Indie Author Spotlight: Suzy Turner

YA writers and bloggers unite each week to share their thoughts on what it's like going indie in today's publishing world.

To kick of the Indie Author Spotlight Series, we have the lovely Suzy Turner. Now, this is one awesome, chick. She is super nice and supportive and the more I get to know her, the more I like her. 

It's so awesome to have you on my blog today, Suzy!!

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 Suzy Turner has worked as a journalist, assistant editor, features editor, magazine editor and has even been the Script Supervisor for a full length feature film. Early in 2010 however, she began writing full time and has since completed a trilogy for young adults, The Raven Saga (the first of which is FREE) and started a brand new series, The Morgan Sisters. The first full length novel in this series, The Ghost of Josiah Grimshaw is now available, as is a shorter novella, Daisy Madigan's Paradise which is FREE!

 Although Suzy is a Yorkshire lass at heart, she left her home town of Rotherham, UK, to move to Portugal with her family when she was ten. For now, the Algarve continues to be her home, where she lives with her childhood sweetheart and husband of 14 years, Michael.

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1) What is your all-time favorite book and why?

Ooh it's so tough to just have one book. But I'd probably go with The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. I studied the book at college and totally fell in love with it. I guess it was because it was so different to anything I'd ever read. Perhaps the dystopian side of it also appealed. I'm not sure. Strangely though, I've never read anything else by Margaret Atwood. Not sure why!

 2) Is there an author you could be compared to or popular fictional characters your book's characters could relate to and why?

Recently, my newest series (The Morgan Sisters) was described by a book blogger as 'possibly the next Harry Potter'. Clearly this made my decade and I'd love to be compared to the Great Almighty JK, but I would never compare myself to another writer. I'd like to think my writing is my own... kind of unique, you know?

3) Can you give us your favorite quote from one of your books and explain it?

My favourite quote? That's a toughie, hmmm. How about this...

     'She could hear her heart beating, feel it thudding in her chest. She couldn't open her mouth; it was too dry. All she wanted to do was scream but she couldn't even do that. Please God don't let me die, she thought.

     A sudden massive gust of wind took her feet from beneath her and she was forcefully pushed from the top of Carlton Point, falling silently and peacefully to the rocky hills below.'

The reason I like this scene so much is because I have such a vivid image of it in my mind. When you read on to the next chapter, you'll see that she didn't actually fall. That image of Lana slowly floating, almost in slow motion, reverberated with me. Almost like a scene from Alice in Wonderland.

 4) What types of things/people/music inspires you and makes you want to keep writing?

I am particularly inspired by places. For instance, my first series (The Raven Saga) was inspired by the awesome mountains and forests of Western Canada. My new series (The Morgan Sisters) was inspired by places I've been to in London (as well as by a London actor I met last year).

I think the UK is perhaps one of the most inspiring countries I've ever been to. Every time I visit (although I'm English, I currently live in Portugal), I am blown away by its capacity to inspire me... with its historical buildings and heritage. I'm actually selling up and moving back to England. One of the reasons why we chose England is because of its hold over me with my writing. I can't wait! (Anyone wanna buy a villa in the Algarve?)

5) Describe your typical writing day or week.

When I have deadlines, I write every morning until I've reached my target (if I'm in the zone, I'll write a lot more) and then I chill out with my favourite TV show and a nice cup of Rooibos tea :)

6) Is there a food or drink do you have to have when you're writing?

Just Rooibos tea and water.

7) Can you tell us what you're working on right now?

I'm about to start the second novel in The Morgan Sisters series but it doesn't have a title yet!

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If you'd like to connect with Suzy online, follow the links below:

Website: http://suzyturner.com

Blog: http://suzyturner.blogspot.com

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Suzy-Turner/e/B0050BSH1I

Facebook: http://facebook.com/suzyturnerbooks

Twitter: http://twitter.com/suzy_turner

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/suzyturnerbooks

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Suzy's Books are available through Amazon. 

Good Stuff To Know - January 2013

Hey everyone. Yay, my first "Good Stuff To Know" post of the year. How completely cool.
I have a nice little list for you today. I hope you can find something useful within it.

Jodie Renner Editing put together a great post listing a bunch of excellent resources for writers. There is a long list of helpful books here plus a couple of "must read" articles for aspiring authors.

Once again, The Bookshelf Muse (I love these guys!) has put out another great post. This one is called, What Makes A Strong Author's Visit - A Teacher's Perspective. Being a teacher myself, I found it really interesting and I thought there were some great points here. If you do have the opportunity to ever do author visits or public speaking, this article is worth a read.

The lovely, Suzy Turner, led me to this post - The Ultimate Complete Final Social Media Sizing Cheat Sheet. It gives you dimensions for all the different social media sites. An excellent resource for you to refer to.

I stumbled across this blog post through Indies Unlimited and I wanted to share it, because I thought it was really interesting. Aaron Patterson shared his publishing predictions for 2013. His message at the end - "Just keep writing" is why I wanted to share this post. He's got a really good point.

I've decided to sign up to be part of The Indelibles: Indie Life monthly blog hop. I missed the January one, but come February I will share my first post (the 2nd Wednesday of every month). At this stage there are 30 blogs involved and I think it's a great way to share information and learn from each other.

Indie Book Bargains is a UK site that I subscribe to. I get daily emails with current bargains and I find it really interesting to skim through and see what's out there. They have just completed their 2012 Book Awards. I thought there might be a title or two in there that interests you. Oh yeah - and Betwixt won Best YA!!! Sorry - just had to share. Super excited!

That's me for this month. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for more helpful links and resources to share in February. If you have any you'd like to add in the comments section, please feel free.