RK: What books had an influence on you growing up?

SUSAN: Of many books I read (I was a book worm) I remember loving Sword of Shannara, Childhood’s End, and Dragon Riders of Pern. The Wind’s Four Quarters and being swept away by the fantasy and the world building created by these master authors.

RK: What attracts you to the romance genre, particularly SF/futuristic romance

SUSAN: I’m attracted to the romance genre because the genre guarantees a happy ending, no matter how gut-wrenching the road is to get there. I love the rocky journey or the suspense so much more if I can relax deep inside knowing that it will ultimately end okay. Seeing that I love science fiction, having the two genres combined is the best of both worlds.

RK: What do you feel makes an engaging hero/heroine?

SUSAN: The best characters are compelling and complex with relatable motivations. I do not want to read about, nor want to create, characters who are so single-minded that they are rigid and seem incapable of change. We want characters to grow and change! That’s what makes books interesting. My pet peeve, and what I try to avoid writing, are characters who stay exactly the same until they have their last chapter epiphanies and suddenly transform. Also, I love to see, and write, multiple aspects to their personalities—hobbies, interests, likes, dislikes, just like interesting real people have and do. In other words, engaging characters need to be more than cardboard cutouts. They need to allow the reader to get deep inside their heads/deep POV. Even if they fight you when you try to do it, like Klark did at first. He did not appreciate me peeking inside his head. But, I did, and then he cooperated wonderfully. I do also enjoy secondary characters who are more than cardboard characters/wall paper and aren’t simply there as set-ups for the next books. I love when all the characters in a story are just as real and engaging at the main hero and heroine. This is why I personally am not scheduling more than 2 novels a year for the near future (with a smattering of short projects in between). To tell stories the way I want to do it, it takes time.

 

RK: Where is your favorite place to write and why?

SUSAN: I can write anywhere—at 30,000 feet while on break at work, or outside on the deck if the weather is nice. Really, anywhere. If I need to focus extra hard, I’ll go to my desk and sit there. It tells my muse I mean business.

 

RK: Please tell us a bit about your most recent project.

SUSAN: I’m finishing up a short for a collection with some other authors from the Sci-Fi Romance Brigade. The collection is called Pets in Space, and that pretty much sums up the stories. It’s been fun. Mine will take place in the Star Series/Star World Frontier world—a royal alien, a commoner Earthling, and the pet who brings them together. I’m also working on two Star World Frontier books—Nico’s story and also a space pirate tale in that world—and also the first installment in an alien abduction trilogy. It’s very exciting to be an indie author and be able to work on more than one project at once.

RK: What would be your dream spaceship?

SUSAN: It would be a massive light-speed capable Enterprise or Battlestar Gallactica size ship with lots of places to go and things to do, and people to interact with. And I’d be one of the pilots!

RK: Which of your five senses would you like to be technologically enhanced?

SUSAN: I had to think on this quite a while, because what if you couldn’t turn it off? Or the enhancement became really disruptive or annoying? All that aside, and assuming I could shut it on or off at will, I’d choose sight. To be able to see through walls—heh heh—that’d be fun. A bit stalkerish, but fun.

A desperate woman in need of a miracle — A bad-boy prince in need of redemption

 

She was playing with fire…

 

Jemm Aves battles to keep her dreams alive on a dead-end world. Working for the mines by day, she’s a successful bajha player at night, disguised as a male to be allowed to compete in the colony’s dangerous underworld where club owners will go to extremes to retain the best players. Every win puts her one small step closer to her goal: saving enough to escape Barésh with her family. When a nobleman from one of the galaxy’s elite families recruits her to be a star player for his team, it’s because he doesn’t know her secret. Her ruse proves to be her most perilous game yet when it puts both their lives—and her heart—at risk.

 

Prince Charming he was not…

 

Prince Klark is eager to reverse his reputation as the black sheep of the Vedla clan, a family as famous for its wealth and power as it is for being a bastion of male-dominated tradition. If his bajha team can win the galactic title it would go a long way toward restoring the family honor that his misdeeds tarnished. He travels to Barésh to track down an amateur who’s risen to the top of the seedy world of street bajha, offering the commoner a chance of a lifetime: a way off that reeking space rock for good. But his new player comes with a scandalous secret that turns his plans and his beliefs upside down. He sets out to win a very different prize—his champion’s reluctant heart.

 

RITA-winner Susan Grant is back with an all-new, stand-alone tale of two improbable lovers, their daring secret, and the gamble destined to alter the course of their worlds forever.

Links:

Website: http://www.susangrant.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Author.Susan.Grant/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/flyerdreamer

Others:

For interstellar Tourists, check out The Lonely Galaxy Travel Guide: http://www.lonelygalaxytravelguide.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/90455.Susan_Grant

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/susan-grant