Suzy Krause aims high...plus a book giveaway

Photo by Kiersten Taylor

We're pleased to welcome Suzy Krause to CLC today. She is the debut author of Valencia and Valentine (coming June 1st from Lake Union) of which we have been hearing lots of good buzz. Thanks to Kathleen Carter Communications, we have THREE copies for some lucky readers!

Suzy grew up in the village of Frontier, Saskatchewan, two hours from the nearest McDonald's, one hour from the nearest movie theatre, half an hour from the nearest swimming pool. She now lives in Regina—the Queen City!—and it has all of those things and she doesn't really use any of them. It's small compared to New York, but compared to Frontier, it's basically a megalopolis.

Suzy is a writer and a music lover. She's been blogging (here and elsewhere) for over a decade, but she also writes, from time to time, on various arts, entertainment, and lifestyle websites. Valencia and Valentine is her first novel, inspired by her time working as a debt collector in Saskatoon (she received a lot of death threats that summer).

Writing a book has been on her to-do list since she was six-ish, so it's good that she did it. You'll be able to read V&V in June 2019, and a second is on its way for July 2020—please hold your horses; these things take time. (Bio courtesy of Suzy's website.)

Visit Suzy online:
Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram

Synopsis:
Valencia is afraid of many things; most things actually: social interaction, public restrooms, germs, driving on highways, physical contact with other humans. These fears are all-consuming and have controlled and informed her entire adult life. As she approaches her thirty-fifth birthday, a milestone year that happens to be one of her two greatest fears (the other is flying), she’s challenged by her therapist to confront both at once by flying somewhere right before her birthday. She’s never been anywhere so the possibilities are endless—and overwhelming. That is until she begins a telephone romance with a man from New York, and suddenly has a destination in mind. There’s only one problem, her newfound love interest might not actually exist.

Mrs. Valentine is a lonely elderly woman with a larger-than-life personality. At eighty-seven, she’s obsessed with death, but not in a morbid way. More as something that’s going to happen to her soon, so she might as well embrace it—and think about it and talk about it to anyone who’ll listen. Something that takes her new cleaning woman by surprise on her first day of work, a job she discovers is more about the company—and the listening ear—than it is about cleaning. Mrs. Valentine relishes the attention and interest in hearing her life’s story—a tale of storybook love and incredible adventures around the world with her beloved, Mr. Valentine, before his mysterious and sudden disappearance.

As the stories of Valencia and Mrs. Valentine unfold, it seems they have nothing in common—outside of both being wonderfully odd and endearing human beings. But, life is never as straightforward as it seems.

In one sentence, tell us what the road to publishing was like for you.
Full of optimistic and naïve ideas that probably caused me to dream a lot bigger and go a lot further than I would have if I’d been firmly rooted in reality.

What is one piece of advice you'd like to share with aspiring novelists?
Get yourself a blog! A small, personal place where you write about things completely unrelated to your book as often as you can. Blogs are great for three reasons:
1. Writing practice and developing a strong “voice.”
2. Networking.
3. Preventing burnout by giving you something else to temporarily focus on when you’re in the thick of writing a novel.

If Valencia and Valentine were made into a movie, who would you cast in the lead roles?
Let’s aim high. Meryl Streep would be Mrs. V and Kristin Wiig for Valencia!

What TV show are you currently binge watching?
Well, I was binge watching Kim’s Convenience, but I’ve reached the end of season four, so I need something new until the fall. Something as good as Kim’s Convenience.

What is the strangest thing residing in your purse/handbag?
A Blockbuster membership card. I have had so many different wallets since Blockbuster died; I don’t know why I keep transferring that card over…

What is the funniest thing that has happened to you recently?
While eating spaghetti the other night, my two-year-old coughed funny and a spaghetti noodle went up into her nose and I had to pull it out of her tiny little nostril. It was probably seven inches long and my five-year-old thought it was the best thing he’s ever seen.

Thanks to Suzy for chatting with us and to Kathleen Carter Communications for sharing her book with our readers.

How to win: Use Rafflecopter to enter the giveaway. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. If you have trouble using Rafflecopter on our blog, enter the giveaway here. 


a Rafflecopter giveaway


Giveaway ends June 2nd at midnight EST.