Get to know an award winning novelist
If you’re new to visiting us here at Shelf Life, welcome! One of our favorite features we do each month on the blog is sharing with you our Novelist of the Month. These are writers that might be brand new to the market or ones that have been writing awhile and I want you to get to know a bit more. We always have fun getting to know the “person behind the books” each month!
For October I hereby declare that Susan May Warren is our Novelist of the Month (insert triumphant music here…)!
I had the privilege of sitting next to Susan at a dinner a few weeks ago. I’m sure you think that our conversation over a steak and potatoes was all about books and writing. Wrong! 87% of it was on football. I’m pretty sure Susan needs to be my new BFF.
Susan will be releasing a new novel on October 18 that kicks off a brand new series. Wild Montana Skies is the first book in the Montana Rescue Series. Susan is famous for her trademark blend of a romance and adventure. Let’s take a glimpse at the first book:
Search and rescue pilot Kacey Fairing is home on leave in Mercy Falls, Montana, twelve years after she joined the military to escape the mistakes of her past. With a job waiting for her as the new lead pilot of Peak Rescue in Glacier National Park, Kacey hopes to reconnect with the now-teenage daughter she sees only between deployments. What she doesn’t realize is that someone else is also back in town.
Ben King has been building his country music career since the day Kacey shut him out of her life. Now all of that’s on hold when his injured father calls him home to help run Peak Rescue until he’s fully recovered. It doesn’t take long, though, to discover his father’s ulterior motives as Kacey Fairing walks into the house and back into his heart.
With Mercy Falls in a state of emergency due to flash floods, Kacey and Ben are forced to work together to save lives. But when floodwaters turn personal, can they put aside the past to save their future?
I would love for you to get to know Susan a bit more. I asked her to share some tidbits with us that maybe her legions of readers might not know about her. Let’s see what she has to share!
Welcome, Susan May Warren!
10 Things I’ll bet you didn’t know about Susan May Warren
10. She won her first book writing contest in first grade.
I wrote an epic book about a little girl’s first day at school. She missed the bus, had her lunch stolen, her hair pulled and even lost her pencil. But she made a friend and managed to live through day one. Epic stuff. I’m sure I won because of the amazing pencil drawings. But, they gave me a certificate (who knows—maybe I was the only entry!) and somewhere inside me I started to believe I was a storyteller.
9. She wrote her first novel at fourteen.
I was that geeky girl who would ride her bike to the library every week during the summer and check out waaaay too many books (think: my backpack was stuffed, and I was still carrying books under my arms, pedaling home.) I loved the Black Stallion series, and a little known series called Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators. I decided to combine these two in my first book, scratched out in my loopy handwriting while on a trip with my family out west, about a girl detective and her horse. I think someone stole it. There might have been a cute boy in it. I think I still have it around here somewhere…
8. She lettered in football.
No, seriously. I was the manager. We won the state championship that year. I got a letter. And a letter jacket. I told my sons that they have double the football abilities than the normal child (both parents having lettered in state championship games!) They didn’t think it was funny. I still like it.
7. She lived in Siberia for 8 years.
No, I wasn’t in trouble. I volunteered. As a missionary. Hubs and I answered the call to missions through the CoMission project back in 1994 and headed over to Russia with our two, then three, then four children until 2003. I learned the language. We planted a church, helped build others. I wrote my first novels there, (staring with an epic tome about the Russian church. A mere 500 pages long.), and we made lifelong friends with the Russian believers. We still make Russian food and pray for the Russian people.
6. She knows how to swing dance.
I’ve always been a fan of the 40’s, the Lindy Hop and East Coast Swing and about seven years ago hubby gave me (us!) lessons for my birthday. He calls it the gift that keeps on giving. We’ve since attended festivals, won a couple contests and generally enjoy our patch of the dance floor. (and I’ve even taught my big tough football player sons to dance!)
5. She has a dog named Walter Mitty.
I love the movie – The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. (If you haven’t seen it, put it on your list for this weekend!) My husband gifted me with Mitty (a black labradoodle) when I turned 50. Walter Mitty is about a man who walks out of his dark place into freedom…and that’s what the year of jubilee (50!) is about. In my 50th year, hubs and I had big changes in our lives—we became empty nesters! So, my sweet Mitty is a reminder of the joy and freedom of the next 50 years.
4. She is a grandma.
And I looooove it! My sweet granddaughter was born this summer to my daughter and her husband. Although her name is Addison, I call her Bubby. Because she has the most adorable, kissable cheeks. Bubby was worth waiting 50 years for.
3. She is getting her SCUBA Certification
Mostly because my son is a Navy diver and I have to keep up. No, really, I finally conquered my fear last summer in Hawaii and took a beginning SCUBA course—and loved it! Now, I’m working on my certification for next summer’s vacation.
2. She went skydiving for research.
Actually, yeah. The best part, well, besides seeing a story come to life, is researching the story! I love a great adventure, and if I get to couch it as research, all the better! I’ve ski-dived, scuba-dived, surfed, para-sailed, gone spelunking, rode a mechanical bull and went white-water rafting all for the sake of getting the story right. I know…the way we authors suffer for our craft…
- She loves reading
But not just anything. I love the Bible. For me, as a writer of inspirational fiction, so much of my own journey in writing a novel is digging in deep in the Word, discovering the truths God wants to teach me as I process my character. Only then do I have the words and truth to sit down and start writing. I always say that if you, as an author, haven’t been changed by this experience of writing, then you’ve missed the point. Writing is just the way God draws me nearer to Him. And if others are blessed…then that’s fantastic.
*****
Susan May Warren is the bestselling, Christy and RITA Award–winning author of more than fifty novels whose compelling plots and unforgettable characters have won acclaim with readers and reviewers alike. The mother of four grown children, and married to her real-life hero for over 25 years, she loves travelling and telling stories about her life overseas (Russia) and northern Minnesota.
Susan holds a BA in mass communications from the University of Minnesota. Several of her critically acclaimed novels have been ECPA and CBA bestsellers, were chosen as Top Picks by Romantic Times, and have won the RWA’s Inspirational Reader’s Choice contest and the American Christian Fiction Writers’ prestigious Carol Award. Her novels You Don’t Know Me and Take a Chance on Me were Christy Award winners, and six of her other books have also been finalists. In addition to her writing, Susan is a nationally acclaimed writing teacher and loves to speak at women’s events about God’s amazing grace in our lives.
For exciting updates on her new releases, previous books, and more, visit her website at www.susanmaywarren.com.
