This month’s Bandita spotlight belongs to Susan Sey, often referred to as The Tardy Bandita, since she wandered into the lair about three months after everybody else. (She dislikes asking for directions & insists she’ll find her own damn way.  Eventually.)  She’s happily married to her own personal hero, & is the mother of two girls who are simultaneously the pride of her life & the reason she will never be able to write more than one book a year.  At least not until the 2020s.

She writes unabashedly in the genre least likely to sell or make her any money (single title contemporary).  She was as astonished as anybody when she got picked up by a major publisher after winning the 2008 Golden Heart in this same ill-fated category.  She was not, however, astonished to find herself unceremoniously dropped by that same publisher two books later.  The economy sucks, & better writers than she have gotten the axe.  She remains, however, the proud author of MONEY HONEY (Berkley Sensation, 2010) and MONEY SHOT (Berkley Sensation, 2011), and is delighted to announce her foray into self-publishing with her…what else?….single title contemporary romance KISS THE GIRL, which debuted on June 26, 2012.  

So.  Let’s grill her, shall we?

Q:  How long have you been writing, and how has your writing changed over time?

 Susan Sey:  I’ve been writing since I was old enough to read.  I loved the characters I met in books like I’d love a real live friend, and it was difficult for me to say goodbye to them when the story ended.  So in my head I made up more of their story so I could spend more time with them.  It seemed like a perfectly logical solution to me but evidently not everybody does that.  Who knew?

 As far as how my writing’s changed over time, well that’s an interesting question.  I’ve just recently self-pubbed the last book I wrote before selling to a big-time NYC publisher, the one I’ve always loved but that never found a home in NYC. (KISS THE GIRL, previously titled THE PRINCESS PROJECT.) And in cleaning it up for publication, I made a fascinating discovery:  This book is palpably joyful.  It’s funny and charming and ridiculous, and it’s because when I was writing it, I believed in myself and in my talent.    

See, when I wrote KISS THE GIRL, I was at the peak of my game as an unpubbed writer–winning contests, finalling in the Golden Heart, signing with an agent–and my confidence was at high tide as a result.  And then my dreams came true and I sold to a big ol’ publisher.  And suddenly I was a teeny, unproductive fish in a vast, cruel pond, my books sold respectably but I didn’t blow the doors off, and my confidence took a massive hit.   And my writing got dark and confined and tentative.  And it shows.  MONEY SHOT is the book I wrote under that contract, and it’s about as dark a book as I’ve ever written. 

 Don’t get me wrong, I love that book.  It’s tightly written and well-plotted and I’m still sort of half in love with my hero, Rush.  But there’s an anxiety running through that book, a darkness, that speaks very strongly to my experience of writing it. 

 So I’m looking to get back to that KISS THE GIRL place, where I feel happy and strong and confident, and my writing shows it.

 Q:  What drink does Sven bring you when you’re hiding in the cave?

SS:  Ooooh, well it’s summer here in the upper Midwest so I’m all about the beer gardens.  I often ask Sven to trot over to our local micro breweries–Surly and Summit–to see what’s on tap.  Lately, I’ve been enjoying Surly’s Cynic Ale, and Summit’s Summer Ale.  (Thank you, Sven, darling.)

Q:  What’s the hardest thing about writing?  What’s the most rewarding?

 SS:  The hardest thing is honestly finding extended periods of time to get immersed in my world. I have little kids, you know, and I can pawn them off on the cabana boys and gladiators for a little while but once the girls start tossing about spears and reeling off drink ingredients, I know I need to dial back the writing time.  The most rewarding thing is far and away when somebody tells me my story touched them.  I always find it humbling and astonishing when something I write garners an honest emotional response from somebody.

 Q:  Who do you enjoy writing more — hero or heroine?

 Oh, I’m unashamedly in love with each and every one of my heroes.  Female friendship has always been sort of a difficult thing for me–I have three sisters so never really had to learn the knack of making female friends until it was too late & everybody already had a BFF for life.  So this is sort of a handicap for me when I write, & my heroes come far more easily.  I fall in love with them right out of the gate, & they love me right back.  They’re easy.  But the heroines I have to warm up to.  Or maybe they have to warm up to me before they’ll let me know them?  I don’t know.  But my heroes just spring to life, while my heroines make me sweat. 

 The one exception has to be Nixie from KISS THE GIRL.  She was a joy from page one, a pure delight to know and a ball to write.  I missed her when I wrote The End.  But she was so darn happy with her happily ever after, I didn’t have the heart to disturb her to see if she wanted to hang out or grab a beer sometime.

Q:  Favorite thing you’ve researched?

Right now, I’m thinking about writing a story about a disgraced corporate high-flyer whose business empire falls to shreds & leaves him with nothing but a dilapidated small-scale goat and cattle farm in Northern Minnesota.  Which isn’t exactly known for its pasture land.  But confidence is not this guy’s problem, & he thinks he can just take up organic farming.  I’m learning a ton about cheese, of all things.  Working title?  The Milk Man Takes a Wife.  Of course.

So there you have it.  My life story in a nutshell.  If I’ve failed to satisfy your curiosity about any little thing, feel free to get in touch by visiting my website, my Facebook page or just old-fashioned emailing me at susan@susansey.com.  Looking forward to hearing from you!