Today we’d like to introduce you to Suzanne Ferrell.
Hi Suzanne, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’ve always been a voracious reader from the time I was five and learned to read. When I was a young teen, I discovered the stash of romance novels in my aunt’s closet that they happily shared with me. I loved creative writing classes, but my parents were very practical and steered me towards my second love, medicine. After three years in a hospital nursing school, I went on to work in Obstetrics, marry and have three children. We moved from Ohio, to Florida and finally Texas. I continued to read as much as I could, romance and action/adventure stories with the occasional murder mystery thrown in. Working the night shift, there is often a low period unless the entire unit is swamped. To stay awake during those hours, I would read.
One night, while working in a small L&D unit in Florida, I’d finished the book I had with me and still had five hours left. The other nurse working that shift with me wasn’t much of a talker and all my patients were sleeping, so I pulled out a piece of paper and started writing a scene playing in my head. I’d stop to check on patients and give medications as needed, but by morning I had five pages written. I was hooked. That book, written completely by the seat of my pants with no classes, no mentor, no one to guide me just poured out onto the computer. It was also rejected quite a few times. When we moved to Texas, I joined the Dallas Area Romance Authors, a group of romance writers that meets to discuss writing craft and business. There I not only learned how to write a story (and confirm I was doing it right) but made some of my closest friends who didn’t think it was strange that I have all these characters running around doing things in my head. My books won awards and still got rejections.
In 2012 a friend kept talking to me about self-publishing my manuscripts (I now had six), that self-publishing was becoming more of an accepted medium for writers. Then my daughter Lyndsey, a graphic artist who worked for Keller-Williams as an office manager, got laid off due to down-sizing. She had three small children and wanted to find some way to earn a living while being home with them. So, I had a what-the-heck-moment and suggested that she design book covers for my two books, KIDNAPPED and HUNTED, my two Romantic Suspense books in the Edgars Family Novels. I would have them edited and self-publish them and she could use that as a platform to start a business to create covers for independent authors. Funny thing. The dang books sold! KIDNAPPED came out in late March that year and HUNTED in June.
I also had two more manuscripts completed, but in a different series based in a small town I made up in my home state of Ohio. Lyndsey made up covers for those and we released a second series, which again sold. In the meantime, I was writing SEIZED the third book, a novella, in the Edgars series. By 2013, I was earning as much as a nurse and after thirty-five years of delivering babies, it was time for me to follow my passion for writing. That first book I wrote? It and its sequel were published under the titles CANTRELL’S BRIDE and TURNER’S VISION. There are now 20 books in three series. The newest DRAINED (released October 25th this year) is book #6 in the Edgars series and is my first serial killer book. Lyndsey developed quite a clientele for her cover designs and her business, LLewellenDesigns is one of the best known among independent authors. She also does work for small press publishers. So two businesses came out of this what-the-heck-moment.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No, it hasn’t been smooth. First I had to actually learn how to craft a complete story with compelling characters. I went to many, many, many plotting seminars until I finally realized none of them worked for me. I finally accepted that I am a seat of the pants writer, or as we call them a pantser. This means I have a scene in my head. I know the hero and heroine and that’s about it. In KIDNAPPED, the scene was a “what-if” question. What if my heroine wakes up tied up, face down in the backseat floor of her own car? And… poof, we’re off. In CLOSE TO THE EDGE, my hero pulls up in an alley behind a bank and sees the heroine standing on the hood of her car, rummaging through the dumpster. He startles her, she lands in his arms, dumping trash on him And…poof, we’re off. Then there were the many, many, many rejections. Even though the manuscripts were winning awards in contests, I couldn’t get any NY publisher to take them on. When the internet and self-publishing changed the publishing world, I not only had to take the very scary step to go on my own, but I had to learn publishing, marketing and business part of being a writer. Not things you usually worry about as a nurse.
What does success mean to you?
When I first started writing, I’d hoped to supplement my income. Then it was to be able to work at only writing. I’ve hit the USA Bestseller’s list, too. But honestly, it’s having readers write to tell me they loved a story or that reading my books help them through some difficult times. And then there are the readers who write wanting to know when a certain character is going to get their story or when am I going to have a new book come out. I think that is being a successful writer.
Contact Info:
- Email: suzanne@suzanneferrell.com
- Website: suzanneferrell.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/suz.welsh
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuzFerrell
- Other: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4596709.Suzanne_Ferrell
