Interview with Susan Vaught

www.susanvaught.com

Let’s get some of the typical interview questions out of the way first. When did you first know that you wanted to be a writer?

I’ve been writing since I was a kid, starting with poetry and short stories, then limping toward novels (with brief explosions of journalistic pursuits—features, straight news articles, and so on). I knew from the time I was about eight that I’d like to write for a career, let myself lose sight of that or belief in it for a number of years, then recaptured the dream about ten years ago.

Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?

I published in high school and college literary magazines and won a few legitimate writing contests in my teen years. Then I drifted away from writing during graduate school—writing for fun, anyway, as I was up to my eyeballs in research papers. I tried briefly to write some genre fiction when I was on internship and fellowship, had some minor success, but no publications, and once more, I let the dream drift away from me. About ten years ago I started writing again in earnest, this time determined to keep improving my craft until I succeeded.

I started writing novels and sought critique from other aspiring writers. I went to conferences and got professional critiques. Then one of my critique partners got an agent and referred me, and the agent accepted me. She made my first sale within a few months.

Tell us a little bit about either your latest or upcoming release. If you could only tell your readers one thing about the story that had to convince us to buy the book, what would it be?

Oathbreaker: Assassin’s Apprentice and the second volume of the same story, Oathbreaker: A Prince Among Killers are epic fantasy full of adventure, danger, and a whisper of romance. I think it can satisfy even the most easily bored reader, and that the tale and the characters and the world grab hold and never let go.

What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?

There’s a long list for this one, mostly filled with classic fantasy and science fiction writers such as Octavia Butler, Andre Norton, Marion Zimmer Bradley, T.H. White, and John Christopher. I could make the list a lot longer, but I’ll stop there for now—the longer I sit here, the more names fly through my mind!

Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!

Well, my son wrote Oathbreaker with me, so I’ll mention him first. He’s an inspiration, because he’s visually and physically impaired from cerebral palsy, and has to do all of his writing and reading on tape. He did an amazing job, and I treasured working with him. My daughter lives in Tennessee for now, though we have moved to Kentucky, and she’s an avid reader. I’m fortunate in that all of my family is supportive and understanding, and invested in my writing. I disappear and shirk chores to get stories finished, and nobody’s killed me yet, so, I’m lucky!

Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?

Mashed potatoes.

What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?

If I’m being virtuous, yoga, shower, and uncovering my parrot so I can talk with her before I have to go to work. If I’m not being virtuous, I bang on the alarm for extra time, fall into the shower, and still talk to the parrot as much as I can.

If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would surprise me the most?

The parrot shouting at you and making fire-alarm-screech noises because she knows you’re not supposed to be here poking around in my junk. If your ears don’t fall off from all that noise, you’d probably be surprised by my comic book collection, the number of cats who got past you as you peered through the door and hid before you could find them, or maybe the large amount of t-shirts with obnoxious expressions and slogans. Oh, oh—maybe all my Tennessee Titans or University of Tennessee Volunteers gear.

Everyone asks the question about “if you could be a tree, which tree would you be?” so I want to know: If you could be a color, which color would it be, and why?

Yellow (today), because it’s bright and awake and alive.

Who is your favorite cartoon character?

Scooby-Doo. That’s a no-brainer.

Which cartoon character is most like you?

Uuuum…yeah, that’d be Scooby-Doo, too, I think.

If you could beam yourself to anywhere in the world (“Beam me up, Scotty!”), during any time in history, where and when would it be—and why?

England during the time of King Arthur, because I want to know what it was really like, and what really happened—and I want to talk to Merlin and Morgaine.

So what’s your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while you’re writing?

The first two are absolutely impossible to answer. I’m music-obsessive with literally 10 solid days of music stored on my computer, and I listen to it all. Right now I’d say my favorite is Harper Simon, and his dad Paul Simon is a long-term favorite. I think I tend to like Alternative best, and yes, I listen to music when I’m writing, sometimes the same song over and over and over again.

Do you have any favorite T.V. shows? Movies you watch over and over again? What was the last movie you saw at the theater?

Favorite TV shows—right now, Medium and Criminal Minds. I watch Lord of the Rings, Star Trek IV and VI, Twilight, Harry Potter (all of them), Air Force One, Independence Day, The Fugitive, Day After Tomorrow, Men of Honor, Shawshank Redemption, Miss Congeniality, Con Air, and Hunt for Red October incessantly. The last movie I saw in the theater was, I think, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?

Keep reading. Read everything you can find, no matter what reviewers or anyone else says. Read, read, read!

One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?

I’m working on a contemporary piece and a young adult fantasy piece with strong romantic elements right now—they don’t have titles yet, or anything else! Sorry…

Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!