Susan, describe yourself for our visitors.
Here is my “official” blurb: Susan May Warren is the award-winning, best-selling author of novels and novellas with Tyndale, Barbour and Steeple Hill, including three Christy award finalists, three Inspirational Readers Choice winners, and three American Christian Fiction Writer’s Book of the Year wins. Susan currently has over 500,000 books in print. A seasoned women’s events speaker and writing teacher, she teaches nationally as well as runs a fiction editing service, training writers how to tell a great story. (check out her daily craft blog at: www.mybooktherapy.com) After serving for eight years with her husband and four children as missionaries in Khabarovsk, Far East Russia she now writes full-time while her husband runs a hotel on Lake Superior in northern Minnesota.
Okay, the truth is, I’m just a gal who loves a great story, and most often you can find me writing in my pj’s, with a piles of research books around me, lost in my own world. My children (I have 4) have long ago learned to cook their own meals, and now pretty much take care of ME. *Grin* I love to write, and to talk about writing, so…(oh, and if you want to know more about me go to: www.susanmaywarren.com. Book excerpts, and a bio, and upcoming projects and even a link to my blog!) I can most often be found jammin’ to Christian music (Third Day and Casting Crowns are my favs!), and hanging out with my kids as we brainstorm our cool Children’s Church (think: Saturday Night live goes to Church) or act in our local community theater.
How do you find time to connect with God?
Every morning, after the kids head to school, I settle into my big blue chair with my blankie, my journal and my bible. I lock my door, sing hymns and start my day with a conversation with the Lord.
Who are your favorite authors? Favorite books?
Dee Henderson, Francine Rivers, and some new favs – Rachel Hauck, Sharon Hinck, Karen Hancock. The CBA is so rich in great authors, it’s hard to choose!!
Tell us about your journey to publication.
I’ve always been a writer. I began writing in first grade when I won my first book contest! I wrote my first novel at 15, but I never really thought I’d be a full –time writer because I was a missionary, and there didn’t seem to be any room for that in my life. I did, however, determine to write the very best missionary newsletter I could – and to my surprise that led to my first published article. I suppose that is when I caught the bug – the first time I saw something I wrote in print! But I was still living and working overseas (in Siberia!), so I couldn’t keep on top of the magazine market, so I asked the Lord what I should write…and God directed me to novels.
I dove in and wrote my first novel (approximately 800 pages – a James Michener epic about Russia from 1938-1980) in about a year. I learned a lot about pacing and setting and storytelling and characterization in just “doing it.†I did get great feedback from a couple publishers and also landed my first agent. However, I really didn’t know what I was doing, and I spent the next four years writing more novels, and gobbling up everything I could about writing and craft. I read books, and joined ACFW, and attended online chats, and submitted my work for critiques and contests.
My big break came after a traumatic experience – I was locked in an elevator during one cold November night for about 2 hours, and after relating my experience to my ACFW friends, they encouraged me to write a book about it. At the time Tyndale was having “novella†contests….so I wrote “Measure of a Man,†and submitted it the day before the deadline. I thought for sure nothing would come of it because I had talked to another author who said the two things publishers didn’t wants were missionary stories and international stories (and mine was both!) But, Tyndale took a chance on me, and bought it! I could believe it when I got “the call†(or, in my case, the email, since I lived in Russia at the time.) That opened the door to my “arsenal†of books that I’d been writing for the past four years. Oh, but the epic is still sitting unpublished on my shelf. (It makes a great footstool!)
Tell us about your current book?
Taming Rafe is the story of bull-rider who finds himself caught in his worst nightmare. A friend of his has died, and Rafe has destroyed his career, and he’s broken and at the end of his rope. Enter Kat Breckenridge, a philanthropist from NYC who is trying desperately to keep her charitable organization from going under. It doesn’t help when Rafe decimates her event – so she goes looking for him, hoping he’s a decent guy and will help her out of bankruptcy. Uh…sorry, no. Rafe’s too wrapped up in his own problems to help her. But she’s persuasive, and she’s going to help him heal. In the process she also discovers a few secrets about herself that will change her life. It’s one of my favorite stories because I just adore Rafe. He’s a great hero – unwilling to see his need for someone until they practically force themselves into his life, but underneath that prickly exterior is a man with a great capacity to give, and love. Add to that the beauty of Montana, the excitement of bull-riding, a delicious subplot with a couple locals, and a spiritual theme about God at work in our lives. It’s story I am very grateful to have been allowed to tell.
How did you come up with ideas for this book?
I love everything cowboy, and grew up going to rodeo and watching with awe the amazing bull-riders and bronc busters. I began to wonder what it might be like for a bull rider at the top of his game who has a terrible wreck, and how he puts his life back together. Especially how he finds that courage to get back on the bull. The story of Taming Rafe is how he get’s back on…but as a different kind of man.
List your three most recent books.
Out right now is The Sovereign’s Daughter. Set during the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, it’s about a woman carrying a dangerous secret, and the man pledged to protect her.
Chill Out, Josey, the hilarious adventures of a woman who finds herself newly married, and pregnant…in Russia. Out with Steeple Hill over Christmas, it’s written in first person, and is a story every woman who’s felt out of her element will relate to!
Reclaiming Nick came out last January, to wonderful acclaim. It’s a modern day prodigal son story set in today’s Montana country. Rafe’s big brother – and he has his own set of issues that rival Rafe’s. It sets up the theme of the Noble Legacy series.
What’s next for you?
I’m very excited for my next book – Wiser than Serpents. Set in Taiwan, where I lived for about a month, it’s a story about an FSB agent who goes undercover inside a human trafficking ring, in the hopes of finding her abducted sister. Of course, there is also a handsome Delta Force captain who has to come to her aid when she destroys his cover. Together they face some pretty bad fellas with the hope of finding her sister, and other woman caught in the web of human trafficking. I’m really excited because I’m donating a portion of the proceeds of this book to the International Justice Mission, a real-live organization dedicated to rescuing women and fighting human trafficking around the globe. Wiser than Serpents comes out in May 2008.
Where can visitors find you online?
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