Blogging My Heart Out! (Suzanne Forster)

I’ve been blogging like a maniac this week, primarily because I have a book out and several readers’ sites were kind enough to ask me to contribute. One of them even sent me a list of questions to answer, which I appreciated. It was so much easier than having to fumble around for topics on my own—and for some reason, as I was answering the questions it occurred to me that a couple of them might work here, on Storybroads, as well. So, call me crazy, but here they are:

Suzanne, when did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

I guess you could call me a late bloomer in that regard. All my life I’ve been an avid reader, so writing would have been a natural transition, but somewhere in the shoals of early adolescence I made up my mind that I wanted to be a student of life. Hey, it sounded like a good idea at the time. Eventually it occurred to me that I might need a job to pay the way for this lofty goal, which is how I ended up majoring in psychology in college. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be a clinician or a researcher. I just knew that people fascinated me. Totally. I was forever trying to figure out why they did the things they did and what motivated them to make choices that either propelled them to success or failure, happiness or misery, and all things in between. And also why these choices always seemed to turn into patterns that dictated their lives. And especially why people—most of us, actually—were such dedicated keepers of secrets.

I started with my own family—and what a wealth of material there! I suspect only a writer in search of understanding could feel this way, but I’m still grateful to my parents and their parents for the incredible dysfunction they managed to create, despite what was fundamentally a loving environment. My family was—and still is—wonderfully eccentric. Some would say wacky. Our gene pool alone could have produced a dozen different doctoral theses, easily. (And it has produced a bunch of novels, although don’t tell my relatives!)

So, that was the dream—a career in psychology—and it was almost realized. I was in my early thirties and in an accelerated four-year doctoral program in clinical psychology when I had a car accident. I’ve been saying ever since that I started writing by accident—and it’s true, literally. I was driving to my first group therapy session when I was hit by a truck that ran a red light. The accident was quite serious, and the recovery was long and difficult, but as with all dark clouds, there was a silver lining. Writing. Weaving stories became my therapy, and before I was well enough to return to graduate school, I’d actually sold a book and launched a new career.

Now, I write full-time and it’s a rewarding and consuming profession that keeps me wondering if I should have been a psychologist, lol. But, in truth, writing has brought more blessings to my life than I could possibly recount, including some things that might normally fall into the category of curses. I often wonder how many people would ever be grateful for having had a car accident—or a dysfunctional family, for that matter. Of course, that could change if my family checks out this blog.

What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?

Well, possibly that I write in bed. As I mentioned, I started writing during the recovery from my car accident. That was back in the eighties and I don’t think laptops were on the market yet, or if they were, we didn’t have one. So my husband, Allan, actually took the keyboard out of the computer and inserted it in a cardboard box with a long cable attached. We got the screen close enough that I could see it, and that was all I needed. I was off and writing. I had no thoughts of writing a book at that time. At first it was simply trying to distract myself from the pain of the injuries. Later, when I’d recovered enough, I started taking classes, and the rest, as they say, is history.

But I still write my novels in bed, propped up with pillows. It’s the way I think best. My brain must be conditioned by now. It doesn’t seem to want to work unless it’s at a 45 degree angle!

What does your family think about your career as a published author?

Now, they’re very proud. In the beginning, not so much. Of my first Desire, UNDERCOVER ANGEL, my mother was heard to say that she was afraid to turn the page because she never knew what was coming next. However, I noticed that after reading a few more of my series romances, she began sharing them with her church friends, but always with the disclaimer that she couldn’t imagine where her youngest daughter had learned about such things. She also loved to needle me, asking why I didn’t pen mysteries rather than romance novels. I would answer by saying sweetly, “Oh, so you’d rather my characters kill each other than fall in love?” He he he.

There were several more questions, but I will spare you those. Since we often talk about families here, I thought those exchanges might be more interesting. And quirks are always fun to talk about. I have many, some of them too embarrassing to ever reveal, although I’ve outed myself a few times via the characters in my books.

How about your quirks, any you’d care to share? Do you talk back to the television the way I do? Do you disco around the house for exercise? Or read magazines from the back to the front? Any eating quirks? We all know about Tara’s cottage cheese! So, share some of your eccentricities, or your family’s. Heaven knows, no one could have a stranger family than I do.

Suz, all blogged out