Guest Interview - Susan Andersen

Thanks Susan for visiting with us today! We look forward to learning more about you!

Susan Andersen writes contemporary romance with touch of suspense and comedy to keep things interesting.

Her books have garnered two Reviewers Choice Awards from Romantic Times Bookclub magazine, spent many weeks on the USAToday and the New York Times extended bestseller lists, and have twice been included in RWA's Top Ten Favorite Books Of The Year.

She's a native of the Pacific Northwest, where she lives with her husband and "The Boys"--her cats Boo and Mojo.



1. What is your favorite thing to do when you are not writing? I have several fave things. I like walking with my brothers and (on Wednesdays) with my friend Joey. Love hanging with my husband, son and friends—and Girls Nights with my BFF. Enjoy seeing stage plays with girlfriends. I always adore reading and enjoy catching up on a few shows on TV. And I love to dance.



2. What books are sitting in your TBR pile right now? What book are you currently reading?

My TBR pile has gotten crazy out of hand, so there are too many to list. But a few I'm particularly excited to read are Susan Sey's Money Shot, Julie Anne Long's I Kissed An Earl, Deborah Harkness' A Discovery of Witches, Robyn Carr's Angle Peak (I discovered her late and am happily making my way through her back list) and Suzanne Brockmann's Breaking The Rules.

I'm currently reading a ms for a quote but have barely gotten into it—I mean, I've literally just started it, so I don't have a clue yet if I'll love it or not. I hope so, as I adore discovering new (to me) writers.



3. Please, share something you found most interesting or fun that you did to research for a book.

I based my plotline for Dirty around the idea of inserting Cade back into Ava's life through a documentary he was making about the mansion she and BFFs Poppy and Jane had inherited from Agnes Wolcott--their eccentric benefactress and friend--and the old mystery surrounding the murder of Agnes' man of business and theft of the Wolcott Suite of diamonds back in the 80s. It wasn't until I started writing the book that I realized, hel-lo--I know nothing about that industry. My favorite research is talking to people in the industry I'm writing about, as they give the best information. I'll go to library or Internet research in a pinch. But in this instance I knew no one and didn't find much about how to make a documentary (at least not on a professional level) through my usual channels.

I was just thinking What have I gotten myself into when I remembered Virginia Bogert. Virginia was the wife of my husband's boss at a company where the soul mate worked about 20 years ago. At the time she was a production coordinator for a local Seattle movie company and she and I hit it off at company get togethers. We'd long lost touch but I took a chance and called the old number I had for her. I left a message that basically said, "I'm sure you don't remember me but". . .and laid out my hope that she might know a documentary producer in the area I could interview. She left me a message (thank God for message machines) saying she did remember me and as it happened she was now a documentary producer. Now fortuitous was that? We got together and she gave me the best information! She told me stuff that shaped several scenes and she was generous beyond belief in my many follow up inquiries.

Sometimes karma is actually kind.

4. How did you come up with names - or - setting - or - character occupations - or - plot, etc. for Playing Dirty?



The setting for the entire Sisterhood Diaries Trilogy (Cutting Loose, Bending The Rules and Playing Dirty) was so fun for me, because I brought it on home. I'm a Seattle woman, born and raised, and I had a blast setting these books in my home town. Seattle is a city of neighborhoods, each of which has its own flavor and eccentricities, and I got the opportunity to showcase a small portion of them.

The occupations were also fun to do as all three heroines were creative in their own way. Jane is the more buttoned up of the three, but as a junior curator at the fictitious Metropolitan, which I loosely fashioned after the Seattle Art Museum, she expresses her inner creative bent through the exhibits she puts son. Poppy is a child of former hippies and the true artist of the three, but her real passion is bringing art to disadvantaged kids. And Ava is a personal concierge. She likes taking care of people, loves making their lives easier. I got a great deal of pleasure out of exploring all three occupations.



5. Action adventure or romantic comedy? What is your favorite movie lately?

I very rarely get to the movies, but two I am dying to see are The Help (loved the book) and Hysteria, because it looks, well, hysterical.