The Writer's View: Susan Sloate

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Susan will be awarding a notebook perfect for journaling to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

The view inside my writing space
By Susan Sloate

Thanks for hosting me today, and for asking about the view inside my writing space. Here’s a glimpse into my world:

The view inside my writing space is about what you’d expect a writer’s hangout to be, except that currently I’m staying with a friend, so my writing space isn’t really my own, and that’s not totally comfortable.

So sometimes my writing space is the bedroom, where I have a desktop computer facing a window that faces into a set of blinds that are kept permanently closed (we’re on the ground floor, and it’s easier to maintain privacy that way). There’s a (non-working) printer to my right and a desk lamp (not often used) to my left on a big scarred wooden desk (also not mine).

I like this space because it’s the easiest for me to get to in the morning, and the most private during the day (I can close the bedroom door).

On the other hand, I also often use the kitchen table, which holds my own laptop and behind which is a set of bookshelves on which I can stack my stuff, including my planner, which I keep close at hand.

Almost always, to the left of my laptop I keep a notebook or reference books or anything else I’m using with whatever project I’m currently working on. Across the room is a sliding glass door that leads outside—but the blinds are kept closed there, too. So I’m not getting much stimulation from looking around my physical world.

But that’s okay, because between my Internet access and the pictures playing in my head, there’s more than enough going on to keep me visually stimulated! While writing STEALING FIRE I was thinking about 1980’s New York and L.A., and both seeing and hearing the musicals of that time and the Golden Age of Broadway musicals, about 25 years earlier (as my hero, Beau, worked on Broadway during those years). Truthfully, when my mind starts playing pictures and music, I tend not to notice my physical surroundings at all, because I’m so entranced with the pictures I’ve created (or remembered) for myself.

So though I have no pictures to show you of the physical space I work in, not seeing them is really like seeing through my eyes into my world—because when my mind starts clicking creatively, that real work space just dissolves, and I can no more see what’s around me than you can.

How do you recognize your soulmate?

In glittery 1980’s Los Angeles, Beau Kellogg is a brilliant Broadway lyricist now writing advertising jingles and yearning for one more hit to compensate for his miserable marriage and disappointing life.

Amanda Harary, a young singer out of synch with her contemporaries, works at a small New York hotel, while she dreams of singing on Broadway.

When they meet late at night over the hotel switchboard, what begins will bring them each unexpected success, untold joy, and piercing heartache ... until they learn that some connections, however improbable, are meant to last forever.

STEALING FIRE is, at its heart, a story for romantics everywhere, who believe in the transformative power of love.

STEALING FIRE was a Quarter-Finalist (Top 5%) in the 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest.

About the Author:

Susan Sloate is the author of 20 published books, including FORWARD TO CAMELOT (with Kevin Finn), an alternative history of the JFK assassination, STEALING FIRE, an autobiographical love story, and REALIZING YOU (with Ron Doades), for which she invented a new genre – the self-help novel. FORWARD TO CAMELOT was a #6 Amazon bestseller, took honors in 3 literary competitions and was optioned for film production by a Hollywood company. STEALING FIRE was a quarter-finalist in the 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest. Susan has also written young-adult fiction and non-fiction, including RAY CHARLES: FIND ANOTHER WAY!, which won a silver medal in the 2007 Children’s Moonbeam Book Awards, AMELIA EARHART: CHALLENGING THE SKIES, a perennial Amazon bestseller, and MYSTERIES UNWRAPPED: THE SECRETS OF ALCATRAZ, which led to her appearance on a special for The History Channel in 2009, as well as books for five girls’ fiction series. As a screenwriter, she has written an informational film for McGraw-Hill Films and optioned two scripts to Hollywood production companies. As a sportswriter, she’s covered the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the New York Mets. She’s also managed two recent political campaigns, founded the East Cooper Authors Festival (which put 18 professional authors in 17 area schools in one day) and serves on the Culture, Arts and Pride Commission of the Town of Mount Pleasant.