Thursday, August 30, 2007

Fantastic Fives on Susan Lyons

Five words and/or phrases that describe you:

· Neurotic. I’m a writer – it goes with the territory.
· Creative. Not just with writing, but also photography.
· Organized. I’m a true mix of right brain and left brain.
· Way too busy. I really push myself to do a lot, but I also value and defend my reading time!
· A good friend.

Five people and/or things that inspire you:

· Other writers. They’re amazing people who somehow manage to write through all the neuroses (I swear, all writers are neurotic) and create memorable characters and thoughtful stories that inspire me.
· Family, friends and colleagues. Writing is a lonely life, and love and support are so important.
· Nature. I love its beauty and its strength.
· The voices in my head. All those characters and stories that are clamouring to get out.
· Real-life heroines and heroes. Whether they’re out there making the world a better place or just facing their own personal issues with quiet courage, they’re an inspiration.

Five of your favorite authors:

Barbara Samuel,
Kristin Hannah,
Luanne Rice,
Karen White,
Susan Wiggs.
They each write women’s fiction that’s on the romantic side. They create compelling, memorable characters and they all have a lovely writing style. Their work has given me so much pleasure over the years.

Describe five of your heroes/heroines through your eyes:

· I love writing about transition points in life. In real life, transitions may be triggered by external events or personal issues (like health), but often they happen because of meeting another person. That’s how it happens in my books. Women who think they know what they want meet guys who make them take a second look – and vice versa.
· Suzanne, the heroine of the first Awesome Foursome book (Champagne Rules, Feb 2006), wants a career but her priority is definitely home and family. So, I just had to team her up with Jaxon, child of an immigrant mom, who is all about career achievement.
· Jenny, heroine of the second book (Hot in Here, Aug 2006), respects her traditional Chinese-Canadian family yet wants to be a modern Western girl. She was juggling her worlds quite well, so I had to shake her up by sending her Scott, a sexy Caucasian firefighter – a man she can never take home to her parents.
· Ann, in the third book (Touch Me, Sept 2007), is the daughter of an uber-feminist mom and she’s so driven and stressed that her body’s in pain. Enter Greek God masseur, Adonis, who’s into balance, a healthy life and, oh yeah, tantric sex.
· Rina, the fourth heroine (She’s on Top, April 2008), has body-image issues that are so bad she’ll only make love in the dark. I had to pair her with a man who’s determined to bring her into the light and help her love her own body.
· Then there’s Tash, the heroine of my “Hot Down Under” novella (The Firefighter, Feb 2007), who travels to Australia to babysit her grandmother, and finds that the two of them aren’t the same women they were back home. Not after they meet two hot Australian men!

Five reasons to read your books:

· The heroines are quirky, fun and gutsy and the heroes are to die for.
· There’s always something to laugh over, plus a touch of poignancy.
· When my characters make it into bed, they have lots of fun and so will you (women readers tell me their guys are very happy when their women read my books ).
· You’ll see characters who are faced with challenges and have the courage to grow and change – and you’ll root for them and maybe it’ll help you find the courage to deal with some of your own challenges.
· I love writing and want to keep doing it, which means I need kind readers to buy my books and tell their friends!

Susan Lyons

www.susanlyons.ca


If you have questions,Susan will be here throughout the day,ask away.

Extra!Extra! For Susan's contest,you've got to do a little work. Sign up for Susan's website contest and make sure to put in your entry, that I sent you. Good luck everyone.

19 comments:

Unknown said...

HI Susan, what a fun interview..thanks for sharing. I love love love your books, and cant wait for more. I think i already entered your website contest so i dont want to do a repeat entry..
Jolene (nascarandbeans)

Susan Lyons said...

Hi Jolene --

Oh, go for it and enter again. Anyone who visits Danette's blog deserves an extra chance.

Hey, anyone who loves my books deserves an extra chance!

Unknown said...

I adored Hot in Here, and The Firefighter..will there be more firemen headed our way? your books are so hot i may need my own fireman...lol..

Lucinda Betts said...

I'm just stopping in to say hi! (Not taking part in the contest.) What a fun interview. You say you're a good friend, and I think that's self evident given the books you write.

Susan Lyons said...

Aw, Lucinda, what a sweet thing to say.

And Jolene, of course you need your own firefighter. Doesn't every woman? Seriously, thanks for the compliment on my books - and I'm not positive if there will be another firefighter or not. I'd love to do another Firefighter anthology with P.J. Mellor and Alyssa Brooks. Send good vibes in the direction of our publisher, okay, and maybe they'll contract us to do it!

Shelli Stevens said...

Great interview, Susan! I get inspired by nature, too. Love your writing, you don't need to give me any reason to read your books! ;)

danetteb said...

women readers tell me their guys are very happy when their women read my books

That's a fantastic compliment,Susan, I'd be inspired too.

Hugs, Danette

danetteb said...

Hi Susan,
Thank you for being here.

I have a question for you, Is there another genre that you would like to write?

Hugs, Danette

danetteb said...

Hi Jolene,Lucinda and Shelli,

Thank you for joining in. *g*

Hugs, Danette

Susan Lyons said...

Hi Shelli - and thanks.

Danette, thanks for having me here. And as for your question, whether there's another genre I'd like to write...

What with my short fiction and my novels, I write pretty much the full range of romance and women's fiction. Some of my short stories are women's fiction relationship stories that don't necessarily have a romance, and I'd like to do more of that in novel-length books. Just for a change of pace. Upbeat stories with happy endings, as with the romances. And I think I'd probably always want to write romance, but with varying degrees of sexiness. In my books now, I do explore lots of issues, but I wouldn't mind having more room to do that, either in longer books or in books where there were shorter or fewer sex scenes. (Nothing against sex, though!)

So far I've written contemporary but I do have a proposal out for a sexy 3-book historical series set in a gold rush town, and I'd love it if that got picked up by a publisher.

Anonymous said...

Susan,

So here is a new question!!! Ready!! How does it feel to know that your hot stories heat up some long time marriages?? Maybe you need an additional title .... ___ Therapist!!! LOL
Pleasure

Sue A. said...

Thanks for the great interview and for the reminder to enter your contest this month!

Susan Lyons said...

Pleasure, one of the most fun things is when a reader writes "fan mail" and says "I told my guy I was writing to you and he said to say thanks from him". It's great to help relationships - be they long-term or brand new - get some added spice.

BTW, there are some shy women out there (not you, of course!) who are nervous about telling their men what they like in bed. Especially in a new relationship. But if they find a scene in a sexy book and leave it around for him to read, often he'll get the idea.

Then there are the women who learn new tricks from our books and try them out, and when the man asks where they learned that one, they just wink and say "dreamed it up all on my own!"

Susan Lyons said...

Thanks, Sue. And don't forget to enter again in a few days because next month's contest will be up in early September. You'll get my newsletter and that'll be your reminder.

J said...

Hi Susan, great interview!

Susan Lyons said...

Thanks, Jen.

You coming to the WriterSpace chat on Monday night?

(Everyone's invited. At writerspace.com, the Aphrodisia authors chat on the first Monday of each month, from 9:00 to 10:00 EST. It gets pretty crazy!)

danetteb said...

Good luck with the Gold rush books, I haven't read any books about gold miners, It'd be interesting to read about a hot miner.( Change my mental picture of what a glod miner looks like...lol.)

Unknown said...

thanks for the writerspace reminder.. its one of my favorite chat nights when you all are there...have a super and safe labor day weekend Susan and everyone

Susan Lyons said...

Well, Danette, one of my intended heroes is a miner. The other is the town banker and the third is the saloon owner. The three women are... No, wait, I'm not going to give it all away!

See you Monday at WriterSpace Jolene/nascar.
And happy long weekend to everyone.