Interview with Susan McDonough-Watchman

I recently interviewed awarding winning indie author Susan McDonough-Watchman about writing and her decision to go indie. I met Susan several years ago on Wattpad when we both entered a writing contest hosted by the television network TNT. We started reading each other’s work, and a long-distance friendship evolved. I’d like to give Susan a heartfelt thank you for doing this interview and for all her help and mentoring over the years.

A bit about Susan McDonough-Watchman

Susan grew up in the Pacific Northwest and began writing at the ripe old age of eight. She’s won numerous awards, including the Pacific Northwest Writers Association adult genre novel in 1999 and second place in the Publishing Online Books Awards in 2000.

Her writing focuses on subjects close to her heart: family, diversity, women’s issues, the environment, society, forgiveness, and the mysteries of the universe at large.

Two of her novels, Snail’s Pace (space alien snails) and Arabella’s Gift (a dragon who was a Catholic bishop), were picked up by small presses only to have those small presses go out of business. Ce la vie. Susan has since self-published both, along with three other titles. Matriarchs: Eliza’s Revenge examines the ups and downs of a society run by women. Lizzie in the Land Beyond (a personal favorite) follows a young woman as she discovers the lenses we use to navigate our own culture don’t necessarily translate when applied to an alien society. Ferry Findings (Kitsap Publishing) is a short story collection filled with themes of family, love, regret, and acceptance.

Snail’s Pace has been picked up by Water Dragon Publishing and is available for pre-order.

Susan currently lives near Pungent Sound with her son, husband, and cat, where she teaches journalism to high schoolers (if you thought writing novels was complex, you’ve never been a teacher). When not instilling the finer points of the comma to teenagers, you can find Susan writing, gardening, and feeding her book addiction.

You can find Susan’s books at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, and Inkitt.

CV: As writers, we are readers. Was there a defining book or author that made you want to be a writer?

SW: When I read Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, I knew I wanted to be Jo. (I also wanted to be Beth and die tragically and have everyone mourn me, but being Jo seemed a little more logical.) When I read Half Magic by Edward Eager, I knew I wanted to write a book like it, and I did. I wrote Mr.Cat’s Magic, which is in a file drawer somewhere. My mother always wanted me to publish it. Maybe someday I’ll pull it out and see if anything can be salvaged from my teenage sense of humor.

CV: You have five novels and one collection of short stories in your bibliography, plus other shorts. Which is your favorite to write? Short stories or novels and why?

SW: I consider myself a novel writer. Short stories are fun to write sometimes, but to really get into a character and situation, I need more space. It takes me a lot of time, however. I write a chapter, then I go back and edit and move on to the second chapter, and then I go back again. I am constantly rewriting as I write, so it takes forever to finish a first draft.

CV: Your main characters tend to be strong female leads. What makes you want to write them? Why their stories?

SW: There aren’t enough books with strong female leads, especially in sci-fi. I wanted to write the characters I like to read: characters like Claire in Diana Gabaldon’s books and Amelia in Elizabeth Peters’ books. I wanted to put them in difficult sci-fi and fantasy situations and have them prevail, not by being superwomen, but just by being themselves.

CV: As a fan, I’ve read several of your short stories and books. What I’ve read has had an unconventional sci-fi flare. In Ferry Findings, you deviate from your typical sci-fi pattern, opting for a more contemporary and everyday feel. Was there a reason for this?

SW: I actually wrote the title story for Ferry Findings years ago when my daughter was a toddler. I wrote most of those stories when my kids were young, and I had no time to work on novels. I wrote my first published book, Snail’s Pace (which is actually a novella), before I had children. I didn’t write my next book until all three kids were in school. So the short stories mostly are about kids and family because that’s what I was living and had in my head at the time.

CV: You are primarily a self-published author. Can you talk a bit about that choice and some of the issues you’ve had with self-publishing?

SW: The most recent issue is that my main publisher, Pronoun, is going out of business, which puts me at square one. Wither go I with my books now? I don’t look forward to either finding another publisher or going to each venue and re-formatting, re-publicizing, re-self-promoting, etc.

I know a lot more about promotion than I used to, and I know if I am to do it most effectively, I should promote it ahead of time. Just thinking about it exhausts me, though. I want to write, and I don’t have enough time for that as it is since I teach high school for a living. But, of course, trying to find a publisher is very time-consuming, too, which is why I gave up. Sending out pitches or queries and synopses and sample chapters, and then waiting months for a response. I did that for years and finally gave up. My mixture of sci-fi/ fantasy/ romance doesn’t fit a genre, and that makes it a very hard sell. So most likely, when I have time, I will post them all again.

Follow Susan on social media

Sue’s website
Pinterest
Instagram
Wattpad

Remember to pre-order your copy of Snail’s Pace!