Sue: I was born and raised in California, and have spent all but about six years of my life (three as a child, three as an adult) in the San Francisco Bay area. I met my husband, Serge, through the "fandom" of SF author C.J. Cherryh, and we courted via letter and then by flying back and forth between California and his native Quebec, Canada. We've been married over 14 years, quite happily. We still live in California, but this year we're making a big move to the "Land of Enchantment," New Mexico. With us will come our two cats, Murphy and Jefferson, and our very spoiled half-Sheltie, Brownie. (That was her "baby" name when we rescued her, her mother and her siblings from neighbors who would have let them die. I'm afraid that silly name stuck!)

Maggie: What do you like to read in your (copious, I'm sure) spare time? Do you like to read romance? Do you read other paranormal romance novels?

Sue: I tend to read outside of my genre because it's easier; I don't feel so apt to compare myself to other writers or worry about picking up ideas and using them in my own stories. I read historical mysteries, such as Anne Perry's, and SF/fantasy by authors such as Cherryh and Lois McMaster Bujold. All my favorite books, of any genre, focus primarily on character and relationships, even if not always romantic.

Maggie: Please tell us about being an artist. Is there anywhere we can see your work? Any chance you'll ever get to do one of your own covers?

Sue: I hope to put an "art gallery" of my work (most of it quite old at this point!) on my web page eventually. My sketch of my character, Luke, is at the head of every online newsletter. Another place to see a sample of my work is to visit Sharon Lee's and Steve Miller's page (I'm a big fan of their "Liaden" romantic SF novels), and go to the link to view my portrait of two of their characters, Val Con and Miri. (Scroll down about four sections/paintings.)

Other than that, most of my work is long gone, sold at SF conventions or "Beauty and the Beast" fan conventions. I haven't had much time to do art lately, much to my regret. As for doing my own cover, I just don't have the resources or practice to do what romance cover artists do: hire models, rent costumes, photograph them from all angles with professional lighting, and then paint them in oil or acrylic in a full studio. I'll leave that to the experts!

Maggie: How did you get started writing romance, particularly paranormal romance?

Sue: I never set out to be a writer, as many authors do. I actually went to art school, and hoped to be a science/fiction fantasy cover artist. After visiting New York with my portfolio, I realized that wasn't going to work out as hoped. After I was married, I held a number of odd secretarial jobs while I tried to decide what to do. At the time, I was also involved in the "fandom" for the TV show "Beauty and the Beast." While I mainly was known for artwork, I did edit a couple of 'zines and wrote one fantasy B&B story. A published friend read this story, and suggested I try writing a romance novel.

Until that point, I'd read very little romance except for Regencies. I'd mainly read SF/fantasy. So I 'discovered' romance fairly late, and realized I'd been missing out on a good thing. Almost immediately I sat down to write what I then called "Wild Hearts" (later PRINCE OF WOLVES), combining my love of fantasy with romance. It just flowed out of my fingertips. Initially I didn't know much about the market, so I didn't worry that a "werewolf" hero might be a hard sell! And within two years, I had sold it to Bantam as part of a three-book contract.

Paranormal romance just comes naturally to me because of my love of fantasy and science fiction. I'd never write romance without some element of fantasy, or fantasy without some element of romance.

Maggie: What is it about the paranormal that attracts you so much? Have you ever had any paranormal experiences in real life? Do you believe the paranormal really exists?

Sue: I have a wild imagination. I love stories that take me entirely out of reality, either into the past or future or into parallel worlds. That's why I read and write what I do. I also like to show the contrast between the 'real' world, as we know it, and that which is strange to our world - how the two intersect and adapt to each other.

I don't believe in vampires or werewolves, but I'd like to believe that telepathic abilities exist. I'm a bit of a skeptic, so things need to be 'proven' to me first, but I don't think that it's impossible that there are many things beyond our understanding. I believe in life on other planets, and reincarnation is an idea I've played around with.

Maggie: Along with your werewolf stories, you've also written about vampires, ghosts, and time travel. Will we be seeing more of those stories or will you be focusing on werewolves for a while?

Sue: ONCE A WOLF and the third untitled book, due out in the fall of '01, will be werewolves. After that, I'll be taking a break from werewolves, and my intention is to write a werewolf book every other book, since those are my most popular. There are many, many fantasy areas I'd like to explore. While some have asked for a sequel to PRINCE OF DREAMS, that book didn't do particularly well, so I'd have to feel a driving need to write it first. I feel that ghosts and time travel have been done so much that I'm not sure they're as popular as they once were, but if I have a compelling idea along those lines, I'd certainly do it.

Maggie: Why werewolves? What is it about them that attracts you so much?

Sue: It's the combination of animal and man, emotion and reason, ferocity and 'domestication.' It's the search for the wild in all of us - and just the sheer attraction of being able to take the form of an animal as beautiful and admirable as the wolf. I wanted to get away from the 'evil, cursed' idea which has been such a negative part of the shapeshifter reputation, and show werewolves as possessing the good qualities of the wolf. A man who has the grace, power, senses, and sensuality of a wolf, or a big cat, is exciting.

Maggie: TOUCH OF THE WOLF, published in October 1999, started a series of historical werewolf books. The second book in the series, ONCE A WOLF, will be published in July. Please give us a little preview!

Sue: ONCE A WOLF is the story of Rowena, the sister of Braden Forster, the hero from TOUCH OF THE WOLF. She's fled to New York from England to escape an arranged 'werewolf' marriage, and intends to live as human. But her plans go awry when she's abducted by Tomas Alejandro Randall, a werewolf outlaw who wants revenge on Rowena's fiance, Cole MacLean. He steals Rowena away to the wilds of New Mexico Territory. As they travel together, he teaches her how to accept her werewolf nature, and she teaches him about living life for a purpose other than revenge.

Maggie: Rowena is an unusual character because she is ashamed of being a werewolf and has really rejected her true nature. Where did you 'find' Rowena? Was it a challenge writing about a werewolf who doesn't want to be one?

Sue: Rowena came quite easily to me in TOUCH OF THE WOLF, and I always planned to tell her and Quentin's stories in the next two books. My main concern was really that she might seem too 'harsh' and angry. The fact that she doesn't want to be a werewolf seemed to suggest an intriguing story idea for me, since most of my werewolves accept what they are. She, like many of us, rejects her 'wild' side and is afraid of it.

Maggie: Tomas, the hero in ONCE A WOLF, is also a wonderful character. He's a roguish caballero who is very sexy and very much a ladies' man, but he is also a tragic character which we find out as the story unfolds. Where did you find your inspiration for Tomas? Was he fun to write about?

Sue: I took the inspiration for Tomas from the character of Zorro in '98's movie "The Mask of Zorro." I rather had Antonio Banderas in mind! I wanted that sort of character, but based on a wolf rather than a fox - thus "El Lobo." Tomas was wonderfully fun to do, much less dark than most of my heroes in many ways, and full of banter.

Maggie: Another major character in the novel, Esperanza, is a human with some special powers. She plays a very important role in the novel. Will we find out more about her and her powers in subsequent books?

Sue: I'd like to do Esperanza's story eventually, though it may be a while. In a way, it's fun to really develop secondary characters, because you can sometimes do things with them you can't do with the protagonists, make them a little more edgy. Esperanza wasn't edgy, but she was afraid, and I tried to have her develop beyond that fear in the story. Sim Kavanagh is another character, right on the border between good and bad, who will be featured in a future story.

Maggie: While ONCE A WOLF has plenty of action, it focuses heavily on character development. Which do you enjoy writing more, the characters or the action? Which do you find more challenging?

Sue: Character development in many ways is the most challenging, because you have to consider character growth and consistency, what a character really would do or think from moment to moment and in various circumstances. You don't want to have the character go in circles and learn the same lesson twice, etc ... But I love developing characters, and the way I go about it, it's as if I'm getting to know a real person. I seldom know everything about my characters until the end of the story.

I do enjoy writing action as well, but my books vary widely as to the amount of action in them. ONCE A WOLF is probably one of those with the most action. It just lent itself well to the western setting and my Zorro-like hero.

Maggie: Please tell us about the rest of the series. How many stories will there be? Who will the next book be about? Where do you envision the series going?

Sue: The next story, out in the fall of '01, is Quentin's story. That's the third in the initial trilogy, and his story will, in turn, be quite different from ONCE A WOLF - more internal, quieter, but with intense emotion. It's set in 1880 Napa Valley, California, and the heroine is a woman doctor who practices hypnosis in the treatment of insanity. If I write a werewolf book every other book, I have plenty of characters to feature: Morgan Holt, Cassidy's missing brother; Sim Kavanagh; Weylin MacLean; and Cassidy's and Braden's son and daughter. With each book, I'll probably add additional characters as well. Eventually I'd like to have a big werewolf 'family tree' reaching back into time and forward to PRINCE OF WOLVES and PRINCE OF SHADOWS. I also might do a third contemporary.

Maggie: Both TOUCH OF THE WOLF and ONCE A WOLF have really outstanding covers. (TOUCH OF THE WOLF won Best Paranormal cover at the All About Romance site.) Is there a story behind these covers? Did you have any input on them? Can we expect all the books in this series to have covers by Franco Accornero?

Sue: I didn't have any input on the covers except to describe my characters' appearance and the settings of the books (Northumberland and New Mexico.) I was just very fortunate. The third book will probably not have a Franco cover, because it will be published by a different publisher, Berkley/Jove.

Maggie: What's it like, creating a mythology and universe peopled with werewolves and other amazing human beings? Do you ever struggle with continuity and making sure you don't contradict yourself? Is it hard to come back to reality after you've been immersed in your werewolf universe?

Sue: I love 'world building' and creating a whole system of customs and beliefs for my characters. That's something I learned from reading so much SF and fantasy throughout my life. I do have to watch continuity, and make sure I don't contradict myself; sometimes I wish I'd thought things out more carefully when I wrote my first werewolf book, PRINCE OF WOLVES. But so far it seems to be working! Since I'm creating my own reality, it's not really hard to 'come out of it' at the end of a writing day. It's always inside my head.

Maggie: I know you are a big supporter of animal rights. Please tell us something about that and how we can help.

Sue: I support Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, which provides a loving home for abanboned dogs, cats, rabbits, horses, donkeys and others, and adopts to new homes from its many acres in southern Utah. I've visited the place, and it's marvelous.

I also support a number of wolf organizations. I have links to many of these from my links page, in the 'Wolf' section near the bottom. (Some of the links to the smaller organizations/web pages may be broken; please forgive my failure to keep up!)

I also subscribe to ANIMAL PEOPLE, from which you may obtain (for a fee) a list of animal organizations and determine which ones really spend most of their money on programs rather than on bureaucracy. It really opened my eyes, and I'm being more careful with my dollars.

Maggie: Is there anything else you'd like to tell us?

Sue: I always love to hear from readers. You can reach me via e-mail and at my web page, or via 'snail mail' at P.O. Box 272545,Concord, CA 94519. That will be changing in the fall, but the P.O. Box will be good at least through the end of the year.