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Suzanne vs. Susannah: Who Writes What?Susannah Sandlin & Suzanne JohnsonI frequently refer to myself and my dueling pen names in third-person, as if I had nothing to do with either one of them. (Sometimes, that’s not a bad idea.) They were created for business reasons that, as it turned out, no longer apply. But each name has a distinctive body of work attached to it.There are differences, even if I suspect they live only in my own mind.Those differences don’t have anything to do with genre, which is why most authors take up pen names. Nora Roberts writes romance, mostly; her other half, J.D. Robb, writes futuristic detective stories featuring a stable married couple.Suzanne and Susannah don’t differ that much in genre. The reason my author tagline reads “Smart heroines, hot heroes, cool stories” is that those things are always a given, no matter what name is on the book or what genre the book might fall into.Suzanne writes paranormal fantasy, primarily urban fantasy. Susannah writes paranormal romance (urban fantasy’s French-kissing cousin) and romantic suspense.Sex!So there’s the first clue: Suzanne might write romantic elements but she doesn’t write romance per se. Her books tend to be YA-friendly from a sexual standpoint. Whatever DJ and Alex might be up to at night, the door is closed.Susannah might write fantasy or suspense elements, but there is a romance at the heart of her books. They’re steamier, sexier, and usually have open-door love scenes, although they’re never terribly explicit. In WILD MAN’S CURSE, Gentry and Celestine get their moment, but they don’t get a detailed, ten-page sex scene.I don’t foresee either Suzanne or Susannah ever going there.What else?Well, there’s alwaysLANGUAGE!Suzanne stays pretty much in the PG-13 wheelhouse with language although an f-bomb might occasionally slip out if the situation really calls for it (it’s happened maybe twice). Susannah has an irreverently foul mouth, much like the author herself, sad to say, at least when she’s among friends. Although as a law enforcement officer, Gentry in WILD MAN’S CURSE is pretty mild in his language, as is Celestine. In fact, the biggest outburst of cursing in the book comes from a secondary character, wildlife agent Paul Billiot, who startles everyone by letting not one, but two, curse words come out of his mouth. Paul rarely even speaks, much less curses. (Paul is gonna get his book soon since he threatened to hijack WILD MAN’S CURSE.)HUMOR!Both Suzanne and Susannah like writing funny, so you’ll never find a lack of humor even in a book as tension-filled as WILD MAN’S CURSE. This book could never be called “light” in any sense of the word. But Gentry’s dog, Hoss, provides not only some comic relief for the reader amid the tension, but gives the reader a chance to see the lighter, sillier side of our serious wildlife enforcement agent. Likewise Susannah’s Penton Vampire Legacy series, which is a paranormal romance with dystopian overtones. Each of the vampires can be scary and intense—they usually are very intense—but they also have their softer side, usually having to do with their mates. Even the big bad Scottish gallowglass warrior softens up when his woman gives him a piece of her mind.VIOLENCE!No, just kidding. Both Suzanne and Susannah have quite a penchant for blowing up things—houses, cars, buildings, roller coasters, entire towns. WILD MAN’S CURSE doesn’t have any explosions, but, well, let’s just say life on the bayou can be treacherous.So, in the long run, there aren’t huge differences between Susannah and Suzanne books. One could eventually fade away and leave the other to carry the load of “the brand.” For now, you might want to share Suzanne’s books with your teen and keep Susannah on the top shelf!
By Susannah Sandlin
Wilds of the Bayou Series, Book One
Publisher: Montlake
Romance
Date of Publication: April
5, 2016
Genre: Romantic Suspense
ISBN: 978-1503934740
ASIN: B017IKQWAG
Number of pages: 284
Word Count: approx. 86,000
Cover Artist: Michael
Rehder
About the book:
The bones said death was
comin’, and the bones never lied.
While on an early morning
patrol in the swamps of Whiskey Bayou, Louisiana wildlife agent Gentry
Broussard spots a man leaving the home of voodoo priestess Eva Savoie—a man who
bears a startling resemblance to his brother, whom Gentry thought he had killed
during a drug raid three years earlier. Shaken, the agent enters Eva’s cabin
and makes a bloody discovery: the old woman has been brutally murdered.
With no jurisdiction over
the case, he’s forced to leave the investigation to the local sheriff, until
Eva’s beautiful heir, Celestine, receives a series of gruesome threats. As
Gentry’s involvement deepens and more victims turn up, can he untangle the secrets
behind Eva’s murder and protect Celestine from the same fate?
Or will an old family
curse finally have its way?
Excerpt from Chapter 1The bones said death was comin’, and the bones never lied.Eva Savoie leaned back in the rocking chair and pushed it into motion on the uneven wide-plank floor of the one-room cabin. Her grandpere Julien had built the place more than a century ago, pulling heavy cypress logs from the bayou and sawing them, one by one, into the thick planks she still walked across every day.She had never known Julien Savoie, but she knew of him. The curse that had stalked her family for three generations had started with her grandfather and what he’d done all those years ago.What he’d brought with him to Whiskey Bayou with blood on his hands.What had driven her daddy to shoot her mama, and then himself, before either turned forty-five.What had led Eva’s brother Antoine to drown in the bayou only a half-mile from this cabin, leaving a wife and infant son behind.What stalked Eva now.The bones said death was coming and, once Eva was gone, the curse should go with her. No one else knew the secrets of Julien Savoie and this cabin and that box full of sin he’d dug out of the bayou mud back in Isle de Jean Charles.Might take a while, but sin catches up with you. Always had. Always would. And the curse had driven Eva to sin. Oh yes, she had sinned.She’d known her reckoning would catch up with her, although it had taken a good long time. She’d turned seventy-eight yesterday, or was it eighty? She couldn’t remember for sure, and the bones said it didn’t matter now.On the scarred wooden table before Eva sat three burning candles that filled the room with the soft, soothing glow of melting tallow. She’d made them herself, infusing them with the oil of the fragrant lilies that every spring spread a bright green carpet over the lazy, brown water of the bayou. The tools of her ritual sat on an ancient square of tanned hide passed down through generations of holy ones, of those blessed by the gods with the ability to throw the bones.A small mound of delicate chicken bones, yellowed and fragile from age, lay inside the circle of light cast by the candles. Daylight would come in an hour or so, but Eva didn’t expect to last that long. Death was even now making his way toward her.She leaned forward, wincing at the stab of pain in her lower back. Since the first throw of the bones had whispered her fate two days ago, she’d been cleaning. Scrubbed the floor, worn smooth by decades of bare feet. Washed the linens, folding them in neat piles in a drawer at the bottom of the old pie safe. Discarded most of the food in the little refrigerator that sat in the corner. Dragged the bag of trash down the long, overgrown drive past LeRoy’s old 1970 Chevy pickup that she still drove up to Houma for groceries and such once a month. Left the white bag at the side of the parish road for the weekly trash collection.She’d spit on LeRoy’s truck as she passed it because she couldn’t spit on the man who bought it. He was long gone.Now the cleaning had been finished. Whoever discovered her raggedy old body wouldn’t find a mess, not in Eva Savoie’s house.A few minutes ago, with the old cabin as clean as she was capable of making it, she’d thrown the bones one last time. Part of her hoped they’d read different, hoped she’d be granted a few more days of grace.But the bones still whispered death. Eva accepted it, and she sat, and she waited. At least the girl, Celestine, would inherit a cleaned-up house. The girl, Antoine’s granddaughter, knew nothing of the secrets, nothing of the curse. Eva had made sure of that….Eva waited for her heart to fail—that seemed to be her most likely way to go. As she rocked she noted each steady beat, biding her time for the instant when the thump-thump-thump would falter and her breath would catch, then stop. She reckoned it would hurt a little, but what if it did? The curse had doled out worse ends to those who came before her.She’d doled out worse herself.The buzz of a boat’s motor sounded from outside the cabin, faint but growing louder. Wardens on patrol already, most likely.The boat’s engine grew louder, finally coming to an abrupt stop so near, it had to be right outside her door. Silence filled the room once again, until through her bones she felt the thud of someone jumping onto the porch that wrapped around the cabin. The porch formed the platform on which the house sat, linking it to the spit of land behind it when the water was normal. When storms blew through, it provided an island on which the cabin could sit or, if need be, float.As heavy footfalls crossed the porch, Eva struggled to her feet. Every pop and crackle of her joints knifed streaks of pain through her limbs as they protested the cleaning they’d done, followed by the sitting.Prob’ly a game warden, checkin’ on her. Too bad he hadn’t stopped a little later, after she was gone. She didn’t like to think of her body having to bake in the hot cabin for days before anyone found her.But the curse was what it was, and the bones said what they said.The knock, when it came, was soft, and Eva reached the door with the help of a sturdy cane she’d carved herself. Opening the door, she squinted into the glare of a flashlight that seemed almost blinding after the soft light of the candles. She peered up at a young man with eyes that gleamed from beneath the hood of a jacket. He was not a game warden, and it was too hot for a jacket.“Who are you?” Her voice cracked. She knew who he was. He was Death.“The devil come to pay you a visit, Eva.” The man’s voice was smooth as silk, smooth as a lie, smooth as death itself. “And you know what the devil wants.”She knew what he wanted, and she knew the only way to end the curse was to deny him.She’d been granted no easy passing by the Savoie curse after all, but she would die today.
The bones never lied.
About the Author:
Susannah
Sandlin is the author of the
award-winning Penton Vampire Legacy paranormal romance series, including the
2013 Holt Medallion Award-winning Absolution and Omega and Allegiance, which
were nominated for the RT Book Reviews Reviewers Choice Award in 2014 and 2015,
respectively. She is also the writer of The Collectors romantic suspense
series, including Lovely, Dark, and Deep, 2015 Holt Medallion winner and 2015
Booksellers Best Award winner. Her new series Wilds of the Bayou starts in 2016
with the April 5 release of Wild Man’s Curse.
Writing as Suzanne
Johnson, Susannah is the author of the award-winning Sentinels of New
Orleans urban fantasy series. A displaced New Orleanian, she currently lives in
Auburn, Alabama. Susannah loves SEC football, fried gator on a stick, all
things Cajun, and redneck reality TV.
Newsletter: http://www.suzannejohnsonauthor.com/newsletter
Twitter: @SusannahSandlin
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/Susannah_Sandlin
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/sj3523/
Tour Schedule
April 4 Review
The Cubicle Escapee
April 4 Guest Blog
Zenny's Awesome Book Reviews
April 5 Guest blog
Jill Archer
April 5 Interview
Apocalipstick
April 6 Guest blog
Hart’s Romance Pulse
April 6 Guest Blog
Share My Destiny
April 7 Interview
A Writer's Mind
April 7 Guest Blog
Queen of All She Reads
April 8 Guest Blog
Traci Douglass
April 8 Review
My Book Filled Life
April 8 Guest Post
Mythical Books
April 11 Guest Blog
Fang-tastic Books
April 12 Guest blog
Bambi Unbridled
April 12 Review
fuonlyknew
April 13 Review
happy tails and tales
April 14 Review
Romance Authors That Rock
April 14 Review
Miley The Book Junkie
April 15 Guest blog and Review
Reading Reality
April 15 Interview
Roxanne’s Realm
April 18 Interview
Ramblings of a Book nerd
April 18 Review
Romantic Fanatic
http://romanticfanaticblog.com/
I read Wild Man's Curse and loved it. I think all of you should buy your copy now. You will have a wonderful story to read. Fast paced, exciting, you will enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Roger!
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks to Maria for having me here at Queen of All She Reads today (LOVE the name of this blog!).
I highly recommend Wild Man's Curse. The characters are engaging, the plot is fast paced, and a family curse in a creepy bayou setting all come together to create a terrific story. You won't be disappointed!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Liz. That creepy old bayou..... :-)
ReplyDeleteThis story is so wonderfully written with a slow building romance, a lot of tension, a touch of mysticism and such vivid setting that you won't want teh light off after!
ReplyDeleteDefinitively a must read! so don't hesitate to buy this book, really it's a must have
I also have finished the book and really enjoyed it. Susannah/Suzanne does a wonderful job creating an environment that is realistic and picturesque with characters that are dramatic, strong and courageous. Looking forward to the next book in the series.
ReplyDeleteQuestion to the author: Which actor/actress would you like to see playing the lead character from this book?
ReplyDeleteCONGRATS AND GOOD LUCK ON YOUR NEW BOOK AND THANKS FOR THE GIVEAWAY! SHELLEY S. calicolady60@hotmail.com
ReplyDeleteWow I like the cover and the excerpt was great.
ReplyDelete