Interview with Suzanne Rock, romance author

Please welcome my fellow Loose Id author, Suzanne Rock!

• What genres do you write in and why?

Right now I write paranormal romance and urban fantasy, both sensual and erotic. I love escaping to different worlds with different rules and customs. I also love larger than life characters. As a reader I prefer paranormals, urban fantasy, historicals, futuristics…anything that can take me out of the present, lol. I tend to shy away from contemporaries (in both reading and writing) for this very reason, although I would read a contemporary if it had a good premise.

I don’t write straight historicals only because I haven’t come up with a good idea yet. One of my upcoming releases, Dark Deception from Red Sage Publishing, centers on a Spanish diplomat-turned-vampire in the 1800’s. (See my website (http://www.suzannerock.com/) for more details on that story.)

• What do you have published and where?

My current releases are:

Spyder’s Web from Loose Id (http://www.loose-id.com/Spyders-Web.aspx)
Up on the Housetop (Bk 1 of the Kyron Pack Series) from Loose Id (http://www.loose-id.com/Up-On-the-Housetop.aspx)

My upcoming releases include:

Cria from Loose Id, May 4, 2010

Dark Deception (Bk 1 of the Immortal Realms series) from Red Sage Publishing

Down on the Boardwalk (Bk 2 of the Kyron Pack Series) from Loose Id

Check my website for release dates and book summaries (http://www.suzannerock.com/). I update information there the first of every month.

• Tell me about some of your WIPs?

Right now I’m working on a couple of projects. I’m drafting “Around on the Strip,” the third book in the Kyron Pack series. This story goes back to where it all began for the Kyron Werewolves, in Las Vegas. Here we follow Josh Kyron, the leader, and how he balances the needs of his own pack and his lust for a rival werewolf.

I’m also drafting the second book in the Immortal Realms series, “Dark Interlude.” This story will follow one of the vampire defectors at the end of the first story, and how love and understanding brings him back into the vampire clan where he belongs.

• Tell me about your new release, yourself, and any other information you’d like to share

I have a new release coming out from Loose Id on May 4, 2010. Titled Cria, it’s about a tribe of Jaguarundi-shifters deep in the Brazilian rainforest. Here's the blurb:

Deep in the heart of the Amazon Jungle, an ancient breeding race begins…

Ever since she was jilted by her lover, Aleta had been subjected to humiliation by her Jaguarundi tribe. Not anymore. She is determined to emerge from her final Cria unmated, and finally be free of tribal traditions and her over-bearing father. Aleta has plans -- bigger plans than her father’s desire to see her marked by some oafish warrior in an outdated breeding competition. After the Cria she’ll move to the city and start fresh, leaving her clan --- and her broken heart -- behind.

Unfortunately, the past is unwilling to let her go.

Forced to abandon Aleta when he went into exile, Luiz knows that this Cria will be his last chance to reclaim what is rightfully his. When a surprise encounter doesn’t go exactly as planned, he realizes it will take more than a little seduction for Aleta to forgive the sins of the past. The race is on, and the battle of wills has begun. Everyone knows that in the Cria anything can happen, and with the stakes this high, all bets are off.

Book Trailer Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-k7tyH_354

For more information on this and my other releases, visit my website: http://www.suzannerock.com/

Suzanne's Bio:

After over a decade in the scientific world, Suzanne Rock needed a creative outlet. She tried scrap booking, cooking, crocheting, painting, and piano, none of which held her interest for very long. Then one of her friends suggested writing. Thrilled with the idea of creating her own worlds, she opened up her lap top and never looked back.

When Suzanne’s not writing, she can be found playing with her two daughters, testing her husband’s latest kitchen creations, or curled up with her favorite romance novel in her central Massachusetts home.

I can also be found on:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/Suzanne_Rock
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/suzanne.rock

Embrace the Shadows Blog: http://embracetheshadows.wordpress.com/

Embrace the Shadows Fan Club: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/embrace_the_shadows/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2982868.Suzanne_Rock

• Do you belong to any writer’s chapters or groups, like RWA?

I belong to RWA national and a few of its chapters: FTHRW (From the Heart Romance Writers), Passionate ink (the erotic romance chapter) and NECRWA (the local New England Chapter).

• How long did it take you from when you started writing to being published? From first submitting to being published?

I started writing almost 5 years ago. I wrote a story that I thought people would want to read, a light-hearted contemporary, and submitted it to Harlequin Romance. It got rejected. The rejection threw me into a tailspin where I couldn’t pick up the pen or keyboard for three years. Then I discovered the eharlequin community and a contest for the Harlequin Presents line. I entered it and lost. I submitted the manuscript and got a form rejection. This time, however, I had surrounded myself with other writers who were going through the same thing. I wrote another contemporary and it got rejected. Then another. Eventually one of my friends suggested – nicely – that my writing voice might not be best suited for light hearted contemporaries. They suggested that I tried to write what I liked to read: highly sensual paranormals. I wrote another manuscript. It got rejected again. :/

Noticing a trend? Lol.

Another friend told me that there were more publishers in the world than Harlequin and suggested that I try submitting the story to Loose Id. I did. I got a revision letter. I revised. I got another revision letter. I revised again. They rejected it. At this point I was ready to give up, but I didn’t.

The Loose Id editor suggested that I try submitting something else. I went through my hard drive and found something that I wrote on a dare from my husband. He wanted me to write a story with the most shocking first line in history. Now, I don’t know if it’s the most shocking line in history, but the opener was definitely an eyebrow raiser, lol. The editor loved it. Within two weeks I had a contract and Spyder’s Web was born. From that first story until Spyder’s Web was released (in July 2009) was 4 years, 2 months.

• What do you think about the future of epublishing?

I think epublishing is going to continue to grow and thrive over the next few years. As more and more people become technologically savvy, ebooks will become more popular. I don’t think they will ever fully replace print books, but I do believe that in the next 5-10 years ebook growth will outpace their print counterparts. I’m also kind of intrigued about the “Textnovel” concept, where readers pay chapter by chapter and books are written more or less in 500-1000 word sound bites. Kind of like a soap opera. Then they can comment on what they read. I’m not sure the public is quite ready for this yet, but I do see it becoming more popular over the next couple of years.

There are two pieces of advice that really stuck with me. The first is to expect rejection and don’t be so defensive that you can’t learn from it. The only way we can grow as writers is to write, edit, edit again, and submit. It takes an editor time and energy to provide feedback. If they point out problems in your story it’s because they see something there that has potential. Otherwise they would give you a form rejection. Now, does this mean that you should always do what an editor tells you in a rejection letter? It depends. How bad do you want to be published with that publisher? Will it change the story so much that you don’t feel like it belongs to you anymore? I’ve seen some instances where one editor’s pet peeve is another’s pot of gold. However, if two or three people are making the same comments, maybe there is some truth to them.

The second piece of advice is to never give up. Ever. It can be so easy to throw in the towel when you get five, ten or even fifty rejections on a manuscript (been there, done that). Don’t. Keep writing and keep submitting. It’s the only way you ever have a chance of succeeding.

• Do you use a pen name? Why or why not?

Yes. I’m a scientist by day, which, believe it or not, is a very internet-savvy community. I use a pen name so I can separate my scientific publications and “day job” persona with the fiction writer. God forbid someone should do a google search looking for my scientific paper on the neurotransmitters of Limulus Polyphemus and come up with one of my ménage stories, lol.

• Is there a genre that you haven’t written that you would like to?

Besides historicals, at some point I would like to try romantic suspense. I think my dark, edgy writing would be a good fit with this genre.