Featured Interview With Susan McDonough-Wachtman
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was raised in Bellevue, WA, and I still live in the Pacific Northwest. I have only one cat at the moment, although we were up to four cats, two gerbils, and a fish when we had three children in the house. Now, it is just my husband, me, and Sky, and all of us are feeling our ages!
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I won a contest in second grade and got my story published in the school newsletter. I was hooked.
I continued to win contests in school, including two winners in the Scholastic contest, two in the Pacific Northwest Writer’s Association contest for teenagers, and one from the Seattle Times. I was convinced that I would make my living as a writer. I was extremely offended when my English teacher laughed when I claimed my creative writing class at Lake Washington Vocational Technical School as my vocational credit.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Some of my favorite authors and biggest influences have been Elizabeth Peters, Connie Willis, R.A. McAvoy, Mary Stewart, Mary Norton, Edith Nesbit, Louisa May Alcott, and Zola Helen Ross (My first writing teacher at Lake Washington Voc-Tech who was an author. She was one of the founders of PNWA). My favorite genres have always been science fiction and fantasy. Today, I am inspired by the authors who write social commentary with quietly amazing heroines, like T. Kingfisher, Emma Newman, Becky Chambers, Arkady Martine, Rivers Solomon, N.K. Jemisin, and Ann Leckie.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest published book is Snail’s Pace, a space opera comedy of manners about Susannah, a Victorian woman who finds herself governess to an alien on a spaceship. Susannah did not expect this, and her intrepid British spirit and sense of superiority are severely tested by the experience of being employed by creatures who look like giant snails — particularly when they actually crawl on the dining table to eat their meal. I wrote the first draft of Susannah’sstory sometime around 1984 — so you could say she’s had a very long gestation period.
Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles
Susan McDonough-Wachtman’s Website