Ask the Author: Susan Kraus
Answered Questions (2)
Susan Kraus
Yes, there are a lot of sub-plots and tangents. And that is how the novels stray from "genre." But life has a lot of sub-plots and tangents. Life is messy. If a reader prefers a single-minded focus (i.e. Must find the terrorists who are about to blow up the White House in six hours!) then my novels are not their cup of tea. Because real life, the kind we live day-to-day, cannot sustain that intensity. I prefer slow, incremental tension, somewhat more subtle, with the distractions and 'tangents' of the ordinary (but I would say that gives the characters more depth, more to identify with), and then a "whammo" towards the end. The main plot circles back around, over and over, until "Bam!" Not that this will be the way all the books move, but it's where I am now.
I hope you enjoy "Fall From Grace." The main character is not as strong as she is in the later novel, so that makes it different from genre also.
I hope you enjoy "Fall From Grace." The main character is not as strong as she is in the later novel, so that makes it different from genre also.
Susan Kraus
I lived in Topeka, Kansas, and worked at Washburn University in their counseling center for 8 years. This was decades ago, when the Phelps and Westboro Baptist Church was gearing up for what would become a national/international "assault" on any person or institution or church or state to country that did not share their exact theology. Early on, pre-internet, fax machines around Topeka would be inundated with these creepy, attack-faxes (labeling individuals as sodomite fag-lovers doomed to burn in hell … and that is the polite version). When they started picketing , I used to look at the young children and wonder at how their view of the world, their sense of place in a family and school and city, was being developed? How did they see the rest of the world from behind their signs depicting sodomy and damning everyone else to hell?
And then, because I'm a therapist and mediator, a plot line evolved … what would happen to a child who was compelled to live in two worlds? How could they reconcile that? How would they be changed?
I did not plot out a whole novel. I start with a few visuals and then ask myself questions… "How did he get here?" It can be like a silent movie on my head of random scenes and I choose one and give it dialogue, and background and plot.
And then, because I'm a therapist and mediator, a plot line evolved … what would happen to a child who was compelled to live in two worlds? How could they reconcile that? How would they be changed?
I did not plot out a whole novel. I start with a few visuals and then ask myself questions… "How did he get here?" It can be like a silent movie on my head of random scenes and I choose one and give it dialogue, and background and plot.
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