Today we’d like to introduce you to Susan Sands
Hi Susan, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My most recent story, Her Missing Pieces, came to me as an almost fully formed idea. That rarely happens, but it’s a true gift when it does. Writers play the what-if game with ourselves when developing storylines. Her Missing Pieces began as: What if a young girl went missing from her small town without a trace and showed up years later with no memory of her childhood, her family, or what happened on that fateful night?
My agent loved the idea and suggested I drop everything and write it. It took almost a year to write, edit, and submit. It got lost in the shuffle of the pandemic, I left the agency, and the book got shelved as unsellable because it had already been sent out to publishers with little to no response.
Fast-forward a few years. My current publisher had earlier declined to publish the book because it was hard to define as a genre. It was not exactly a mystery, a thriller, or women’s fiction, but a mashup of all three. We’d discussed making major changes to the story, but I’d moved on to a new series by then, so it was again pushed aside.
I couldn’t get the story out of my mind, so when I met with my publisher at a conference in person, I pitched the story to her again. She told me to send it directly to her. After reading, she decided the time had come for Her Missing Pieces to see the light of day. But it needed to be the first book in a new series. So, I am currently writing the third story in the Moonshine, Georgia series.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
LOL! So many struggles, as I’ve just described. I don’t know if any book has a smooth road. Writing is a struggle within itself, in my experience. I’m struggling to write a series that follows such a complicated story as Her Missing Pieces. It is so nuanced and unique. The second story is a Christmas novella, so it’s a little less in-depth with a slightly lighter tone, as you might expect. The third book is evolving as a murder mystery, so that’s really something new for me. I’m pretty excited by the prospect of finding remains in one of my books.
So, yeah. That’s how it’s going…
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m an author who writes Southern novels filled with colorful characters, family, and romance, set in small towns in Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, and South Carolina. I’m proud that I started writing later in life and that I didn’t give up when things got hard. Because writing is hard. Getting published is hard. Being criticized and rejected is hard.
My books are filled with some really gritty stuff, but they are funny and heartfelt. I never let my readers get too bogged down in sadness before I make them laugh. And I always end my stories with hope.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://susansands.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/susansandsauthor/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/susannsandsauthor
- Twitter: https://x.com/SusanNoelSands
