Saturday, January 30, 2016

Author Susanne Matthews "Why I Write" Guest Post


Good morning and thank you for inviting me to visit your blog and share a bit about why I write. It’s quite simple really. I write because I have to. The stories and the characters won’t be ignored any longer. Now, that makes me sound like a head case, so I guess I should explain myself before someone calls the men with the white jackets to haul me away.

I’ve always loved books and continue to do so, only now, instead of spending all of my time reading masterpieces written by others, I try to create some of my own. As a teenager and later a young stay-at-home mother, I devoured books. While some of my friends were hooked on the soaps, I usually had my nose stuck in a book, and as my husband is fond of saying, the house could blow up around me and I wouldn’t notice. When I’m really caught up in a story, he’s probably right!

In the mid-sixties before the advent of computers and the Internet, books came from bookstores—some from the supermarket—but more often than not, mine came from the public library. I dreamed of being a writer, but back in that day, books had to be written on a typewriter, one page at a time, without spell check. Those precious sheets of paper would then have to be bundled up and mailed off to a publisher in the hopes they’d want the book. Since I’m a “hunt and peck” typist, needless to say, my early work was confined to handwritten sheets of poetry, long lost.

Eventually, the time came for me to graduate from high school and move on. I left home and went to university. In my early teens, I’d wanted to embark on a number of what I saw as glamourous careers—a stewardess (too short), an archeologist, a journalist, a writer—but all of those potential careers were vetoed by my parents who didn’t see them as practical, employment providing jobs for a woman. No. My choices were simple: secretary, nurse, or teacher.

With a future as a teacher looming in the distance, at university, I studied my favorite subjects—English and history. I also met my husband and took a ten year hiatus in my education to have a family. During that time, when the kids were sleeping, I read. Eventually, they all went to school full-time, and I got my Bachelor of Education, teaching guess what? English. For more than thirty years I taught creative writing, poetry, plot analysis, character development, all the time longing to write a book of my own.

Thanks to the computer age and the Internet, like many other fledgling authors, what had once been an impossible dream was within my grasp. I had the opportunity to write short stories, Sunday school curriculum as well as academic curriculum, but none of those satisfied my yearning to be a storyteller like my personal heroes: Nora Roberts, Dan Brown, Robin Cook, JK Rowling, J.R.R.Tolkein, Daphne Du Maurier, I could go on and on.

When I finally retired from teaching, I decided to try and live my dream. I met a small group of writers, all of whom had never been published, and together we worked our way toward publication. My first novel, Fire Angel, released in April 2013, has been a resounding success for me. Not only did it earn enough revenue for me to qualify for RWA’s PAN membership, it continues to provide me with a small and steady income, but even more importantly, it stands as a testimonial to the fact that I can be the author I dreamed of being. With free rein given to my imagination, the characters and stories come to me at any and all times of the day, anywhere and everywhere.

Since publishing Fire Angel, I have written, sold, and published thirteen novels, two novellas, three short stories and two episodes of a sci-fi space opera. My latest novel will be released in February and another is in edits and will be available in Dec 2016. Currently, I have four novels partially completed, and I’m working on a Valentine’s Day novella/short story and episode three of my space opera. I have a number of other ideas simmering on the back burner, waiting for the muse to inspire me to tell those stories. A visit to my website can show you which books have already been published and which books are waiting in the wings for publication.

My latest novel, The White Iris, is the third and final novel in The Harvester Series. The first book, The White Carnation was released in April; the second book, The White Lily came out in October, and The White Iris will be available February 8, 2016.

So, why do I write? I write to entertain, and I hope one day to entertain you.

Author's Amazon Page

About the author:
Susanne Matthews was born and raised in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada. She’s always been an avid reader of all types of books, but with a penchant for happily ever after romances. In her imagination, she travelled to foreign lands, past and present, and soared into the future. A retired educator, Susanne spends her time writing and creating adventures for her readers. She loves the ins and outs of romance, and the complex journey it takes to get from the first word to the last period of a novel. As she writes, her characters take on a life of their own, and she shares their fears and agonies on the road to self-discovery and love.

Twitter @jandsmatt

2 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for inviting me to share my thoughts with you today. Have a great weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you so much for inviting me to share my thoughts with you today. Have a great weekend.

    ReplyDelete