Ask the Author: Susan Strecker
Answered Questions (9)
Susan Strecker
My alarm didn't go off. And I was late for a book event.
Seriously- that's the most horrifying story I can think of. I hate being late!
Seriously- that's the most horrifying story I can think of. I hate being late!
Susan Strecker
I would go to Narnia. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe was my favorite book when I was little. The idea of slipping through a closet door into a whole other world is fascinating. I would love to go to Narnia!
Susan Strecker
Many of my favorite authors had new books out this summer. I spent a few wonderful, warm months reading Jennifer Weiner, Joshilyn Jackson and Jodi Picoult. Loved every minute of it!
Susan Strecker
One of my favorite fictional couples is Shea Rigsby and Clive Carr from Emily Giffin's The One and Only. I rooted for them throughout the entire book because they were such an unlikely pair, but they clearly loved each other. I was so happy when they ended up together.
Susan Strecker
Hi Grey! Thanks so much for the question. And for the compliment- I consider "dark" a great thing. My favorite novelist of all time is Pat Conroy and his work was so dark and beautiful and haunting. I like to think that I got some inspiration from his books.
My characters tell the story, I'm just the vessel they use to relay their tales to the world. Jenny and Cady dictated the rhythm of the stories. While I didn't necessarily set out to write two dark books, that was the path the stories took.
I'm currently writing my fifth book. And no- the three that will follow NIGHT BLINDNESS and NOWHERE GIRL aren't nearly as dark. While there is a person who died before the story opens in books three and five (just like the first two), all three of them are much lighter and were much more fun to write.
Thanks again for the great question!
My characters tell the story, I'm just the vessel they use to relay their tales to the world. Jenny and Cady dictated the rhythm of the stories. While I didn't necessarily set out to write two dark books, that was the path the stories took.
I'm currently writing my fifth book. And no- the three that will follow NIGHT BLINDNESS and NOWHERE GIRL aren't nearly as dark. While there is a person who died before the story opens in books three and five (just like the first two), all three of them are much lighter and were much more fun to write.
Thanks again for the great question!
Susan Strecker
Most of my books start with titles and most of my titles come from songs. My first book, NIGHT BLINDNESS, is named after a David Gray song, although I'd had the book almost completed before I named it. The idea for my first book came to me in the years after my father's death and I needed an outlet for my grief.
My second book (March 1st, 2016) came to be in a very roundabout way. I was driving with my kids and heard a great Red Hot Chili Peppers song called Scar Tissue. I thought it'd be a fabulous title for a book, so I started writing. Unfortunately, I had nothing but a title- no plot, no story, no characters. Nothing, but a title to go on. Ironically, after consulting with my publishing team, we changed the title to NOWHERE GIRL.
I love love love the story of how my third book, NIGHT FALLING, was born. I live with my husband and two kids in a great little town named Essex. Shortly after we moved here in 2009, I noticed a store downtown called The Wicked Kitchen. I thought that was an amazing name for a store in quaint, little Essex, Connecticut. Then I imagined how great it would be to create a book whose main character lives in a conservative town and has a store named Wicked. In the spirit of Picasso's thought that "good artists borrow and great artists steal," I am not ashamed to admit that I stole The Wicked Kitchen's name for the purposes of my book. In my story, Wicked's cover story is that they sell candles. Get it- Wicked? I crack myself up.
One day last summer my kids and I were riding our bikes downtown and while we were at a stop sign, I turned and saw my favorite kitchen store. Only, I noticed something I never had before. It's not called The Wicked Kitchen. It's actually called The Weekend Kitchen. In my defense, the font is a fancy script and the moment I turned forty, I noticed I couldn't see anything anymore. Nevertheless, I got a great book out of my mistake.
My fourth book came to be because of the famous TV show, Sex and the City. As we all know, for six seasons, Carrie referred to her on-again, off-again boyfriend as Mr. Big. I wanted a book with a character named Whatshername. So, I created BLUE ON BLACK around a girl who had a boyfriend who had a girlfriend named Whatshername. Silly, I know. But, it's been a lot of fun to write it and all of them.
Thanks for reading!
My second book (March 1st, 2016) came to be in a very roundabout way. I was driving with my kids and heard a great Red Hot Chili Peppers song called Scar Tissue. I thought it'd be a fabulous title for a book, so I started writing. Unfortunately, I had nothing but a title- no plot, no story, no characters. Nothing, but a title to go on. Ironically, after consulting with my publishing team, we changed the title to NOWHERE GIRL.
I love love love the story of how my third book, NIGHT FALLING, was born. I live with my husband and two kids in a great little town named Essex. Shortly after we moved here in 2009, I noticed a store downtown called The Wicked Kitchen. I thought that was an amazing name for a store in quaint, little Essex, Connecticut. Then I imagined how great it would be to create a book whose main character lives in a conservative town and has a store named Wicked. In the spirit of Picasso's thought that "good artists borrow and great artists steal," I am not ashamed to admit that I stole The Wicked Kitchen's name for the purposes of my book. In my story, Wicked's cover story is that they sell candles. Get it- Wicked? I crack myself up.
One day last summer my kids and I were riding our bikes downtown and while we were at a stop sign, I turned and saw my favorite kitchen store. Only, I noticed something I never had before. It's not called The Wicked Kitchen. It's actually called The Weekend Kitchen. In my defense, the font is a fancy script and the moment I turned forty, I noticed I couldn't see anything anymore. Nevertheless, I got a great book out of my mistake.
My fourth book came to be because of the famous TV show, Sex and the City. As we all know, for six seasons, Carrie referred to her on-again, off-again boyfriend as Mr. Big. I wanted a book with a character named Whatshername. So, I created BLUE ON BLACK around a girl who had a boyfriend who had a girlfriend named Whatshername. Silly, I know. But, it's been a lot of fun to write it and all of them.
Thanks for reading!
Susan Strecker
I recently delivered my third book, tentatively named NIGHT FALLING, to my agent, Lisa Gallagher. Currently, I'm in the third major rewrite of my fourth book. I call it BLUE ON BLACK, but I highly doubt that name will stick.
Susan Strecker
I deal with writer's block by not allowing myself to have it. Even if I can't think of anything to write, even if what I do write is terrible and I know that sooner or later I will delete it, I make myself write. Even if I only get a sentence or a thought or an idea from a scene that I've written, it's more than I would have had if I'd given in to writer's block and not written anything.
Susan Strecker
I get asked a lot what inspired me to write NIGHT BLINDNESS. I am truthful in my answer when I explain my father was terminally ill and I began writing as a way to work through my grief. What I have not said is that I needed to write this book, both as a way to honor my dad and to have something to hold on to. Writing was a life preserver in the deep end of the ocean, oxygen in an airless space. Although the end product is an entirely different novel than what I began in a dimly-lit hospital room in Baltimore, every word I wrote was for my dad.
People say it’s not healthy to hold on to the dead and sooner or later, we have to move on. I will never let go of my father. Waking every morning and knowing it may have been my last with him was like being trapped under a thousand pound boulder. It crushed my lungs. It was impossible to breathe. Worse than that, I didn’t want to. I was staring down the barrel of life without him, and there were times when it was just too much. Writing NIGHT BLINDNESS gave me an outlet for my grief, something positive to focus on. Hospitals, MRIs, steroids, surgeons, radiation oncologists and the swift knowledge that my dad, who was fifty-eight when he was diagnosed, only had months to live consumed me. It literally ate me. I lost a scary amount of weight. I kept getting skinnier and just didn’t care. The great love of my life proposed and while I didn’t quite say no, I definitely didn’t say yes. I was going down and I loved him too much to take him with me.
The bitch about grief is that there’s no getting away from it. All I could do was hold onto the helm and weather the storm. While this tempest will last forever, perhaps it has taken on a new form, the way rain turns to snow. One’s not better than the other, they’re just different. As my grief began to morph from one shape to another, I found I could breathe a little. So I started writing again. This time it wasn’t with the sole intent of outrunning my grief for one more day. Now I was able to say goodbye and thank you to the characters who had held my hand and sat with me when all I could do was cry and throw shoes at the wall. I wrote about what I felt for my dad. I paid tribute to him by creating a love between father and daughter that was so huge, it needed to be told. I wrote about family and love and regret and lost chances and the haunting question, what could have been? I will never let go of my dad. But, now, moving forward, I have created something for him, for us, that I will keep with me.
People say it’s not healthy to hold on to the dead and sooner or later, we have to move on. I will never let go of my father. Waking every morning and knowing it may have been my last with him was like being trapped under a thousand pound boulder. It crushed my lungs. It was impossible to breathe. Worse than that, I didn’t want to. I was staring down the barrel of life without him, and there were times when it was just too much. Writing NIGHT BLINDNESS gave me an outlet for my grief, something positive to focus on. Hospitals, MRIs, steroids, surgeons, radiation oncologists and the swift knowledge that my dad, who was fifty-eight when he was diagnosed, only had months to live consumed me. It literally ate me. I lost a scary amount of weight. I kept getting skinnier and just didn’t care. The great love of my life proposed and while I didn’t quite say no, I definitely didn’t say yes. I was going down and I loved him too much to take him with me.
The bitch about grief is that there’s no getting away from it. All I could do was hold onto the helm and weather the storm. While this tempest will last forever, perhaps it has taken on a new form, the way rain turns to snow. One’s not better than the other, they’re just different. As my grief began to morph from one shape to another, I found I could breathe a little. So I started writing again. This time it wasn’t with the sole intent of outrunning my grief for one more day. Now I was able to say goodbye and thank you to the characters who had held my hand and sat with me when all I could do was cry and throw shoes at the wall. I wrote about what I felt for my dad. I paid tribute to him by creating a love between father and daughter that was so huge, it needed to be told. I wrote about family and love and regret and lost chances and the haunting question, what could have been? I will never let go of my dad. But, now, moving forward, I have created something for him, for us, that I will keep with me.
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