Hello everyone!
I'm so excited to share with you the results of my second author interview, this time of the prolific and successful, Susan Kaye Quinn! I'm sure you want to read all about about her and her latest series, The Debt Collector, which sounds pretty freaking amazing. Check it out (interview follows):
The Debt Collector by Susan Kaye Quinn
From the author of the bestselling Mindjack series comes a new future-noir serial, The Debt Collector. The first episode, Delirium, launched in mid-March, 2013.
What’s your life worth on the open market?
A debt collector can tell you precisely.Lirium plays the part of the grim reaper well, with his dark trenchcoat, jackboots, and the black marks on his soul that every debt collector carries. He’s just in it for his cut, the ten percent of the life energy he collects before he transfers it on to the high potentials, the people who will make the world a better place with their brains, their work, and their lives. That hit of life energy, a bottle of vodka, and a visit from one of Madam Anastazja’s sex workers keep him alive, stable, and mostly sane… until he collects again. But when his recovery ritual is disrupted by a sex worker who isn’t what she seems, he has to choose between doing an illegal hit for a girl whose story has more holes than his soul or facing the bottle alone—a dark pit he’s not sure he’ll be able to climb out of again.
Contains mature content and themes. For YA-appropriate thrills, see Susan’s Mindjack series.
Delirium is approximately 12,000 words or 48 pages and is one of nine episodes in the first season of The Debt Collector serial. This dark and gritty future-noir is about a world where your life-worth is tabulated on the open market and going into debt risks a lot more than your credit rating. You can find out more about the series at the Debt Collector website and facebook page. The Debt Collector newsletter is a special list just for episode releases.
Early Praise
“The street-smart science of LOOPER meets the cold, just-the-facts voice of DOUBLE INDEMNITY in this edgy, future-noir thriller that will have you holding your breath, looking over your shoulder, and begging for more.” —Leigh Talbert Moore, author of The Truth About Faking, The Truth About Letting Go, and Rouge
“Do you owe more than your life is worth? No worries. A more deserving person than you can benefit from that excess life—and someone else will get paid with it. Enter the Debt Collector.” —Dianne Salerni, author of We Hear the Dead, The Caged Graves, and The Eighth Day (HarperCollins 2014)
The first three episodes of Debt Collector will be released a week apart, starting Wednesday, 3/20/2013. The remaining episodes will release every two weeks. Delirium can be found on Amazon, Barnes&Noble, iTunes, Kobo. Or add it to your TBR on Goodreads.
Susan Kaye Quinn is the author of the bestselling YA SF Mindjack series. Debt Collector is her more grown-up SF. Her steampunk fantasy romance is temporarily on hold while she madly writes episodes to keep Lirium happy. Plus she needs to leave time to play on Facebook. Susan has a lot of degrees in engineering, which come in handy when dreaming up dangerous mind powers, future dystopias, and slightly plausible steampunk inventions. Mostly she sits around in her pajamas in awe that she gets make stuff up full-time.
Author Interview - Susan Kaye Quinn
- What made you decide to write a book in the first place?’
- Approximately how long does it take you to write a book––from a germ of an idea to the final draft?
- What would you say is your interesting writing quirk––certain music, lucky socks, favorite beverage?
- What appears first in your mind when developing a new story––characters, plot, or setting?
Muse: The Debt Collector.
Me: Er, what? Who are you?
Muse: When people's debts exceed their future potential contributions to society, he cashes them out.
Me: Whoa. Tell me more.
Muse: He extracts their life energy and transfers it to a "high potential" - someone who can use it to make greater contributions to the world.
Me: Holy Crap. That's a great idea.
Muse: He's a good man with bad power. And it's future-noir.
Me: Future-noir! Cool! Uh, what is that exactly?
Muse: Dark. Gritty. Futuristic but retro at the same time.
Me: Oh... like Blade Runner... Holy Crap, this is awesome.
Muse: You're welcome.
- What was a surprising thing you learned while creating your books––about yourself, the business, or about the world?
- How many books have you written? Which is your favorite and why?
Published: 4 novels, 4 novellas/short-stories, soon-to-be 1 nine-part serial (which will be like 3 short novels in length)
Unpublished: 4 novels (one of which will remain unpublished forever, thank God)
Twinkle-in-my-eye-plotted-but-not-drafted: 1 novel
Plotted-and-pitched-to-publishers-on-spec-but-never-sold: 1 novel
And my favorite book is always the one I’m currently writing. I have to be in love with it or it just doesn’t work.
- Why did you choose the route you did––to go with traditional publishing or to self-publish?
- Do you read reviews, and how do they affect your writing?
I do, however, really enjoy getting feedback from fans while I’m still writing a series. While I was writing Books 2&3 in Mindjack, the fans who wrote and told me what they loved, or scenes they hated, or characters they were rooting for… that motivated me like no one’s business. Enjoying that circular process, where the reader shares the work with the writer while it’s being created, is part of why I decided to serialize Debt Collector – I hope to get some of that same feedback from people who are reading the series as I write it.
- Top three bits of advice for writing a successful novel?
- What's your favorite thing about being a writer?
**** Thanks for the interview, Susan! I can't wait to check out your Debt Collector series....but I think I'm going to need to keep a sharp knife on my nightstand while I do. The very idea of a debt collector scares me! Best of luck! xoxo, Kym Add a Comment