Ask the Author: Suzanne Chazin
Answered Questions (13)
Suzanne Chazin
Great title. I put it on my TBR pile. All best wishes to you for success with the book!
Suzanne Chazin
Hi Linda. Thank you for keeping Jimmy in your good thoughts! Yes, Santa and his elves have been busy. Jimmy Vega will be making his return on March 31st with "Voice with No Echo" (book #5). I am also wrapping up a first draft of the book number 6 which will be out in 2021. You said you know that I have another series in the making. Is it possible that you thought "Voice" wasn't Jimmy Vega? It is--have no fear! This is a big year for this subject with the Jan. 21st release of Jeanine Cummins's celebrated "American Dirt." Please tell any of your friends and followers that if they like that book, the Jimmy Vega series is the companion series because it tells readers what happens AFTER immigrants settle in the United States. Thank you for your loyal readership!
Suzanne Chazin
Hi Natalie! Thanks so much for reading Jimmy Vega. I'm assuming you've read my Georgia Skeehan books? They have a strong woman protagonist. I would also recommend books by Laura Lippman, Kate Atkinson and Attica Locke for strong woman protagonists and riveting story lines. SJ Rozan has a new book out, Paper Son, that features her famous sleuthing duo, Bill Smith and Lydia Chin. The Smith/Chin series is good and the new book is getting good reviews, though I haven't read it yet.
Suzanne Chazin
Thank you, Linda, for being such a loyal reader. The good news: Jimmy Vega book #5 is all wrapped up and ready for publication. It's called "Voice with No Echo" and my publisher says it's my best yet. The bad: it won't be out until April 2020. I had a family medical issue which caused me to have to push the original due date back seven months. When I delivered it, my publisher could no longer get it into the schedule in a timely manner. But have no fear: I am working on book six as we speak so all will be back on track soon. Thank you for keeping Jimmy Vega in your heart!
Suzanne Chazin
Ibrahim (Abdu) and Julie in Nadine Gordimer's "The Pickup," a novel about a wealthy white woman who becomes enchanted with an illegal Arab immigrant in South Africa and follows him back to his homeland when he is deported. Julie's transformation forms the heart of the book. But it's the small, nuanced ways that each of them shows their love (and vexes the other) that made me read this book twice, I adored it so much. Love knows no culture, but as the book shows us, it can be expressed very differently. You won't guess where the story's going. It won't go where you wanted or predicted. But it will feel real when it does. It's a love story like no other.
Suzanne Chazin
I just checked, Scott. And it appears FLASHOVER (book 2) is available and FIREPLAY (book 3) is not. I don't know why. Let me get back to you as soon as I have an answer. Were you able to get FLASHOVER? Please drop me an email at suzannechazin@gmail.com and I will make sure I find a way to get you all the books.
Suzanne Chazin
Hi Mandy,
Thank you so much for writing to me. Yes, I plan to introduce a new book soon. I am working on my other series, the Jimmy Vega series, about a detective in a small town, and my third book in the series took longer than I had planned. But I'm hoping to begin a new Georgia book in the spring. In the meantime, please tell your friends about the series. The larger the readership for Georgia Skeehan is, the more I'm able to convince publishers that a fourth book needs to be published.
Thank you so much for writing. Please feel free to follow me at www.suzannechazin.com or on my facebook page: www.facebook.com/suzannechazinauthor
Thanks again!
Suzanne
Thank you so much for writing to me. Yes, I plan to introduce a new book soon. I am working on my other series, the Jimmy Vega series, about a detective in a small town, and my third book in the series took longer than I had planned. But I'm hoping to begin a new Georgia book in the spring. In the meantime, please tell your friends about the series. The larger the readership for Georgia Skeehan is, the more I'm able to convince publishers that a fourth book needs to be published.
Thank you so much for writing. Please feel free to follow me at www.suzannechazin.com or on my facebook page: www.facebook.com/suzannechazinauthor
Thanks again!
Suzanne
Suzanne Chazin
In the 1990s, a large number of Latin Americans began moving to the area I lived in. As the daughter of immigrants (my father was from Russia, my mother was born and raised in England), I admired their grit and resilience. I knew from watching my parents that it took a lot of guts to make it in a strange land. There was one big difference however: my parents were able to acquire the legal status that allowed them to work their way into the middle class, further their educations and eventually own their own home. The people I saw would likely never get that chance, no matter how hard they worked because most of them were likely undocumented.
I’m not political, but I felt moved by their situation. I began volunteering at a local outreach center that provided English lessons and other services to new immigrants. I got to know some of the people and began to hear their heart-rending accounts of near-death journeys and tearful family separations. The writer in me began to wonder: was there some way to share their stories so that others in the community could be as inspired as I was by them?
I contacted several local Hispanic organizations and suddenly found myself talking to people who, in many cases, had never shared their stories with anyone before. I interviewed almost twenty people—men and women of all ages from countries throughout Latin America. I began the project in the hopes that the people I interviewed would eventually be able to step out of the shadows. But our immigration policies have shifted very little in the past two decades. My subjects’ stories could not be told without exposing them to undue risk. The project ground to a halt.
Months went by and still I couldn’t get their stories out of my mind. I knew I had to find a way to honor them. Land of Careful Shadows is a mystery of course. But at its heart are the stories these people shared with me. It was the only way I knew to keep them alive--and the best way to share them with a larger audience.
I’m not political, but I felt moved by their situation. I began volunteering at a local outreach center that provided English lessons and other services to new immigrants. I got to know some of the people and began to hear their heart-rending accounts of near-death journeys and tearful family separations. The writer in me began to wonder: was there some way to share their stories so that others in the community could be as inspired as I was by them?
I contacted several local Hispanic organizations and suddenly found myself talking to people who, in many cases, had never shared their stories with anyone before. I interviewed almost twenty people—men and women of all ages from countries throughout Latin America. I began the project in the hopes that the people I interviewed would eventually be able to step out of the shadows. But our immigration policies have shifted very little in the past two decades. My subjects’ stories could not be told without exposing them to undue risk. The project ground to a halt.
Months went by and still I couldn’t get their stories out of my mind. I knew I had to find a way to honor them. Land of Careful Shadows is a mystery of course. But at its heart are the stories these people shared with me. It was the only way I knew to keep them alive--and the best way to share them with a larger audience.
Suzanne Chazin
I think a writer is constantly looking for and finding inspiration in everyday experiences and conversations. But as far as waiting for "inspiration," I think you just sit down every day and get the job done. The inspiration is the knowledge that you have something to say and you are doing your very best to say it.
Suzanne Chazin
I've just finished up the second book in the Jimmy Vega series called "A Blossom of Bright Light." It's the sequel to "Land of Careful Shadows." I am starting on the third book in the series now. Still to early to say more at this point.
Suzanne Chazin
Realize that it takes stamina to be a published author. You need to write something, and then write it again and again until it's really good. You have to be honest about your work and not afraid to ask for criticism (and yes, even hire an outside editor) to make your work as good as you possibly can. I don't know any lazy authors. Everyone works much harder at this field than they did before they got into it (myself included).
Suzanne Chazin
I think I need to distinguish here between writing for hire and writing your own work. I've been a writer most of my life, but a large part of that was writing for magazines. I loved what I did but I was really doing something someone else felt had to be written. Being an author is great because I am finally writing what I really care about the way I want to.
Of course, you always bring your own sensibilities to every piece of writing you do. Once, after I published my first book, a former colleague said, "now you're writing fiction." My reply? "I was always writing fiction--now I get to call it that!"
Of course, you always bring your own sensibilities to every piece of writing you do. Once, after I published my first book, a former colleague said, "now you're writing fiction." My reply? "I was always writing fiction--now I get to call it that!"
Suzanne Chazin
I tell myself that I'm only working on "a" draft, not "the" draft, and it doesn't matter how bad it is, it can always be fixed. Writing is an act of faith. You have to believe it will work out.
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