AN INTERVIEW WITH SUSAN PAGE DAVIS

 

Susan Page Davis is the featured author this month, and she’s here to talk about her new novel, The Lady’s Maid.

Welcome, Susan! I’m excited to be interviewing you this month.

Thanks, Deb! I’m glad to be back here again.

Susan, you’ve written a ton of books! And you were considered a new author only seven years ago in 2004? How long have you actually been writing?

I started seriously writing fiction in 1999. Before that I wrote for a newspaper and did magazine articles.

How many books have you had published, and how many are still in print?

The Lady’s Maid is my 37th novel (or novella—three are those shorter ones). I’m not counting collections, but separate titles. A few have gone out of print, but most of those are still available as eBooks.  We live in a wonderful age!

Being a homeschool mom, how did you balance your time between that, writing, and everything else?

That was always a challenge for me. My husband worked evenings into nights, so he was usually at home during the day, which helped a lot. Also, I didn’t start writing fiction until my youngest was about five years old. I did work for the newspaper while we had babies in the house. Some of them went to town meetings with me, or got to see house fires, but most of the “events” I took them to were fun for them—parades, fairs, and so on. It was good for them because they learned to interact with adults at an early age.

Susan, your bio on your Web site speaks of the many interesting experiences you’ve had in your education. Genealogy, for instance. Can you give us a small tidbit of something you’ve learned in that area?

I think I first became interested in documenting my family’s history when my aunt gave me a copy of her “Pages of Pages,” a list of our male ancestors in an unbroken line from John Page, who arrived in Massachusetts in 1628, down to my grandfather. I’ve learned that there are fascinating stories in every family. I’ve also learned how critical it is to document your information. While I was home schooling, I did some workshops on teaching with family history. I absolutely love it, but don’t have as much time for it now as I’d like.

Please tell us about your book, The Lady’s Maid.

The story starts in England. The Lady’s Maid features Elise Finster, who accompanies her young mistress, Lady Anne Stone, on a voyage to America in 1855. Lady Anne’s father has died, and her Uncle David is the new Earl of Stoneford—if he steps forward and claims the title. But David disappeared into the American West when Anne was a baby. Now it’s up to her and Elise to find him. They join a wagon train in Independence, Missouri, not realizing they’re leading a killer straight to David.

How did you come up with the idea of two pampered and proper English gentry women who come to the States and immediately join up with a wagon train going West?

I’m not really sure where the idea sprang from, but I remember emailing with my editor about “the next series” idea while I was in Prince Edward Island. My head was full of the aristocracy I’d been researching for another book. Becky Germany, my editor at Barbour—and on the other end of the email—told me she’d like a prairie story. And she really liked the idea of English ladies having to overcome their helplessness and brave the frontier.

No doubt your degree in history has helped in writing many of your books. Has it helped to alleviate the amount of research you needed to do on this one?

No. If anything, it taught me that the more research I can do, the better. I don’t ever want to stint on research. There’s always more to learn and more that will lend authenticity to the story. However, several things made this series a little easier: I’ve been to England and read a lot of books set there; I’d already written some books about the Oregon Trail and had research materials on hand for that; and I used to live in Oregon. Book 2 of this series is set exclusively in Oregon, while Book 3 will take us back to England. But I still had to do a ton of research.

I know many people are aware of how to find you, Susan, but just in case there are some that may be new to your books, will you share with us where you can be found on the internet?

I’d love to see you over at my site: http://www.susanpagedavis.com

Thanks so much for visiting, Susan. It’s been fun, and a real pleasure having you here!

Thanks, Deb! It’s always fun to talk with you.

If you’d like to win a signed copy of The Lady’s Maid, go to my Contact page and type “drawing” in the comments box. The deadline to enter is October 24th.

To purchase Susan’s book:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
CBD

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