Q&A with Susan Sleeman
Hi friends,
Today I have the joy of interviewing Susan Sleeman. If you aren’t familiar with Susan’s books, you’re missing out. She writes edge-of-your-seat romantic suspense. We’re going to be chatting about Susan’s latest series, Steele Guardians, which is action-packed! Hope you’ll enjoy the interview. It was such a pleasure getting to spend this time with her.
Your latest series is about six Steele women, all with law enforcement backgrounds who inherit a security business from their father. What excited you about writing an all-female cast of main characters?
I LOVE including strong women in books, and I haven’t recently done a series where each book featured a woman as a lead character. So I knew it was time and I had to find a way to make these women strong. I chose a field where a woman was less likely to be working so they have to be even stronger just to survive in their chosen field. And to make it even harder for them, I had their fathers who own the company require that they work five years in law enforcement before joining the family business. We like to think that women are treated equally in law enforcement, but there is still a struggle and it makes these women even more capable.
You pair the sisters with men ranging from an ATF agent to an ICE agent to an Army Ranger. How much research went into learning about the various agencies?
I’ve written over fifty books now so I’ve researched most agencies in the past and pretty much have police and military procedures down. But things change, so I keep up to date by reading about the agencies online. I also have a good friend who is a former law enforcement officer, Marine sniper, and weapons expert. He helps me work through scenarios. I also have sources for forensics and belong to a crime scene writers group where experts are very willing to answer questions. I am very blessed by the experts I have working behind the scene to help my stories ring true.
You clearly have your signature tense, taut suspense in these women’s stories. How do you weave in their romances while keeping the pacing so intense?
It can be hard to include romance when the characters are either running for their lives or investigating a tense crime. But there has to be downtime in fast-paced books or the readers will burn out. So I make sure that the romance occurs during that downtime. It’s usually in the form of the two characters getting to know each other. And if the books occur in a very short period of time, like Forged in Steele, which I am writing now, I make sure the characters have a past relationship that they just have to rekindle. I think that makes falling in love more believable for the reader.
What was your inspiration for this series?
Like most of my series, as I am writing the one that precedes it, a character or a group of minor characters takes hold of my interest and then I try to figure out how to include them in a series. In this instance, Detective Londyn Steele first appears in Night Vision, book 2 of my Nighthawk Security series. Then she continues to appear in this series taking on a bigger role in the final book so the readers get to know her before her starring role in Tough as Steele.
Each sister is so unique as well as the heroes who enter their lives. What kind of character work do you undertake before sitting down to tell their story?
Since my characters appear in every book in a series, I don’t start a series before I learn the basic traits and physical characteristics of every main character. I create a spreadsheet to store data such as hair and eye color, height, etc. Then I also determine the role the character will play in the group, and I determine their background and the couple’s conflict for each book. I add all of that to the spreadsheet so that when it comes time to write the books I have a strong understanding of each character’s basics.
I know this is a hard question, but do you have a favorite character, couple, or book in the series?
This is a similar question to when I’m asked if I have a favorite book. I don’t, by the way. My answer is always the book I’m currently writing because I am so immersed in the book and enjoy watching the characters’ stories unfold. And I love watching the characters find their way to their happily ever after while struggling with a faith issue.
Susan is kindly giving away the first three books in her Steele Guardian series. Woo-hoo! To be entered, just comment below. What’s your favorite thing about romantic suspense?
SUSAN SLEEMAN is the bestselling author of over fifty novels with more than one million books sold. She writes romantic suspense novels that are clean with inspiring messages of faith. Readers love her series for the well-drawn characters and edge-of-your-seat action. She graduated from the FBI and local police citizen academies, so her research is spot-on and her characters are real.
In addition to writing, Susan also hosts TheSuspenseZone.com. She has lived in nine states but now calls Oregon home. Her husband is a retired church music director, and they have two beautiful daughters, two terrific sons-in-law, and two adorable grandsons.
To learn more about Susan’s books sign up for her monthly email that includes exclusive excerpts, giveaways, and other goodies. http://www.susansleeman.com/susans-newsletter/
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