
amazing places.
3.)
Do you have any shameless addictions? I do. I am a coffee
fanatic. I love shoes. I have so many pairs, I am embarrassed to say, my husband
refers to me as the infamous shoe lover, Imelda Marcos of Palm Desert,
California. I also have been an avid stamp collector since I was a pre-teen. I
have been all over the world via my stamp collection.
4.)
What do you think is the biggest challenge of writing
a new book? Knowing where to start the story. In Rag Lady I honestly struggled with
this and ultimately decided to start the story before the protagonist actually
accepted the job so as to add context-which ended up being key to the success
of the plot. As a mystery writer, the biggest challenge is how quickly to
introduce the dead body. The rule of thumb is the murder must be revealed by no
later than page fifty, but most mystery readers want to see the corpse
discovered ASAP. The murder victim shows up in Death by Cutting Table
5.)
Do you aim for a set amount of words/pages a day? Honestly, I do not. I
try to write something every day, but sometimes life gets in the way. Nor do I
have a set time that I write. I am by nature a night owl and typically do my best
writing after dinner and into the wee hours of the night.
6.)
What are your thoughts on writing a book series? My humorous cozy
mysteries are all part of The Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series. I think readers
become more invested in the characters when they appear in a series. Writing a standalone book requires a goodly amount of character development
and plot planning. Writing a series requires the same. But by having a cast of
long-term continuing characters an author must create one with distinctive
histories, personalities, and quirks for them to keep readers interested enough
so the series successfully continues.
Rag Lady Blurb
Recent
college graduate Holly Schlivnik dreams of being a writer, but fate has other
plans. A family crisis throws her into an improbable situation and her life
will never be the same. Determined to make her own luck when things don’t
happen the way she plans, the irrepressible young woman takes a sledge hammer
to the glass ceiling and shatters it to smithereens.
The wise-cracking, irreverent transplanted Californian takes you on a raucous,
rollicking rollercoaster ride of her hysterical adventures as a ladies apparel
sales rep traveling in the deep South as she ends up finding herself along the
way.
BUY Links:
Amazon: Amazon.com:
Rag Lady (Holly Swimsuit Series Book 1) eBook : Black, Susie : Kindle Store
Barnes & Noble: Rag Lady by Susie Black, Paperback | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)
BIO:
Named Best US Author of the Year by N. N.
Lights Book Heaven, award-winning cozy mystery author Susie Black was born in
the Big Apple but now calls sunny Southern California home. Like the
protagonist in her Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series, Susie is a successful apparel
sales executive. Susie began telling stories as soon as she learned to talk.
Now she’s telling all the stories from her garment industry experiences in
humorous mysteries.
She reads, writes, and speaks Spanish,
albeit with an accent that sounds like Mildred from Michigan went on a Mexican
vacation and is trying to fit in with the locals. Since life without pizza and
ice cream as her core food groups wouldn’t be worth living, she’s a dedicated
walker to keep her girlish figure. A voracious reader, she’s also an avid stamp
collector. Susie lives with a highly intelligent man and has one incredibly
brainy but smart-aleck adult son who inexplicably blames his sarcasm on an
inherited genetic defect.
Looking for more? Contact Susie at:
Website: www.authorsusieblack.com
E-mail: mysteries_@authorsusieblack.com
Book Bub: www.bookbub.com/authors/susie-black
Facebook: https://facebook.com/TheHollySwimsuitMysterySeries
Good Reads: Search results for "Susie Black" (showing 1-9 of
82 books) | Goodreads
Instagram: Susie
Black (@hollyswimsuit) • Instagram photos and videos
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/authorsusieblack-61941011
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hollysusie1_saved/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/@hollyswimsuit
Rachel, thank you so much for the fantastic spotlight. Susie Black
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