Susan Page Davis Interview

A. I’m a wife, a mom, a grandmother, a messy housekeeper, a horse and cat lover, a genealogy buff, and author of an eclectic assortment of books. I’m an agent’s nightmare when it comes to branding.

Q: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

A. Always. I just didn’t know it was possible. It was one of those things I dreamed of doing, but didn’t seriously aspire to because it was so far out of reach.

Q: Could you give us the highlights of your professional writing career including how you got your first writing break?

A. I wrote a police detective novel first. I’m afraid it moved too slowly and lacked suspense in the first 300 pages (grin). That one’s in the drawer. After I’d written several of these police procedural romances, I started targeting Heartsong with shorter books. At the time, they seemed more accessible than most Christian publishers. After several rejections of my contemporaries there, Jim Peterson suggested I send him a historical, as he needed more of those. I wrote my first one, Protecting Amy. He bought it in 2003, and I’ve written ten historicals and several contemporaries for Heartsong since. I finally did break into the suspense genre at Harvest House, with a military-themed series, American Heroes. The latest installment, Inside Story, was a February 2009 selection of Crossings Book Club. I’ve also published several books with Love Inspired Suspense, cozy mysteries with Barbour, and children’s novels with JourneyForth.

Q: Would you tell us about your current book release, Inside Story?

Claudia Gillette is a magazine writer who will go to any lengths for a good story. Navy lieutenant Bill White performs secret missions all over the world. Attraction sizzles between them, but these two can’t synchronize their schedules so that they’re in the same hemisphere long enough for a date. Claudia also has more than romance in mind. She wants the inside story on Bill’s special ops unit. She goes over his head to get permission to join his outfit on a sensitive mission. Bill is outraged, concerned for her safety, and afraid her presence will endanger his team. When things go badly, only faith in God can give them hope for tomorrow.

Q: Inside Story is book three in your American Heroes Series. How did you decide to feature American heroes and research their professions?

A. When I wrote the first book, Frasier Island, the character George Hudson, with all his neuroses and courage, was very vivid in my mind. I knew he had a secret to protect and a world he wanted to avoid. I wrote it as a standalone. But people clamored for more about his friend, Pierre Belanger, who helped keep George sane on the island. So many people told me they wanted more of Pierre that I followed up with the book about him and his wife, Marie (Finding Marie). Pierre is still in the Navy in this book. (By the way, researching the Navy aspects of these books was very time-consuming and nerve-wracking, but a lot of people helped me make sure they were accurate.)

When it came time for book 3, it seemed best to serve up another naval story. I brought back Bill White, who made a brief appearance as Rachel’s friend in the prologue of Frasier Island. The perfect match for him was a woman Pierre and Marie could introduce him to-Marie’s big sister, Claudia, who was seen briefly in Finding Marie. Pierre has a large family, and he and George have widespread connections in the Navy, so it’s possible another book could sprout in this series, but I don’t have a definite plot growing yet.

Q: Claudia in Inside Story doesn’t want much to do with Christianity at the beginning of the book. How did you decide to write her this way?

A. I wanted to show a self-sufficient character coming to realize she needed Christ. This allowed me more freedom in the story line in the first part of the book and made the story richer as her spiritual growth unfolded. In most of my books, the main characters are already Christians from the start. Writing Claudia’s salvation journey was a challenge, but one I felt led to pursue. I decided to use Bill’s friends and the people they rescued-rather than Bill himself-to be the major witnesses to Claudia. I wanted her faith to be independent of her feelings for Bill. Stu’s story, Heidi’s witness, and Santi’s faith all nudged Claudia closer to Christ.

Q: Claudia is a real fireball and go-getter in her career, yet she has heart and compassion, traits often missing in fast tracking career women, yet you combine them seamlessly. How did you come up with this character?

A. Claudia came home for a short visit when her sister was missing in Finding Marie. I portrayed her there as the girl who left home to escape the boring smalltown life and find an exciting career that took her around the world. In a second-generation, Franco-American family, she felt smothered and wanted her own identity. My goal in Inside Story was to bring her back emotionally. I wanted her to realize that the smalltown upbringing and tight family she’d experienced weren’t detrimental. At the beginning of Inside Story, when Claudia meets her new nephew, she finds herself unexpectedly craving the domestic life her sister has. It takes her months and many harrowing adventures to admit it, but she’s finally ready to settle down. Sort of.

Q: What inspires you to write?

A. Everything. I’ve always written, from the time I could form the alphabet. Stories, diaries, poems, essays, letters, you name it. I confess I come from a family of writers and readers, and we all feel slightly off balance without a book in our hands. As to what inspires specific stories, it can be lots of things-something I read or hear, a glimpse of a lake, a note from a friend. Ideas are everywhere, to the point where I’m sometimes frustrated that I can’t develop them all.

Q: How has being a published novelist differed from your expectations of the profession?

A: I used to think an author wrote a book, an editor read it and loved it, and the publisher put it in print-just the way it was written. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

Q: Would you share with us what you are working on now?

A. I am working on the very last chapters of a historical romance called The Sheriff’s Surrender. This will be Book 1 in a new series called The Ladies’ Shooting Club. I love the story and the characters and can hardly wait to begin Book 2. In 1885 Idaho, the sheriff of a small boom-gone-bust town is murdered. The men of the town don’t seem to be able to stop the string of crimes going on, so the ladies band together to learn to protect themselves. That rankles the men, who want their women to lay down their weapons and get back in the kitchen.

Q: Would you name three of your favorite fiction books you read in 2007 or 2008 and tell us why you enjoyed them?

In Search of Eden, by Linda Nichols-loved this story, even though I guessed how it would end. Eden herself was delightful.
The Shape of Mercy, by Susan Meissner. I love history, I love mystery. What can I say? I liked this book a lot, though I don’t usually rave over a combined contemporary and historical with interwoven stories.
I’ve got to throw in the book I’m reading now: Mollie Peer, by Van Reid, even though it has been in print about 10 years. Subtitle: The Underground Adventure of the Moosepath League. This is book 2 in the Moosepath League series. These books are too funny! 1896 Maine and adventures galore.

Q: What is something your readers might be surprised to learn about you?

A. I used to shoe horses. Really.

Q: When you’re not writing what do you like to do?

A. Read. Do stuff with my kids and (on the rare occasions I’m near them) my grandchildren. Travel. Read some more. And logic problems.

Q: Anything else you’d like to tell or share with us?

A. I hate to cook. Oh, you mean stuff about writing. I’m also doing a contemporary series set in Alaska for Heartsong. The first book, Always Ready, features a young woman who is a boatswain’s mate in the U.S. Coast Guard. Release date is July 2009. Come visit me on my Website: www.susanpagedavis.com . Thanks for inviting me here, Susan!