 Now
that I have confessed my penchant towards secret
agents, the floodgates have literally opened up.
It seems my desk is overflowing these days with
possible interview candidates whose specialty
involves some sort of international espionage.
Truth be told, no one is more thrilled about my
recent admission than my husband. Usually when
my shipment of upcoming releases arrives, he kindly
opens the box and leaves them on the counter.
Now, I have to go hunt down the books!
This month’s Jen’s Jewels
epitomizes the best of both worlds…romance
and suspense. Who better to celebrate Valentine’s
Day with my readers than New York Times Bestselling
Author Suzanne Brockmann? Her latest release,
DARK OF NIGHT, is the fourteenth installment
in her award-winning series Troubleshooters,
Inc. From secret agents to steamy, hot love
scenes, this book has it all.
As part of this interview, Ballantine Books
has generously donated five copies for you, my
lucky readers, to win. So, don’t forget
to check out the trivia question at the end of
the column. And as always, thanks so much for
making Jen’s Jewels a part of your
reading adventure.
Jen: Being named a New
York Times Bestselling Author validates the
superb caliber of writing that is found within
the framework of an author’s novel. Remarkably,
the story behind the actual climb can be just
as fascinating. Please tell us a little bit about
your journey and what particular aspect contributed
most to your success.
Suzanne: Well, thank you. I appreciate the thought,
although I must acknowledge that quite a few forces
well out of a writer's control (including luck!)
play a very important part in achieving success.
Yes, it's true, in my opinion, that reader-generated
buzz ("What a great book!") promotes
books better than any publisher-paid ad campaign
ever could, and if the books are easily found,
well, then things can happen. But in a genre where
an author's shelf life is a heartbeat and books
go out of print in the blink of an eye, too often
the buzz comes too late, readers end up scrambling
to find out-of-print books via e-bay and used
book stores.
So the key to my success, I believe, was to always,
always deliver my personal best in each book.
Quality and quantity was my war cry in the early
part of my career. My goal was to be ready, should
both luck and lightning strike.
Jen: For any author, finding
her niche is the crucial part in establishing
a name (or brand) within the industry. For my
readers who are unfamiliar with your work, your
two award-winning series, TROUBLESHOOTERS and
TALL, DARK & DANGEROUS, center on U.S. Navy
Seal teams. What made you choose to focus on operatives
as your primary characters? Do you come from a
military background?
Suzanne: My dad served in the Army, but that was
long before I was born. Still, I was always fascinated
by the picture of him, in uniform, that was in
my grandparents' house. I was also, from
around age eleven, a total WWII history buff.
I read everything I could get my hands on about
that war -- from The Great Escape to
dry strategic analyses of battles. It really resonated
with me, and beneath it was a strongly held respect
for our country's servicemen and servicewomen.
So when I was at that just-starting-out phase
of my romance writing career, back in the mid-1990s,
I found out about SEALs. The more I read, the
more I was convinced that these guys would make
terrific heroes -- and that I would not only enjoy
the research needed to make them come to life,
but that I could do them justice. Everything clicked
beautifully.
Jen: Please give us some
insight as to the creative process that is unleashed
in the metamorphosis of your books. Do you write
one series and then flip-flop to the other? From
conception to completion, approximately how long
does it take to write a novel? Which series is
more of a challenge to write and why?
Suzanne: It's been a
long time since I've written a book in the
Tall, Dark & Dangerous series, but back
in the day, when I was writing both, I would go
from one to the other. Now my focus is almost
completely on my Troubleshooter, Inc.
series. And, it can take anywhere from four to
six months to write a book. Some come easy; some
are like hitting myself in the head with a hammer.
I've written nearly fifty books since June 1992,
and I try very hard to make each book fresh and
different and new. That's pretty challenging.
My methods change over time -- I'm currently writing
two books a year, which, when I write that, provides
a pinch of stress. Check back with me in April,
though, when my next book is due on my editor's
desk! Only one thing is certain -- it's never
the same.
Jen: Approximately
how much research goes into the writing of each
book? What stands out in your mind as the most
unusual piece of information you have uncovered
along the way? Did you incorporate it into a storyline?
Why or why not?
Suzanne: Oh, man, this is a hard question to
answer. See, I'm always researching. Every web-surf,
every overheard conversation in a restaurant,
every book I read, and every news program I watch
on TV...
It's a constant, ongoing process for me.
The piece of research that stands out most for
me was something I found relatively early in my
career. This was in the mid-1990s.
Okay, so I knew I was going to be writing about
Navy SEALs, and I wanted to focus on counterterrorism
as the external conflict of my books, so I was
surfing the web, finding out all I could about
terrorist groups. And I came upon an Israeli university
website, which claimed to have information on
every terrorist group in the world. And I flipped
through it briefly and -- because I liked hard
copies of things -- I decided to print it out.
Two, three pages, right? I mean, how long could
it be?
An hour later, it's still freaking printing. It
was pretty chilling. And it was in that very overview
that I got my first lengthy introduction to Osama
bin Laden and al Qaeda.
I kept that printout for years, and pulled it
out when I was plotting The Defiant Hero,
the second book in my Troubleshooters, Inc.
series. (This had to be, oh, late 1999, early
2000.) I needed a terrorist group for this book
and...
I re-read the chapter on al Qaeda, and was once
again convinced to not use them in my book. Instead
I created a fictional terrorist group in a fictional
country, and thus Kazbekistan came to be.
Jen: Your latest release,
DARK OF NIGHT, is the fourteenth novel in the
TROUBLESHOOTERS series. First of all, for someone
who is new to this series, is the back story available?
Is it necessary in order to follow the storyline?
Suzanne: No, this book
absolutely can be read as a stand-alone. But with
that being said, it's got to be better to start
at the beginning, don't you think? As far as DARK
OF NIGHT goes, readers who want to get the
full story don't have to start all the way back
at The Unsung Hero. They can start with Flashpoint.
That's the book where the main characters in DARK
OF NIGHT are introduced.
Jen: In this installment,
Troubleshooters, Inc. is up against their most
formidable opponent…The Agency. Of the central
female characters highlighted in this book, which
one, Tess, Sophia, or Tracy, is the most indispensable
to the organization and why?
Suzanne: This is a book about teamwork -- about
my belief (and that of the Navy SEALs) that a
team working together is far stronger than any
individual in that team.
You ever watch any of those terrific Discovery
programs on BUD/S -- where the SEAL candidates
learn to identify their team's strengths and weaknesses?
The guy who is the strongest swimmer may not excel
in the ten mile run, and vice versa. But if the
strong swimmer helps the weak swimmers and the
strong runner helps the weak runners... The team
then excels in both areas.
Tess, Sophia and Tracy all have their individual
strengths and weaknesses. And the beauty of working
in a team...? Is realizing that sometimes your
perceived weakness can be your true strength.
Jen: The amount of
testosterone thrown around by the gregarious male
operatives greatly affects the women with whom
they fraternize. What makes James Nash so irresistible?
Suzanne: I don't think he's irresistible to quite
everyone. But yeah -- he's a man with a dark past
and some pretty heavy-duty secrets, so that makes
him a favorite of some readers.
Jen: Is Sophia settling
for second best? What makes Dave the right man
for her at this time in her life?
Suzanne: Ah, but if
I told your readers that, they wouldn't have to
read the book. This is one of the big internal
conflicts of DARK OF NIGHT. I really
can't say too much about the book without revealing
spoilers. (Talk to me again several months after
the book's release date!)
Jen: What is your
favorite scene in this book and why?
Suzanne: Anything with
Sam and Jules. I love their friendship, because
their relationship started out so rockily. Jules
is a POV character in DARK OF NIGHT,
and Sam plays a major secondary role. So their
scenes were fun to write. (And yes, readers will
get to meet Sam and Alyssa's new baby, too.)
Jen: I would think
writing many books in the same series would be
a balancing act of sorts in order not to repeat
tried and true dialog or themes. How do you manage
to avoid these pitfalls while keeping the storyline
so fresh? Are there a set number of books planned
for each series?
Suzanne: I'm a fan of the open-ended series,
so no, there's no set number of books. However
I do tend to plot out on-going story arcs in finite
sets.
Take DARK OF NIGHT, for example. This
book brings to an end what I think of as the "Flashpoint
story arc." I introduced a number of new
characters in Flashpoint -- Tess, Sophia,
Jimmy Nash, Decker, Dave. Tess and Nash were the
"hero and heroine" of that book, according
to traditional romance rules. But I knew when
I finished writing that book that they and the
other characters would be back in upcoming books.
And indeed they were. They played a part (in varying
degrees of importance) in nearly all of the books
since Flashpoint. (They weren't in Force
of Nature or All Through the Night, but they
were mentioned in both books.)
But now, in DARK OF NIGHT, all five of
those characters are front and center. A lot of
questions are going to be answered.
Jen: What has surprised
you most about the publishing business? If you
could turn back the clock and do one thing over
in respect to your career, what would it be and
why?
Suzanne: Wow, if I could turn back the clock,
I wouldn't waste that power on changing a career
that's been pretty dang good! LOL!
To be honest, there's always something in life
that you can do differently. Steve Axelrod --
my agent. I probably would've signed with Steve
much, much earlier. He's The Man. I love him.
But who's to say that changing the path I took
would've made things easier or better? I'm a control
freak, and yeah, I probably made some bad choices
along the way, but they were my choices. I wrote
the books I wanted to write (that I burned to
write!) and I still do.
Jen: Now that you
have earned your stripes, if you will, and established
your place in the business, what has been the
most humbling part of your journey thus far?
Suzanne: It's always humbling to walk into a
bookstore and see just how many books are available
for sale, every single day. Every one of those
books was written with love (and sometimes blood)
by its author. It's humbling to realize that,
unlike many of my peers, I earn a good living
from the sale of my books.
And it's humbling, too, to meet my readers. I
have the utmost respect for the people who spend
their hard-earned money buying my books, and I
love meeting them face to face. My goal is to
give them my personal best with each book that
I write. (With the understanding, of course, that
there's no way I can please all of the people
all of the time.)
Jen: Please tell us about your website. Do you
participate in author phone chats? And if so,
how would my readers go about scheduling one?
Do you have e-mail notification of upcoming releases?
Do you participate in a blog?
Suzanne: Readers can
visit my website at www.SuzanneBrockmann.com.
From the start of my career, I built and maintained
my own website, and I still do. This means that
although it may be lacking in whistles and bells,
the content there is always written by me.
Aside from my Facebook page, the closest thing
I've got to a blog is my e-newsletter -- again,
maintained and written by me. I send out news
about once a month via a yahoogroups list. The
link to my website e-newsletter signup page is
http://www.suzannebrockmann.com/mailing_list.htm.
And of course, readers are welcome to friend me
on Facebook!
To be honest, I'm trying to cut back on promotional
efforts, in order to do that two books a year
thing. So I'm not currently doing many appearances
at RWA chapter conferences, or signings, or even
phone chats. I do, however, have my own internet
message board at http://members2.boardhost.com/brockmann/,
and I schedule all day visits with Q&A sessions
every three months or so.
I'll be doing an appearance at the Selby Library
in Sarasota on February 11th (in just a week or
so), and I'm planning to attend the RWA conference
in Washington, DC this July. But that's about
it for me in 2009.
Jen: Are you currently
at work on your next novel? If so, what can you
tell us about it?
Suzanne: The book after
DARK OF NIGHT is called HOT PURSUIT.
It features two of my most popular characters,
Alyssa Locke and Sam Starrett. Alyssa's been hunting
a serial killer known as "the dentist"
for years. In HOT PURSUIT, he turns the
tables and begins stalking her. It's scheduled
for release in July 2009.
Jen: Thank you so
much for stopping by to chat with my readers.
It has been an absolute pleasure being able to
talk with you. Best of luck in 2009!
Suzanne: Thanks so much! Happy (almost) Valentine's
Day!
I hope you have enjoyed my interview with Suzanne.
If you need a Valentine’s Day gift for your
significant other, why not stop by your favorite
bookstore and pick up a copy of DARK OF NIGHT
today? Better yet, how about winning one instead?
Be one of the first five readers to e-mail me
at jensjewels@gmail.com
with the correct answer to the trivia question
and you’ll win!
Name the title of the sequel to DARK
OF NIGHT.
Later this month, I will be bringing to you my
interview with advice columnist Amy Dickinson
(Ask Amy). You won’t want to miss it.
Until next time…
Jen
|
Meet
the Author: featuring Jen's Jewels