Ask the Author: Susan Wilson
Answered Questions (14)
Susan Wilson
Hi Joan, Thank you for your kind words. The Dog I Loved was one of the hardest books I've ever undertaken to write, the subject matter being so dark. Yet, as you say, the relationship with the dogs brought joy to the women. It's so hard to say which of my books is my favorite, a bit like the old saw about choosing a favorite kid--love the one you're with. However, having said that, One Good Dog, my first featuring the relationship between man and dog, is a good one if you're otherwise unfamiliar with my work. That being said, The Dog Who Saved Me has so many elements that I really loved exploring. Let me know which you choose. Best regards, Susan Wilson
Susan Wilson
This is a great question and if you've ever read any of the Thursday Next books by Jasper Fforde, that is exactly what his intrepid protagonist does. As for myself, I might enjoy an afternoon at Howard's End, sipping tea and discussing social injustice. Or, pay a call on Laura Ingalls Wilder's family on the Banks of Plum Creek. Mostly I'd like to enter the forest where Shakespeare's hapless lovers meet in a Midsummer's Night's Dream. In contemporary fiction, I would love to spend an hour in the company of any of Barbara Kinsolver's characters. I may come back to explore this question further. It's a really good one. Thanks for asking.
Susan Wilson
Gosh, I'm not actually one for reading lists. I love the spontaneity of coming across a book and grabbing it off the shelf. Sometimes I do give myself parameters, such as rereading books I liked years ago to see if I still do; reading only classics, that sort of thing. I might dabble in YA fiction this summer. If you've got something to recommend, I'd love to hear about it. Thanks for your question.
Susan Wilson
Interesting question. The most enduring mystery for me is a missing diamond ring. It had been my mother-in-law's engagement ring and when my husband proposed, he presented it to me. I took it off one day while typing, leaving it and my wedding ring on the desk beside my computer. I never saw it again. Twenty-five years later, still no sign of it. It was as if a vortex opened up in my office and took the ring. It was the hardest thing in the world for me to tell my dear mother-in-law that I had, for all intents and purposes, lost her ring. I'll never forget how gracious she was about it. Of course, by that time she was married to her third husband, who really was the love of her life, and a ring from her first, least favorite husband probably wasn't as sentimentally important to her as you would imagine. Still, it was important to me and not a month goes by when I don't wonder what happened.
Susan Wilson
Hi Lucy, That is a really good question and I appreciate you asking it. I think I started off with Mosley potentially being a predator, but as Cody had quite enough on her plate already, I thought that might be going just a little too far, so I toned him down into, as you say, a misfit with a poor understanding of boundaries. Again, thanks for a great question.
Cheers, Susan Wilson
Cheers, Susan Wilson
Susan Wilson
Oh boy, is this ever a hard question! There are so many wonderful pairings out there. Lady MacBeth and MacBeth, the original power couple. Or, Mr. and Mrs. McCawber. Seriously, I really loved Dellarobbia and Cub from Barbara Kinsolver's Flight Behavior. Not because they were a good couple, but because they weren't. Married too soon, under the thumb of his parents, living in one step up from poverty. Dellarobbia is, like the Monarch butterflies she studies all winter, on the verge of metamorphosis. Of other kinds of couples, that is the human/animal couples, I've got to go with Garth Stein's marvelous The Art of Racing in the Rain. Enzo and Denny have everything that a successful couple needs--loyalty, understanding and hope.
Hope this answers your question...cheers, Susan Wilson
Hope this answers your question...cheers, Susan Wilson
Susan Wilson
Hi Judy,
I learned a great deal about pit bulls from research and having the benefit of connecting with a pit bull advocate and an animal behaviorist who both helped me avoid perpetuating stereotypes about the breed type. As for Shelties, I've always loved the breed and have known several. As for writing well about family dysfunction, that's a harder question, with no easy answer. Every story I write comes from my imagination. Having said that, as a writer, I am also a keen observer of human nature. What goes into my head, comes out as a reconstituted experience, entirely fictional. The old adage is to write what you know; well, my philosophy is to write what sounds plausible, is compelling, i.e. draws the reader in, and creates a genuine emotional response from that reader. I don't know if this answers your question, but I do thank you for posing it. Yours is probably the best question I've gotten.
I learned a great deal about pit bulls from research and having the benefit of connecting with a pit bull advocate and an animal behaviorist who both helped me avoid perpetuating stereotypes about the breed type. As for Shelties, I've always loved the breed and have known several. As for writing well about family dysfunction, that's a harder question, with no easy answer. Every story I write comes from my imagination. Having said that, as a writer, I am also a keen observer of human nature. What goes into my head, comes out as a reconstituted experience, entirely fictional. The old adage is to write what you know; well, my philosophy is to write what sounds plausible, is compelling, i.e. draws the reader in, and creates a genuine emotional response from that reader. I don't know if this answers your question, but I do thank you for posing it. Yours is probably the best question I've gotten.
Susan Wilson
Hi Hana,
Thanks for you question and, yes, it appears as though there is an audio version of Beauty as well as a Kindle version published by Crown. I hope that you are able to access whichever one you would like. Cheers and happy reading, Susan Wilson
Thanks for you question and, yes, it appears as though there is an audio version of Beauty as well as a Kindle version published by Crown. I hope that you are able to access whichever one you would like. Cheers and happy reading, Susan Wilson
Susan Wilson
I am always interested in the effect that tragedy and bad luck have upon people and how they rise to overcome it. Equally, I always focus on the way our dogs bring out our better nature. I'd been thinking about the good hard work our animal control officers do, pretty much on an unsung basis, and the small heroics that they perform. That's where the notion for The Dog Who Saved Me came from.
Susan Wilson
It's what I love to do. I'm so incredibly lucky to write for a living. Yeah, sure, there are days (mostly Mondays) when I don't want to go to work, but once I'm in my seat and the computer is warmed up, I get to plunge into the make-believe world in my head, a world that will someday be visible to everyone in the form of a book.
Susan Wilson
I have just finished my upcoming novel, The Dog Who Saved Me (March 2015), so I'm currently working on all those to-do list tasks that have been ignored for the last ten months. And thinking about the next book....
Susan Wilson
Read. Write. Repeat. If you don't read the type of works that you aspire to write, you can have no idea how to do it. If you don't practice the act of writing, you can't get any better. The other thing an aspiring writer can do is to write at every opportunity: business minutes, a local newspaper column, book reviews, the PTO newsletter. You'll find your style and get in lots of practice.
Susan Wilson
There are so many nice things about being a writer: the act of creation, the being allowed to live in a made up world; working with a wonderful cadre of publishing professionals. Having people say nice things to me about what I've written. Maybe the single best thing is having readers contact me, letting me know that my work has meant something to them. That's why sites like Goodreads are so wonderful for writers. They bring our readers right to our metaphorical door.
Susan Wilson
We all get blocked, the important thing is to push past it. If I'm stuck, I usually go back and reread the work up to that point; begin making edits to that, which, in turn, loosens up the block and I can move forward.
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