Friday, April 18, 2014

Featured Author: Susan Israel



"Smart, witty, and delightfully unpredictable, Susan Israel's Over My Live Body is a truly wonderful debut. Highly recommended."
– Doug Corleone, author of Good as Gone


About the book:


Delilah is accustomed to people seeing her naked. As a nude model – a gig that keeps food on the table while her career as a sculptor takes off – it comes with the territory. 

But Delilah has never before felt this vulnerable. 

Because Delilah has an admirer. Someone who is paying a great deal of attention to her. And he just might love her to death.


 The debut of a shockingly fresh voice in suspense fiction, Over My Live Body will work its way inside of you.

Interview with Susan Israel

Susan, how long have you been writing and how did you start?



I wrote my first (really bad!) "novel" when I was in 7th grade and 
wrote even before that; it was a way to cope with feeling bullied. I
 thought about writing professionally when I was in high school, but had
 no outlet and little encouragement, save for an English teacher who 
recognized that the sentences I wrote as exercises had a plot and I had
 the temerity to name one of the characters Jane Austen! It wasn't until
I went to college that I dove in head-first and found an audience.



What's the story behind the title Over My Live Body?



I didn't have any title per se when I started writing what would turn
out to be Over My Live Body, I referred to it as "work in progress."
 For a short time I gave it the working title "The Object Of My 
Affection" but that didn't stick either. There was a movie I hadn't 
seen by that title and I didn't want it to be confused with that.
 Furthermore, since the book is written from Delilah's point of view, I 
wanted a more Delilah-centric title, and Over My Live Body fit in more
ways than one.



How did you create the plot for this book?




I was a by-the-seat-of-your-pants writer, writing every day and letting
 the characters do as they willed, and when I had the finished product,
I went back and revised and polished. I had a synopsis before I started 
writing my second, but to a certain extent, the characters still take
over.

Is your book based on real events?


Nothing in my book is based on actual events, but some similar
 incidents have occurred in the course of writing the books, a case of 
"life imitates art." I listen to 24/7 news a lot and punctuate my
 narrative with what I hope are realistic references to daily police 
activity in the city; sometimes all too realistic. But none of the 
incidents in my books are based on anything real.



Are you like any of your characters?



I would say I'm a lot like Delilah except she is younger and taller.




Who are your favorite authors?



There are many but I'll touch on a few. When I'm reading, I love a sense of place as well as characters and plot, whether it be fiction or nonfiction. One of my favorite books has always been A Moveable Feast, though Hemingway isn't my absolute favorite author. I would include F. Scott Fitzgerald, who also captured the 20s so well, a decade I wish I had lived in. For mysteries, I love the Paris settings and characters of Cara Black. I'm a big fan of Peter Matthiessen, who I had the good fortune to have as a writing professor.



Where and when do you prefer to do your writing?



My favorite time to write is at night, when it's generally quieter outside, when the sun isn't in my eyes, when there's less extraneous noise that I can't control. (My own TV or radio doesn't bother me.) Daylight Saving Time is not my best friend, though I like the weather that goes with it. I wrote all of Over My Live Body in a generic computer cluster, but that cluster doesn't exist any more.



Where's home for you?



Home is where my dog is.



Where is your favorite library and what do you love about it?



My favorite library is Yale's Sterling Memorial Library (except during periods of renovation every few years). I love the reading rooms with the cushy leather chairs and the mezzanine floors of the stacks where you can literally hide from the world and write or read something you never knew existed. I feel safe and cloistered there.



What's your favorite candy bar?



I love Lindt bars, especially dark chocolate, and Sky Bar. But especially anything Lindt.

About the author:

Susan Israel lives in Connecticut with her beloved dog, but New York City lives in her heart and mind. A graduate of Yale College, her fiction has been published in Other Voices, Hawaii Review and Vignette, and she has written for magazines, websites and newspapers, including Glamour, Girls Life, Ladies Home Journal and The Washington Post. She's currently at work on the second book in the Delilah Price series, Student Bodies.

Find Susan:
Facebook | 
Goodreads | 
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Story Plant

Happy 1st Birthday, France Book Tours!

France Book Tours Banner 1st anniversary

France Book Tours is celebrating its first anniversary on April 18!

  France Book Tours has been thrilled to present amazing books related to France for a year. To thank the authors who submitted their books and the bloggers who read and reviewed them, France Book Tours organizes a mega giveaway from April 18-25! Depending on the number of entries in the Rafflecopter at the bottom of this page, they may give away up to 10 books, so spread the word! The winners will be chosen on April 26. Here are all the books available to win! Click on each cover to know more about it. Please note what format the book is available in. Note also that some books are only available for US/Canada residents. If nothing is specified, it means you can receive the ebook or the print copy where ever you live.

Historical fiction

Spirit of Lost Angels Wolfsangel_CoverFinal Becoming Josephine
Spirit of Angels = print + ecopy Wolfsangel = print + ecopy Becoming Josephine = print for US/Canada only
Unravelled Ambitious Madame Bonap
Unravelled = print The Ambitious Madame Bonaparte = print for US/Canada only

Mystery

The Paris Lawyer The Mona Lisa Speaks
The Paris Lawyer = print for US/Canada only + ecopy The Mona Lisa Speaks = print for US/Canada only + ecopy

Fiction

I see London cover Paris Rue des Martyrs - cover final
I See London I See France = print for US/Canada only Paris, Rue Des Martyrs = ecopy

Romance

The Paris Game Moonlight & LoveSongs City of Jasmine
The Paris Game = ebook Moonlight & Love Songs = ebook City of Jasmine = signed print copy for US/Canada only
Promise of Provence
The Promise of Provence = ecopy

Nonfiction - memoir

Confessions of a Paris Party Girl - cover
Confessions of a Paris Party Girl = ecopy

AND THERE WILL BE 4 EXTRA BOOKS OFFERED DURING OUR TWITTER PARTY!

April 23 at 5pm Central Time #franceBT

Spread the word!

AND NOW PLEASE ENTER THE GIVEAWAY BY CLICKING ON THE RAFFLECOPTER LINK:

a Rafflecopter giveaway