Author Spotlight: Susan Macatee, American Civil War Romance Author

Hello and Merry Christmas to all! Please welcome this week's guest, Susan Macatee. Hello, Susan! Hope you've managed to get all your Christmas preparation done, LOL  Are we ever done?

What inspired you to write your first book?
Reading great books written by others. When I was a kid, I loved books so much, I imagined what it would feel like to actually write and have my name on the cover of a book and have people read stories about characters I’d created. As I grew older, although I never thought of being an author as a real career option, that vision of writing novels never completely left me. It was through reading and my love of novels that made me want to write a book of my own.

How many books have you written?
Not that many, actually. I started out writing short stories, so as of today, I’ve written four complete novels and just completed the first draft of a fifth. I have another completed first draft put aside, awaiting revision. The first novel I wrote was never published.

What works best to keep you focused and on track?

Schedules. LOL. I list all my writing goals. I have yearly goals, monthly goals, weekly goals and even daily goals. I also belong to an online challenge group where I record my daily progress in a database. This keeps me from frittering away my time, when I know I have to account for what I’ve done each day, whether it be words written, pages edited or hours spent plotting or researching a story.

Do you write to make money or for the love or writing?
Although I’d love to make money from my writing, I’d have to say that’s not the reason I’m doing it. If it was, I would’ve quit long ago. I just love putting words to paper, creating characters that live and breathe in both my and my readers’ heads. And mostly, I want readers to be uplifted by my stories, so if only for a short time, they can get away from problems and escape into a fictional world with a happily ever after.

What type of stories to you like to write and why?
My favorite genres are historical and paranormal. And a mixture of both genres is ideal. I love the Victorian period, American Civil War and also have a thing for vampires, the idea of reincarnation, soul mates, time travel and pure adventure. But the main ingredient is the love story. I want my characters to fall head over heels in love and, no matter what the obstacle, end up with that happily ever after ending.

When do you write (daytime, nighttime, on your lunch hour, before the kids get up, after everyone is asleep? In large chunks of time or stolen snippets?
Early afternoon is my most creative time, so on weekdays, I spend early afternoon hours on new projects, like first drafts and plotting out stories. I also like to squeeze some late morning time on weekends to write too. Since I don’t have an outside job and no longer have kids underfoot, I divide my days between household tasks and writing projects. So, late morning and afternoon is reserved for edits, book promo, proofreading, checking email and other writing related stuff.

Do you write every day? Or when the muse strikes?
Generally, I write at the same time every day. Knowing that I’m supposed to write at that hour, makes it that much easier to dive right into the project at hand and make the most use of that time. Otherwise, I might fiddle around all day and not accomplish anything.

Why do you write?
I write to be happy and sane. Enough said. LOL.

Do you have an upcoming release? You do! Oh please tell us all about it.
While I don’t have any upcoming releases, 2009 has been my year of releases. I’ve had five in all. Besides a Christmas novella in an anthology, my latest stand-alone release is a vampire novella, Sweet Redemption out last month in e-book format from The Wild Rose Press. This story is set during the American Civil War, my favorite historical period. My hero is a Union infantry captain and an ex-Catholic priest. The heroine is the widow of a Confederate soldier. She’s left alone on a farm just after her father’s death, trying to keep from starving when the hero shows up on her doorstep. The villain is a centuries old vampire, who stalks them both.


Blurb: On a cold December night, Union infantry captain, Jonathan Hackett, is pinned down on the Fredericksburg battlefield trying to escape Confederate fire. But a creature of the night, more dangerous than any enemy soldier, stalks him. Jon must fight for his life as well as his soul.
Maddie Emery has lost everything dear to her. Her husband and parents have passed on and her brothers are off fighting in the Confederate Army. She’s alone, trying single-handedly to hold onto her family’s farm, when a Yankee soldier collapses across her stoop.
Maddie and Jon soon form a bond of love and tender desire. But when Jon begins to exhibit signs of becoming the creature he fears most, is their love enough to fight off the evil of a centuries old vampire bent on destroying them?

Where can we find your upcoming release? When will it be available?

Sweet Redemption is available now at:
http://www.thewildrosepress.com/sweet-redemption-p-3750.html?zenid=744a80ff8a416037d43a4dd470786511

If you would like to read a review please visit the Long and Short Reviews at the below link:
http://longandshortreviews.blogspot.com/2009/11/sweet-redemption-by-susan-macatee.html

More about Susan:
Susan Macatee writes American Civil War romance, often with a paranormal twist. Along with her husband, she's been a Civil War reenactor for a number of years. Her other loves are sci-fi, watching major league baseball, camping and baking.

Susan loves to hear from readers. You can find her at her website:
http://www.susanmacatee.com/
and her blog:
http://www.susanmacatee.blogspot.com/.

Well, its Election Day! Get out there and VOTE! In the meantime, I have a very special guest today...

Please welcome Lady Vampire 2U otherwise known as Lady V to her friends. And I am so glad she considers me 'friend' The Queen of Darkness, herself, here she is!

Good morning, Dayana! Thank you so much for inviting me here to blog with you today. It’s a real honor because I am pretty new to blogging. Or taking blogging serious, anyhow. Although, I have had my blog up for a few years, it was in a pretty bad state. The truth was, I just didn’t take blogging seriously and my posts didn’t have that draw that seems so prevalent in others. There are some great bloggers like yourself and sad ones, unkempt and inactive ones, like mine was. And because my passion was not in the posts, I would go months between logging on to update it or post something new. Friends and family came by my site, of course, but just for moral support.

What was I doing online while I neglected my website? Entering contests!

I am huge contest fanatic, and I search the internet for contests constantly, especially those with books or bookstore gift cards as prizes. While I’m entering these contests, I was constantly emailing my fellow contest lovers with the locations of my finds. And then suddenly, it just hit me that my life could be a thousand times easier if I just posted all these locations in one place. My blog was the answer. One friend told another about my blog and suddenly I was busy posting any contest or giveaway I could find of interest. My blog suddenly became fun to update. And I really enjoyed the people who visited then came back to tell me of their wins after signing up for one sweepstakes or another through my blog. I realized that winning a contest was fun but I got a lot more satisfaction out of helping others win. And that’s how my blog and it’s slogan “All contests all the time” was born.

When people ask me if I enter all those contests and sweeps I post about, I tell them the truth. Yes. But the real prize is helping others win as I said. I enjoy promoting authors and their books. I’ve been lucky enough to be contacted by several authors who liked that I blogged about their contests. Do I post about the contests for extra entries in contests? Sometimes, but not very often. The truth being I was going to post it on my blog anyhow so why not get another entry into a contest. And when I win, I do share. Friends and family share my winnings. I give away books and different things all the time. Just last month, in October, I ran my first online contest on my blog and gave away five prizes. Then a few days ago, I teamed up with a fellow blogger and friend online, Crystal Adkins, for my first giveaway with a friend. In December, I plan to run another giveaway so I hope anyone reading this and new to my blog will come back to enter that contest.

Thanks again, Dayana, for having me here today. And in appreciation to those of you who stopped by to read this post, I’m giving away a brand new copy of Overnight Male by Elizabeth Bevarly to a lucky commenter. Just post and tell Dayana and I what the best prize was you ever won online. If you’ve never won anything, then let us know what you would really like to win if you could. And don't lament money because heck, we could all use more of that!

Thanks for dropping by.

Lady V
Lady Vampire's Lair