Friday Fav. Interview with Susan Bischoff and Giveaway!

Today I am thrilled to have Susan Bischoff here at Book Crazy as my Friday Fav. Susan and I have, though email, become friends she's funny, bright and lovely to chat with, I am so excited to share her with you! As well as get a little tidbit of info on Hero's 'Till Curfew (Talent Chronicles, #2)!

Where did the idea of Hush Money come from?
Hush Money is the first story in the Talent Chronicles series. The Chronicles is something I’ve been kicking around for years because I LOVE superheroes, Saturday morning cartoons, superhero movies like Batman, but I get so frustrated by what they do to the romances in those stories (and sometimes by the way they portray women, but that’s a whole other deal…). So I kept saying, someday, I’m going to have superhero romance and there WILL be happily ever after, dammit!! (Picture me raising my fist in some Gone With the Wind “So help me” moment. It’s very dramatic.)

Anyway, the Talent Chronicles actually originated as a series with adult characters that I wasn’t doing particularly well with, and I was looking for some fresh ideas. While watching the entire Buffy series back-to-back, again, I just thought, “Man, I wish I’d written Buffy.” It didn’t take long for me to decide that I was at least going to try.

Of course, I couldn’t actually write Buffy. Been done. And even though Joss is definitely worlds away from being a Buffy, I hope that some of what inspired me comes through in her story.

Did you draw any of the character's traits from yourself or those you know?
The way I think about this stuff, every character I write has to have a facet of me. It’s not that they are all me, but there has to be something that we share, something that serves a bridge for me to get into them and write them. Otherwise, I don’t think they’d ever feel authentic. So I guess the best way to describe that is just to say that it’s that feeling you get when you’re talking to someone, someone who’s not exactly like you, but you think, “Yes! I’ve had that experience, I know exactly what you mean.” In at least that one area, you “get” them and have a connection. So some traits are mine, and some I steal from other people.

In Hush Money, Joss is taught from a young age that standing out, is never a good thing, with good reason - but did this give you pause, while writing? With teens today being so afraid to be who they really are, did you think anyone might take it the wrong way (if they don't read the whole book, which would be silly since it's amazing but...)?
Honestly, that’s one of the important themes for me, personally, in Hush Money. To some people, conformity is just sooo important. And sometimes it can be very soul-sucking and damaging. I think Joss experiences something that a lot of kids do, as far as their parents having certain expectations. Joss’s dad wants her to fit a certain mold, and yes, that’s because he loves her and doesn’t want her to become a caged animal in a government lab. For other kids, it might be a parent who wants them to really stand out and excel. Those are two sides of the same coin. Part of what Joss is going through is a bump that makes her stumble on her path, it’s waking her up a little, and it’s making her question whether this is the only way, whether it’s really right or what she wants.

One of the teen movies I really love is Pump Up the Volume with Christian Slater. Often, as I’m thinking through these situations, I’m hearing Paige Woodward (“the girl who blew up her kitchen”) at the podium, ranting about how she’s just been going through the motions of being perfect, “and we’re all just afraid to be who we really are!”

So this struggle about hiding our true identity is something that a lot of us have to go through, even if we don’t have an illegal superpower. I hope readers will relate to that, and that it will pull them through the story, and maybe get them thinking about their own path.

Kat, really dragged Joss kicking and screaming from her shell, in turn allowing Joss to fully come into herself, was it important to you to show kids that even with a reason, surrounding yourself in a shell is never a good thing?
As a long-time turtle myself, I think what I wanted to show was how much she was missing. It’s not right or wrong. Sometimes, being in a shell is what you have to do to get by. But there’s so much to miss out on, and I wanted Joss to realize that.

I’ve been kind of surprised by how some readers have reacted to Kat, the love they have for her as a character, and I really shouldn’t have been. People like Kat, who can reach out to an outsider and really try to lift them up and include them, those are some really awesome people. So that was another thing I wanted to show: how important those people are, and how much that out-stretched hand can change a person’s life.

How has the publishing process been, why did you decide to go the Indie route?
For people who aren’t really into the whole publishing process or the emergence of ebooks and independently published authors, there’s tons of stuff that’s been going which has fed into my decision. But I don’t want to bore you with all that.

Short version: The biggest factor for me was this idea that no one was ever going to read about the Talents. Everyone’s always harping about how your query letter has to be pitch-perfect and hit the right agent at the right time with exactly the concept of moment, just to get a request for a few chapters, which have to be pitch-perfect… Then you get an agent, and the agent starts shopping it to editors and the same process begins again. Then the editors don’t want to see series books from new authors, because who knows if people will like you, or if you can write past the first book, and all I really wanted to work on was my series.

There was just so much negativity on the path to traditional publishing that I quit writing, and I didn’t come back until I got into reading about indie publishing. The idea that I could just write, and sell my books to people who wanted to read them… lather, rinse, repeat that. It totally appealed to my DIY, stick-it-to-The-Man soul.

I love the cover, I assume you had a lot of input, can you tell us where the idea came from, it's an attention grabber.
Thank you! I love it too. The cover was designed by Robin Ludwig of Robin Ludwig Design Inc., who is just an incredibly talented graphic designer and a wonderful professional to work with. Robin really listened to what the story was about, read excerpts, and exchanged a lot of ideas with me. My critique partner and friend, talented author Kait Nolan, came through with a link to the perfect image for Joss, and it all came together.

Is there anything you can tell us about Hush Money - book 2, I know there's gotta be more, please tell me I am right!
Book two is called Heroes ’Til Curfew, and it is all about more. I’m having trouble in this next one, not letting the romance take over the whole story. There are also more new characters with more super abilities, more fight scenes, more tough choices. It’s definitely going to have to be a longer book. And yes, it is another Joss/Dylan story.

If you could trade places with any other person for 1 week, famous or not famous, living or dead, real or fictional. Whom would it be and why?
Ok, I stink at these questions, because, really…

Would I go be Malcolm Reynolds, so that I could stop being an idiot and tell Inara that I LOVE her!? But then, if I were on Firefly, I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to keep my eyes off Jayne, and as Malcolm, that might be a wee bit uncomfortable, so…

Would I go be Lana Lang so I could stop being an idiot and go make out with Clark Kent for a week? But then, I’m not sure she, even if she were me, is good enough for him, even if he would be happy for a bit, so…

Would I go be Buffy so I could know what’s like to really kick some ass? And then, when Spike makes his amazing speech to me after all my friends turn on me, I could say what an idiot I’ve been and suggest we just run away together, except that that would mean the end of the world, so…

Maybe I should just be myself. Plus, who knows what any one of those guys would do to my life during the trade.

Favorites:
Music: LOVE Breaking Benjamin, also Evanescence, Metallica, 80s glam rock and Monster Ballads, a-ha, and good covers.  (OH WOW, AWESOME MUSIC CHOICES - I love ALL these LOL)


Song: Breaking Benjamin’s “Until the End” is a Talent Chronicles theme song for me, so I’m listening to that a lot right now.


Color: Unlike Joss, I love pink!

Book: Well, that’s a pretty impossible question, so I’ll tell you that my I’m loving manga right now, and thought Mark Crilley’s Miki Falls quartet was pretty much Teen Paranormal Romance perfection—with fabulous art.
Paranormal Personality: I just freakin’ love Buffy. You already got that, right? I love her vulnerability, and the inner strength that always makes her get up again every time. I love the reluctance that accompanies her selfless gestures, and how that reminds us that she’s just a girl.
Place to read: I have an e-reader device that I am absolutely mad about, so really, anywhere is my favorite place now that I’ve got a hundred books in my bag all the time.

Place to write: I usually write at my kitchen table, surrounded by many empty Diet Coke cans.

Anything you’d like to tell the readers?
Thank you. Like I said before, when I thought no one would ever read the Talent Chronicles, it felt like there was no point in doing the work. If it weren’t for you guys, I’d just be sitting around day-dreaming about Joss and Dylan. Putting them down on the page for you makes them that much more real for me. So thank you for that.

Becoming an indie author has made me so much more aware of the power that we all have in the Information Age. As we casually talk to each other about what we like and what we don’t, more than ever before, consumers are deciding what movies, music, and books are the ones that everyone will want to read. It doesn’t have to be all about who has the biggest budget anymore. So if you like a book, I hope you’ll leave a review on Amazon, send out a tweet, or just tell a friend. From us it’s spam, but from you it’s a recommendation, and it’s a tremendous gift to any author.

Hush Money is available as an ebook from...

• Amazon (DRM-free PRC)
• Amazon UK (DRM-free PRC)
• Smashwords (HTML, MOBI, EPUB, PDF, LRF, RTF, PDB, TXT)
• Scribd (PDF)
• Kobo (EPUB)
• Sony (EPUB)
• Barnes and Noble (for Nook)

Paperback coming soon.

Visit Susan Bischoff:
Website/Blog
Twitter
Facebook
Myspace
Goodreads

Giveaway!!!

Susan is giving away to one lucky reader a FREE copy of the eBook Hush Money - all you have to do to enter is fill out the FORM - Winner will be chosen at random on October 1, 2010!!!