I am pleased to welcome back to my blog, author, Susan Buchanan. I met Susan on Twitter last year and interviewed her here after I read her excellent debut novel, Sign of the Times. For those of you who missed that interview, here's a link: http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_...






I recently read Susan's second novel, The Dating Game, and invited her back here for a chat.

Susan has also generously agreed to give away an e-book copy of The Dating Game to one of my blog followers. To enter all you need to do is leave a comment below, or 'like' this post. Winners will be picked on 25th January 2013.



Here's the interview!

Having read both your books, Sign of the Times and The Dating Game, one thing that strikes me about your novels is that there are lots of characters involved. In Sign of the Times (SOTT) you had 12 main characters all with different star signs and then there were the friends and family and acquaintances of those characters; and in The Dating Game (TDG) you have Gill and her 3 best friends, as well as all her dates, and work colleagues, and various other characters. I think all your characters are believable and well developed. This is no mean feat. Do you plan each character in detail before you write the book? Take us through your method for making sure that you can keep up with all the different characters in your books.

Yes, there are rather a lot of characters, particularly and understandably in SOTT. I started off with SOTT, just knowing the characters and building on them, but as I went along, I didn't want to get confused, so I kept a document with info on them. When I wrote The Dating Game, I gave each character a Word doc and filled in what I knew of them at the beginning and kept updating each sheet daily, as I learned things about the characters.

That's a great idea, I may have to nick that as I am always forgetting things about my characters, and that leads to headaches when I'm editing!!

In TDG, Gill joins a professional dating agency. Have you or anyone you know ever joined one of those types of agencies? If not, how did you go about researching how they work?

I haven't personally, but the idea for The Dating Game came from a friend who had joined just such an agency in Glasgow. Although none of her experiences are those Gill had (quite frankly my friend thought it was a complete waste of time and pretty dire!) some of the anecdotal detail I took from her.

In your book, Gill is sent a profile for each potential date, and then asked whether she wants to go on a date with him. I know you are a Rupert Penry-Jones fan. If you were writing a profile for him, what would it say?



Hmm. Now this is a tough one, as obviously Rupert is married. So let's have a little bit of poetic licence and say he isn't married. Great question!

Name: Rupert Penry Jones

Age: 42

Lives: Hampshire

Occupation: Actor - best known for role of Adam Carter in Spooks. Currently filming series 4 of Whitechapel. Many know me from the courtroom drama, Silk

Qualifications: Attended Dulwich College and Bristol Old Vic

Height: 6’ 1’

Marital status: Single

Smoker: No

Interests: Swimming, dog-walking, evenings in with friends, playing pool, wine tasting, playing football.

Further information: My parents, my brother and sister-in-law are all actors. I'd like to break into films, but although I have had some excellent roles, it's more difficult than you would think and acting is bloomin' hard work.

Looking to meet:
a) An intelligent, attractive lady who likes sport and trying new activities. Would be an advantage if she enjoyed the theatre. Must love dogs.
b)*love Scottish accents and blondes, so my ideal woman would be an author who is blonde and Scottish. I realise I am not asking for much!

*well, I can dream, can't I?

LOL, that's excellent!


In your first novel, some of the scenes took place in Italy, and in The Dating Game there are scenes that take place in Barcelona. I know that you are well travelled. If money was no object and you could plan your perfect getaway, where would you go and what would you do?

Oh Lord. So many places. I would probably want to do a round the world trip, taking in New Zealand (Marlborough wine country), Bora Bora (as it has always sounded really cool to me), Malaysia (I've always wanted to go to the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur), the Maldives (have always wanted to go, but we keep finding an alternate holiday destination), Reykjavik or Northern Finland for the Northern Lights, The Great Wall of China and I'd love to go to Machu Picchu in Peru, to name but a few!




Can I come? LOL

I know you're working on a sequel to Sign of the Times. I would also personally like to see a sequel to The Dating Game. Just as with SOTT, you have introduced us to so many likeable characters, I want to know what happens to them! Do you have any plans for a sequel?

At the moment, no plans for a sequel to The Dating Game, as I am already writing What If, my third novel, which I hope to finish by the end of March (the first draft). I had hoped to launch it in the Spring, but I am 6 months pregnant and expect to be MIA until about June! So likelihood is it will launch in the autumn. The sequel to Sign of the Times will follow in 2014 and quite frankly, I have another two books minimum planned after that.


Which book was harder to write, SOTT or TDG, and why?

SOTT, simply due to chronology, the amount of characters involved and the fact that it was written over such a long period of time. The book was initially a lot longer (I am often told I could have made a book about each character, so it's not really surprising!)

I think that too; you could have a novel based on each of the characters in that book!

How long did it take you to write TDG?

A lot less time than SOTT! I started writing full-time (more or less) in March 2012, after I published SOTT. Had already written three chapters of The Dating Game three years ago. All in all it took me 7 months to write, edit and launch it. But believe me, I am a glutton for punishment and I was working ridiculous hours to get it finished. I still really enjoyed it, though, plus I had learned SOOO much from writing Sign of the Times. That helped a lot.

I know that both your books are only available on Kindle at the moment. Do you have plans to make them more widely available for other e-readers, or as paperback books?

Hmm. Not really, not at the moment. My priority is currently to write and market the e-books, as I definitely see that as the future, but it's true that there is no greater lure than the thought of being able to touch your own books! I think it's not going to happen this year, though. With the baby coming and "What if" to write and publish, I think if I have bitten off enough!

Very true!


If you were single and joined a dating agency and you were sent the profiles that Gill was sent, which candidate do you think you'd get on most with?

Wow! The thing is, all of them have a little something about them...but my favourites would be Anton (am a sucker for accents and he loves classical music and he's tall!) Also Liam, he's decent, sexy, can cook and is a bit of a hero!


What are you working on at the moment?

What If, novel number three. I'd always had this idea of how my life would be if I hadn't split up with various partners over the years, hadn't chucked various jobs, met certain people and so forth. What If combines all of that, about protagonist Cameron. I'm excited about it as I get to get inside a man's head again (not sure that's wise!). I will be running parts of the story and dialogue past some male friends before I publish it, for extra realism!

Do you have any other news for your readers?

To be honest, not really, as I think I've probably given everything away above! Me and my big mouth! Rest assured plenty will be happening with the writing and on the blog between now and the end of March. In fact, I am doing a blog hop from 17th-21st January, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

Thanks for having me on your blog, Maria. Always a pleasure. Sooz

Thanks for answering my questions, Sooz! I hope all goes smoothly with the new baby, and the next book. I look forward to reading more of your work!

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If you'd like the chance to win a copy of The Dating Game, don't forget to 'like' this interview, or leave a comment below. Good luck!