Spotlight on Susan Page Davis and her new novel Inside Story

I want to welcome one of my very favorite authors back on Write By Faith. I love her military suspense books and loved her latest one Inside Story. She writes with the perfect mix of suspense and romance. I'll post a full review next week but let me just say it keeps you flipping the pages and sleep meant nothing to me while reading Inside Story. Susan has offered a copy of Inside Story so if you are interested I have left instructions at the end of this interview. So without further delay let's meet Susan.

Susan, please tell us a little about yourself .

I’ve written stories since I was a girl, but my first novel was published when I was 50. I’m the wife of a newspaper editor, the mother of six children, (three are married and two are still studying high school at home), and the grandmother of five adorable little ones.

Susan, please tell us about Inside Story.
Inside Story follows upscale journalist Claudia Gillette as she chases intriguing stories all over the world. When she pulls strings to get placed in a military special unit in the Philippine jungle, everything goes awry. Lieutenant Bill White could fall for Claudia if she shared his faith and if she weren’t so pushy. Claudia likes Bill, but she won’t let his disapproval stop her from getting the story she wants. When she realizes she’s put several people in mortal danger because of her pride, Claudia’s facade begins to crack.

What is the craziest thing you have ever done?
Craziest? Hmm. . .maybe pretending to be running The Amazing Race with my three sisters when we weren’t really. Sounds like an interesting story.

Beside salvation, what is the best gift you have ever received?
My husband gave me a summer “off” (1999) in which to write a book. I haven’t stopped since.Wow, I had to have child #3 to get to stay home and indulge in writing and of course raising my sweet little dears.

Let’s pretend money is not a factor, if you could go anywhere in the world where would you go?
Manchu Picchu

If you are anything like me you have books scattered all over your house. What book are you reading now?
I’m reading Deeper Water by Robert Whitlow. Recently read Under Orders by Dick Francis, The Shape of Mercy by Susan Meissner, Cozy in Kansas series by Nancy Mehl, Beach Dreams by Trish Perry, and Seventy Times Seven by Brandt Dodson. Also lying around: History of Idaho, Alaska for Dummies, Alibis in Arkansas, Civil War Weapons, and about 10,000 other books.

What is your favorite children’s book?
That’s hard to pick, but a few that I loved are Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher; The Twenty-One Balloons, by William Pene duBois; Gone-Away Lake, by Elizabeth Enright; and the Miss Pickerel books by Ellen MacGregor.

If your book was being discussed at a book club what do you think the focus of the discussion would be on?
Claudia’s antics, followed by her growth and change. I hope they end up liking her a lot. And of course, they will talk about the gorillas and Tommy’s troubles and the enemy attack in the jungle. I loved seeing her grow in the book. There were times where I really had a hard time liking her but by the end I loved her.

I love old black and white movies and the old musicals. What is your all time favorite movie?
Again, impossible to pick one. The African Queen, Buster Keaton’s the General, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, To Kill a Mockingbird. I love Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. One of my all time favs. It is one musical my boys enjoy of course what isn't to like with men kidnapping women and dancing with axes. grin.

What would you like your readers to say about your writing?
It touched my heart. Inside Edition did that!

What are your dreams of 2009? What do you hope to accomplish this year?
I have at least three books to write this year, and I have a good start on those. I’d like to guide my two youngest children safely through the school year at home and help the next daughter up with her current project. I also hope to visit my eldest daughter’s family in Idaho. My second daughter and her husband plan to visit us from England. And I’d like to visit my elder son’s family in South Carolina. We’ll see. Sounds like a full schedule.

What do you enjoy doing when you are not slaving over the computer creating another wonderful novel?
I slave over a geometry book with my two high schoolers, or I drive my son to karate lessons, or I sew, or I read someone else’s wonderful novel. I think we are sharing the same life!! Except of course for the high schoolers.

I hope you will come visit me on my Web site, http://www.susanpagedavis.com/.

If you would like to win a signed copy of Susan's novel Inside Story please leave a comment and answer the daily question. Be sure to leave a way for me to contact you if you are the winner. Also check out ways to earn extra entries.

Daily Question: What are your dreams for 2009?

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Review of Finding Marie

Back Cover: Marie Belanger knows nothing about the covert assignments her naval lieutenant husband goes on from time to time, but she's pleased that their tour in Japan is at an end. what once seemed an interminable assignment is finsihed, and now Maire and Pierre can think about a stateside posting and perhaps even starting a family. While Pierre wraps up his duties, Marie plans a brief visit to her family home in Maine.

But life turns upside down when Marie unexpectedly finds a computer flash drive in her carry on Luggage at the San Francisco airport. Moments earlier the woman she had been sitting with on the plan from Tokyo had been murdered. Suddenly her journey from California to Maine becomes a nightmare as Marie is forced to run for her life. Pierre, afraid for his wife, contacts his best friend, Lt. Commander George Hudson, and together they set out on a search for Marie that spans the country. Yet as hard as they try they keep finding themselves one step behind their enemies, who are just one step behind Marie.

My thoughts:

I read the sequel to Finding Marie and I really enjoyed the book. Susan creates such dynamic characters. The book is fast paced and Susan does an excellent job of putting Marie is some tricky situations which she creatively gets out of. I did get frustrated along with Pierre as he continually came to her rescue too late. This is a great sequel to Frasier Island and I look forward to many more great reads from Susan Page Davis.

Review of Finding Marie

From Back Cover:


Marie Belanger knows nothing about the covert assignments her naval lieutenant husband goes on from time to time, but she's pleased that their tour in Japan is at an end. What once seemed an interminable assignment is finished , and now Marie and Pierre can think about a Stateside posting and perhaps even starting a family. While Pierrre wraps up his duties, Marie plans a brief visit to her her family home in Maine.





But life turns upside down when Maire unexpectedly finds a computer flash drive in her carry-on luggage at the San Francisco airport. Moments earlier the woman she had been sitting with on the plane from Tokyo had been murdered. Suddenly her journey from California to Maine becomes a nightmare as Marie is forced to run for her life. Pierre, afraid for his wife, contracts his best friend, Lt. Commander George Hudson, and together they set out on a search for Marie that spans the country. Yet as hard as they try, they keep finding themselves one step behind their enemies, who are just one step behind Marie.








In my opinion:
Finding Marie is a book full of intrigue and danger. I stayed up late to finish reading the book. I enjoyed reading about Marie and seeing Peirre agian. The book is a fox hunt with Marie as the fox and terroist as the hunters. Susan as always pulls the reader on an emotional journey. There was a time I thougth Marie made some questionable decisions but it did not hamper the story and worked itself out. I would reccommend reading this novel. Even though it is a sequel to Frasier Island it can stand alone.

Review of Frasier Island by Susan Page Davis

Frasier Island: Ensign Rachel Whitney is posted at a remote missile installation on a North Pacific island, where she is to work in isolation with two men. She could love her new assignment, if Lt. George Hudson weren't so antagonistic and obstinate. She sets out to prove she is perfect for the top secret job, in spite of the tension between them.
The island is attacked, and another crew member lets slip that George has neglected to tell Rachel about one important aspect of their job. The nuclear warheads she thought they were guarding have been disarmed, and they are really protecting a valuable and rare element discovered in the water at the base of the island.
When word leaks out about the precious material they are guarding, Rachel and George have few resources besides each other and their faith in God to help them survive and foil an enemy attack that could endanger all of America. From Susan's website





In my opinion:

What a highly intense book. Susan does a great job of pulling you into her novel and keeping the pace of the novel moving so fast you end up staying up to 2:30 in the morning so you can finish the novel. I guess you can tell that I really enjoyed this book. It is one of those books that you can't put down. I loved Rachel and her gumption to enter a man's world and George is such a strong emotionally challenged character, I found myself talking to him. I don't often talk to the characters while reading. I have to confess, I loved one of her minor characters the most. Pierre!!! Which you learn more about in his story Finding Marie the sequel.(I will post my review tomorrow.) It says a lot about Susan's ability to write if she can create minor characters that make an impact on the reader. I will definitely be a repeat reader of Susan's. If you haven't read this one, it is a must read.

Interview with Susan Page Davis

I am so happy to introduce the wonderful writer Susan Page Davis. If you have not met her before you are in for a treat.

What was the best gift you have ever received?

That’s a toughie. Of course my salvation, but I think you want a more concrete answer. One thing I truly treasure is a little bottle about 2 or 3 inches tall, round but flattened. My father brought it home from the Philippines in 1945, when he was in the Navy. It is painted on the inside of the glass. One side has a village scene and the other a white horse. This type of “art in a bottle” is supposedly a specialty over there. He brought it home to my mom (his fiancé at the time).

Susan, please tell us a little about Frasier Island.
Frasier Island is, of course, a fictional place. Imagine my surprise to learn after the book was published that there really is a Frasier Island off Australia . That is not my island. This book was started as the result of a challenge from my son Jim. He kept saying he wanted to write a science fiction book. Finally I said, “I’ll write one if you will.” We both started in, and mine turned out to be NOT science fiction. The only thing remotely sci-fi about it is the “firene.” However, I finished my manuscript. Jim did not. And a few years later, I sold my book. Jim did not. So who cares that it is romantic suspense, not science fiction? Not me.

I love that your children are so involved in your writing. I do my best plotting with my eleven year old play basketball. When did you know that you wanted to be a writer?

Always. I wrote painfully illustrated stories when I was a kid. Titles like “Marooned on an Island ” and “The Mystery at Cavaltran Ski Lodge.” Now I write books with titles like “ Frasier Island ” and “Homicide at Blue Heron Lake.” They’re longer and better written, and I don’t illustrate them, but still, I think I see a pattern here. Childhood title: Lieutenant Annie. Grown-up title: The Oregon Escort. Childhood title: House of the Dead. Grown-up title: On a Killer’s Trail. Hmm. Yup, I knew a long, long time ago. But it took me forty years or so to get up the confidence to think I could actually write stuff people would want to read!

I am glad that you have always written. I understand the confidence factor. i am still working on that. What would you like readers to take away from Frasier Island ?

Both Rachel and George struggle with forgiveness—of each other, of other people, and of themselves. Ultimately they accept God’s forgiveness for themselves and are able to forgive others. No matter what we have done, God will forgive if we repent. And no matter how dark things look, God is still in control.

When you are not writing or marketing your books, what do you do in your spare time?

I like to read and also to get outside and do things. I also enjoy genealogy and logic puzzles. I spend time with my family whenever I can. I have married children with kids of their own in Idaho and South Carolina , so we like to go there to visit when we can. I also try to get together at least once a year with my three sisters for “Sister Weekend,” an annual event for the past 9 years.


I know that you have written Finding Marie (Frasier Island Series #2) which is Pierre and Marie's story are there any other novels coming out in the near future?

Yes, in this series the third book, Inside Story, is scheduled to come out in January 2009. It’s all written and in the editor’s hands. In it you’ll see George, Rachel, Pierre and Marie again, but the “stars” will be Claudia Gillette (Marie and Lisa’s sister) and Bill White (who did advanced training with Rachel in the prologue of Frasier Island ). Look for fireworks between those two when Claudia blunders into Bill’s secret mission. I think it may be my best book yet. I also have several other, shorter books out. Visit my website at http://www.susanpagedavis.com/ to read about them. Right now I’m working on a short romantic book with suspense elements for Heartsong Presents, titled Trail to Justice. It will come out in May 2009. And my daughter Megan and I are working together on our third cozy mystery, Impostors at Blue Heron Lake.

I look forward to the third book in the series. I enjoyed the first two very much. What is the most important resource a new writer should have in your opinion?

A network. Join a local writers group and a larger group such as American Christian Fiction Writers. You will gain a support group of hundreds of other writers who can answer questions about the business, point you to research sources, and alert you to opportunities.

Thank you so much for the interview. Where can readers find you?

http://www.susanpagedavis.com/ Be sure to enter my monthly drawing for a free book. Your name and email address are kept confidential, and it’s easy to enter—no passwords or anything like that. Hey, thanks for reading my book! I hope you enjoyed it.