Ask the Author: Susan B. Iris
Answered Questions (9)
Susan B. Iris
I am currently working on my next novel, called The Novelist. The story is about a modern-day working woman in the publishing industry who is burnt out and overwhelmed and dreams of returning to a simpler time, where she is taken away from her family issues, a needy boyfriend, and a difficult boss. She unexpectedly gets her wish, through a St. Christopher medallion, where she finds herself in New York City in 1978 and now has to cope with (a lot of polyester) and find a way to live in a completely different city and era where women's rights are not very solid in place. She runs into her bosses when they were untainted, hopeful, fresh-faced editorial assistants before the publishing company she used to work at moved from NYC to Toronto in the 1990s. Her experiences in this new dimension/time and place, make her realize, just how lucky she was all along living in Toronto in 2014. The issue is, how is she going to return back to Toronto when the St. Christopher medallion is nowhere to be found?
Susan B. Iris
As I mentioned in some of my tiktok videos (susanbiris) keep on writing and never give up. You have to put in the work and that means to write and write for hours. One of Canada's most successful writers, Margaret Atwood once was told by one of her neurosurgeon friends, that he would love to be a writer once he retired, and she responded to him, that she'd love to be a neurosurgeon too after she retires. There is much truth to that. Developing a writer's skill takes a long time, and a lot of practice, so write often and as much as you can.
Susan B. Iris
I want to travel to New York City in 1978, just as my character Sylvia, in my next book has done. I would have loved to meet Druenella Scholesberg another character in this book, in person too, and travelled up in one of the World Trade Centre Towers's elevators, which I never had a chance to do so, prior to 9-11.
Susan B. Iris
Yes, a two-sentence horror story would be something like this:
On October 31st, 2025, mobile phones, computers, and laptops completely vanished. The internet was no more.
On October 31st, 2025, mobile phones, computers, and laptops completely vanished. The internet was no more.
Susan B. Iris
I am currently reading: Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll
Then I will read:
Yellow Face by R. F. Kuang
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman
Red Rising by Pierce Brown
The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
The Woman Beyond The Attic - the V.C Andrews Story by Andrew Neiderman
Then I will read:
Yellow Face by R. F. Kuang
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman
Red Rising by Pierce Brown
The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
The Woman Beyond The Attic - the V.C Andrews Story by Andrew Neiderman
Susan B. Iris
I am lucky that I don't often get much writer's block. If I get stuck on something, I grab the newest or past Trance Album I haven't heard and listen to it as I take a long walk. Usually, I get ideas or answers to things that I am working through the manuscript.
Susan B. Iris
I do what is my favourite thing in the world, writing, creating and living through characters' lives that can be different from mine. They live in different time frames, countries, or in other worlds, or dimensions. They have skills I would have loved to have, i.e. be a synchronized swimmer, an Olympic Gold cross-country skier champion, or have some supernatural ability i.e. have lived for 2 to 3,000 years and never age above 30 years of age, be able to see through things/matter, be stronger physically, faster, and move objects at will.
When I work on my next book project, it's the most exciting and exhilarating time, as I write and complete the first draft, in which I do not edit, or revise anything, I get it "all out" of me. When I reach the end of that first draft, I get a pretty good high from it. Then shortly afterwards... the revising and editing process begins :)
When I work on my next book project, it's the most exciting and exhilarating time, as I write and complete the first draft, in which I do not edit, or revise anything, I get it "all out" of me. When I reach the end of that first draft, I get a pretty good high from it. Then shortly afterwards... the revising and editing process begins :)
Susan B. Iris
It comes to me most of the time. Music is a huge factor that causes me to imagine worlds, characters and plots. I love reading so other authors and their work inspire me. The works of painters sometimes inspire me. International films also inspire me.
Susan B. Iris
I was listening to an Armin Van Burren song on a walk and through the music, I saw a young mother, holding onto her toddler son, walking through a dim hallway, towards her apartment door. The hallway around her, was in chaos, with wires coming down from the ceilings, chipped paint, torn-off carpets from the floor, revealing ugly concrete, uneven floors... and the emotion over her face, extremely tired, wondering if life could get better... (little did she know it would get worse that night, into the early morning hours). The image of that planted a seed, that led me to write a plot that would become, The Maredian.
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