Life & Work with Suzanne Redfearn

Today we’d like to introduce you to Suzanne Redfearn.

Hi Suzanne, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
It started with a glass of wine. Had I not been hanging out with a girlfriend, drinking chardonnay and discussing old movies, I might never have started this journey. My friend was an aspiring screenwriter, and we were talking about an old film called “Belle de Jour,” which starred Catherine Deneuve. It is about a young woman who spends her midweek afternoons as a high-class prostitute while her husband is at work. The two of us were laughing about how, nearly fifty years after the film was made, the idea still worked.

That night, fortified by the wine and stimulated by our conversation, I sat at my computer to write the idea in a file I simply call “Notes.” It’s a place I keep inspiration – photos, quotes, and ideas. I started at nine, believing I was simply jotting down an idea, and ended up writing until three in the morning, the story pouring out of me faster than I could type.

Nine months later, I had my first novel, and I was hooked. It turned out storytelling was in my blood. My grandfather was a storyteller. He used to write folk songs and narrative poems. I suppose I inherited the gift from him.

It took a long time to hone the craft, but eventually I got there. And three years and five novels after that fateful night, my first novel, Hush Little Baby, was published. It’s been a rollercoaster ride since. I’ve had five agents and three publishers over the course of the ten years I’ve been a published author, but I now have five novels along with an Amazon Original short story out in the world, and my work has been published in more than twenty-eight languages.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Publishing is a tough industry, and you learn quickly that you need to roll with the punches. My first book did well, but the sales on my second were lackluster. I got dropped by my publisher, decided I was done and went back to being an architect. A year later, I was struck by a jolt of inspiration and, despite telling myself, I was no longer pursuing the crazy pipedream of being an author, found myself writing another story. I got a new agent who loved what I’d written but, when she went to sell it, discovered it was unsalable because of the current political climate. She asked me to send her something else, and with zero expectations, I sent her a novel that had been rejected by my previous editor as well as several other editors. I went back to my life, the decision to give up the fanciful pursuit reaffirmed. Three months later, the novel was bought by Lake Union Publishing, and it has since gone on to win several awards and to sell nearly a million copies worldwide.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I think what sets my novels apart is that I write in the now (contemporary, present tense), and my stories start with a moral theme which then inspires the plot. My first novel was based on the idea of marital sabotage, how a spouse could set out and destroy their partner if they wanted to, making good appear evil and evil appear good. The second started as an investigation into childhood celebrity and the damage it causes, not just to the star but also the collateral damage it inflicts on the family. The third was an eerie idea that came to me on a chairlift, the question, “How much should you trust someone else to look after your children?” crossing my mind as I sat between my kids above a mountain in a snowstorm. My hope is that readers continue to ponder the stories long after the last page is turned.

Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
If you want to be a writer, write. I don’t believe in writer’s block. I have good writing days and bad writing days, but every day I force my butt into the chair and I put words on the page. The work always leads somewhere. Sometimes only to the trash bin in the corner of my screen, but then I am past it and can move on, hopefully to something worthwhile. Writing is a marathon not a sprint. You need to be in it for the long haul and tell as many stories as you can because you never know which is the one that will make it into the world.

Pricing:

• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Suzanne-Redfearn/e/B00ESK4YC8?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1665686343&sr=8-1
• Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/suzanne%20redfearn
• Target: https://www.target.com/s?searchTerm=suzanne+redfearn
• Audible: https://www.audible.com/search?keywords=suzanne+redfearn&ref-override=a_ep_2book_t1_header_search&k=suzanne+redfearn&crid=T0BBU76M5GCO&sprefix=suzanne+redfearn%2Cna-audible-us%2C109&i=na-audible-us&url=search-alias%3Dna-audible-us&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.suzanneredfearnauthor.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suzanneredfearn/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=suzanne%20redfearn

Image Credits
Lisa Hughes Anderson