Today I’m thrilled to have Susanna Fraser, author of Freedom to Love, with me in the Blue Rose Writing Room.
So, do you use a pen name/pseudo name? If so, why. If not, why did you decide to write under your own name?
I chose to write under a pen name for several reasons. First, it allows me to keep separate online and professional identities under the two names. Legal-Name Me is a lot freer with her political opinions, for example, because Susanna-Fraser Me doesn’t want to alienate the ~50% of the American book-buying market that votes for the other party!
Also, my legal surname is very deep in the alphabet. Though it’s not an issue as long as I’m published solely in ebooks, if and when I’m print published, Fraser will get me much nicer shelf placement.
Last but not least, I’m something of a name nerd. I love naming my characters, and I planned baby names for many years before actually becoming a mother. (To pass muster with me, any child’s name had to be attractive enough that I could imagine it on a wedding invitation and dignified enough that I could imagine him being announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine or her solemnly swearing that she will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States.) So given all those years of pondering nomenclature, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to name myself!
What is one place you absolutely want to visit before you die?
Paris—and I’ll be there this summer!
I’ve been to Paris. It’s amazing and I will go back someday!
Why did you choose to write in this genre? Have you ever written any other genre? Do you plan on doing so in the future?
I write the kind of books I love to read—which means historical romance now, and in the future may come to include fantasy and/or paranormal romance too. (I also love reading mysteries, but I’m not sure I have the right kind of talent to plot a sufficiently intricate whodunit.)
What historical figure do you wish you could have met?
Over the course of my Regency research, I’ve developed a fascination bordering upon a historical crush on the Duke of Wellington. Sure, he was arrogant, aloof, and reserved, but I kind of like that in a man—I think it’s my personal version of a bad boy. 😉 But he was also snarky, super-intelligent, courageous, and principled. Plus, he liked smart, assertive, well-informed women, so I like to think he and I would’ve gotten along famously…
Tell us one unusual, weird, or curious fact you discovered while researching this book.
1815 was the very beginning of the age of steamboats, and one of the first ones happened to be in New Orleans just before the Battle of New Orleans. Andrew Jackson promptly commandeered it to bring supplies from upriver and kept it in service until he finally received word that the war was over. When I discovered that the vessel in question was named Enterprize,as a Star Trek geek I knew I had to find a way to get my characters aboard her.
How do you respond to negative reviews?
It depends. If the book already has multiple reviews and the previous ones were mostly positive, I can usually shrug it off. If it’s the very first review I see or comes from a reviewer whose opinion I especially value, I’ll confess to consoling myself with chocolate and forcing myself to stay away from Facebook and Twitter until the urge to argue with the review goes away.
What’s one new thing you’d like to try?
I’d like to learn to play the cello.
I want to learn to play the harp!
Do you have a favorite quote?
One of my favorites comes from Lois McMaster Bujold’s marvelous novel A Civil Campaign. It’s advice from a father to a son: “Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.” It’s followed a few pages later by “Guard your honor. Let your reputation fall where it will. And outlive the bastards.”
Okay, now for the quickie questions: Answer in three words or less. Ready? Go!
Favorite Disney Character? Belle from Beauty and the Beast
Favorite Fruit? Watermelon
Favorite Hero? Aral Vorkosigan (the speaker in my quote above)
Favorite Eye Color? Green
Best Vacation Destination? Oregon Coast
(Oh, yeah. I was born and raised in Seaside, Susanna!
Food you can’t stand? Tuna casserole
What annoys you? Incompetent drivers
Coffee, tea, or something else? Dr Pepper
Nightgown or Jammies? Husband’s old t-shirts
Prefer dogs or cats? Cats
Louisiana, 1815
Thérèse Bondurant trusted her parents to provide for her and her young half-sister, though they never wed due to laws against mixed-race marriage. But when both die of a fever, Thérèse learns her only inheritance is debt—and her father’s promise that somewhere on his plantation lies a buried treasure. To save her own life—as well as that of her sister—she’ll need to find it before her white cousins take possession of the land.
British officer Henry Farlow, dazed from a wound received in battle outside New Orleans, stumbles onto Thérèse’s property out of necessity. But he stays because he’s become captivated by her intelligence and beauty. It’s thanks to Thérèse’s tender care that he regains his strength just in time to fend off her cousin, inadvertently killing the would-be rapist in the process.
Though he risks being labeled a deserter, it’s much more than a sense of duty that compels Henry to see the sisters to safety—far away from the scene of the crime. And Thérèse realizes she has come to rely on Henry for so much more than protection. On their journey to freedom in England, they must navigate a territory that’s just as foreign to them both—love.
Praise for the novels of Susanna Fraser
“[Susanna Fraser is] a go-to writer for Regency romance that is actually set in the Regency rather than in that Never-Neverland mash-up that’s been dubbed ‘The Recency’ or ‘Almackistan.’” — Willaful at Karen Knows Best
“This is easily one of the best historical romances I’ve read.” — Romantic Historical Reviews on An Infamous Marriage
“…the romance in this story was very sweet. Sydney was immediately relatable and likeable, because she faced such a serious conflict and wanted to make an ethical decision that would preserve the lives of her loved ones.” — Dear Author on Christmas Past
About the Author
Susanna Fraser wrote her first novel in fourth grade. It starred a family of talking horses who ruled a magical land. In high school she started, but never finished, a succession of tales of girls who were just like her, only with long, naturally curly and often unusually colored hair, who, perhaps because of the hair, had much greater success with boys than she ever did.
Along the way she read her hometown library’s entire collection of Regency romance, fell in love with the works of Jane Austen, and discovered in Patrick O’Brian’s and Bernard Cornwell’s novels another side of the opening decades of the 19th century. When she started to write again as an adult, she knew exactly where she wanted to set her books. Her writing has come a long way from her youthful efforts, but she still gives her heroines great hair.
Susanna grew up in rural Alabama. After high school she left home for the University of Pennsylvania and has been a city girl ever since. She worked in England for a year after college, using her days off to explore history from ancient stone circles to Jane Austen’s Bath.
Susanna lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and daughter. When not writing or reading, she goes to baseball games, sings alto in a local choir and watches cooking competition shows.
For more information please visit Susanna’s website and blog. You can also connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.
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