Interview with the fabulous SUSAN SLEEMAN and giveaway of FATAL MISTAKE!

Suspense Sisters welcomes Susan Sleeman to the our blog! 

Susan is giving away one print copy of FATAL MISTAKE (U.S. Only). Be sure to comment below and leave your contact information. 
Susan and I have known each other a few years and I consider her a dear friend, and a writing buddy I couldn't do without on this writing journey.  Her romantic suspense books are fast-paced with accurately detailed law enforcement procedures as well as all those technical gadgets--if you haven't picked up one of her books you should definitely START NOW.

Susan's BIO:

SUSAN SLEEMAN is a bestselling and award-winning author of more than 25 inspirational/Christian and clean read romantic suspense books. Readers love her romantic suspense series for the well-drawn characters and edge-of-your-seat action. She graduated from the FBI and local police citizen academies, so her research is spot-on and her characters are real. In addition to writing, Susan also hosts thesuspensezone.com. She has lived in nine states but now calls Oregon home. Her husband is a retired church music director, and they have two beautiful daughters, a very special son-in-law, and an adorable grandson.

Let's hear from Susan now! 

If you had to describe yourself in one sentence, what would you say?

I’m a Christian, writer, wife, mother, grandmother, and avid gardener.

What do you do when you’re not writing? Any interesting hobbies?

Not sure if many would find this interesting, but I love, love, love to garden in the spring and summer. In our Oregon rainy fall and winter, I love to plan and read about gardening. Have I mentioned I love to garden. LOL Both veggies and flowers. Here are the lovely raised beds my hubby built last year with our veggie crop.

What was your favorite book as a teen or child?

I don’t have a favorite book, but I devoured all the Nancy Drew Mysteries. I couldn’t wait for our library to get a new one in so I could hideaway and read it over and over.

Tell us three things about yourself that might surprise your readers.

1. I recorded radio commercials for a company I used to work for. It was so odd hearing my voice on the radio.

2. I once raced a turtle. I grew up in Turtle Lake where we held annual turtle races so it doesn’t seem as odd as it sounds, right?

3. I used to play trumpet. Not only in high school and college, but I played at church for years as an adult.

What genre did you start out writing? Have you changed course? Why or why not?

I started writing straight suspense and cozy mysteries and now I write romantic suspense and a few cozy mysteries. I changed mostly because publishers in the Christian market weren’t looking for suspense novels, but they were looking for romance, and if I wanted to make a career out of writing, I had to write what was selling. BUT here’s the surprise. I started reading romantic suspense to get a feel for the genre and discovered I love it. Who knew. I’m so glad I found out.

What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What has been the best compliment?

Hmm, toughest, I honestly can’t think of anything that was too tough to bear or a single criticism that sticks out in my mind. Maybe I blocked it out. LOL But most of my criticisms in the early days revolved around flat characters that weren’t well developed. I worked hard to change that and now some of the best reviews I receive talk about the characters and it makes me smile!

Now the compliment is easy as I’ve heard the same one several times from readers saying they are able to connect with the characters in my books and relate to the character’s struggle means the world to me. Especially a spiritual struggle. So the ultimate compliment was when a reader told me they’d given up on church, and the message in my book brought them to the decision to renew their relationship with God and return to church. How utterly amazing that one of my books helped someone find their way back to their faith. Praise God for that.

Any other genres you’d like to try? If yes, what and why?

I may be boring, but I feel as if I found my niche with romantic suspense and don’t have an interest in writing other genres. I want to keep writing romantic suspense for as long as I am able. I do still love to write cozy mysteries, but as long as I am blessed with contracts from publishers for romantic suspense books, the mysteries will have to remain on hold.

If you could go back in time and do something differently at the start of your career, what would it be?

Oh, man, just one thing? LOL I would start writing romantic suspense right off the bat for the reasons I mentioned above. Not only would I have started in this genre sooner, but I would have discovered the genre sooner, too and enjoyed many more books as a reader.

What is the most important thing you’d like readers to take away from your books?

Hope. Simple as that. No matter how bad life can seem there is always hope. My wish is that the character’s struggles resonate with the reader, and they can see the character work their way out of a problem and move into the light of hope. Then the reader can see anything is possible and they, too, have reason to hope.

What is the most valuable piece of advice you’d like to give to unpublished authors?

My piece of advice is not to publish before you are ready. I keep thinking about when I first started writing, and I am so glad that indie publishing wasn’t an option or I think I would have published a lot of drivel. Once your work is out there, you can never get back, and if you are trying to build a reader base, you have to put forth your very best work.

Thank you so much for stopping by the Suspense Sisters blog, Susan! We look forward to seeing you again here soon. 

Here's the back cover copy for Susan's upcoming romantic suspense, FATAL MISTAKE. 

Each day could be her last…but not if he can help it.

Tara Parrish is the only person ever to survive an attack by the Lone Wolf bomber. Scared and emotionally scarred by her near death, she goes into hiding with only one plan–to stay alive for another day. She knows he’s coming after her, and if he finds her, he will finish what he started.

Agent Cal Riggins has had only one goal for the past six months–to save lives by ending the Lone Wolf’s bombing spree. To succeed, he needs the help of Tara Parrish, the one person who can lead them to the bomber. Cal puts his all into finding Tara, but once he locates her, he realizes if he can find her, the Lone Wolf can, too. He must protect Tara at all costs, and they’ll both need to resist the mutual attraction growing between them to focus on hunting down the bomber, because one wrong move could be fatal.



Now doesn't that sound like a great story? It IS!

Remember, Susan is giving away a print copy of FATAL MISTAKE (U.S. Only) Leave a comment with contact information to be entered into the drawing!