The Mother of All Blog Posts

(whispering) I'm alive...

I got myself in a real pickle where I had two full novels to write in about 6 months. Combine that with raising my teens, where my primary focus lies, and jetting around the world in my job as a commercial airline pilot and I was no longer sure how to work in an online presence, which I love to have but couldn’t realistically accomplish while fulfilling my other obligations. I realize it looks like I dropped off the face of the Earth! I didn’t see just how much so until recent letters from fans and friends poured in asking where I was. (You know who you are--thank you!) They worried I was ill, or had eloped and moved to Finland, or that I, too, was doing a stint in Promises, OR, that I’d been abducted. (the truth is, every time the aliens abduct me, I tell them my two high-schoolers and my border collie Must Ride, too, and they always dump me off the ship! (Sigh.))

To ease your worries, no to all. I’ve just been working hard at the writing, very, very hard, and have otherwise been happy and productive. As a mom with 2 jobs, I just don't know how to be as available as many authors seem to be online. To be honest, I don't know how they do it. Clearly, I am not as capable, organized, disciplined as they are, so I did some soul searching regarding the Internet and my blog: I don’t want to abandon being Out Here...so, I made some internal compromises. I’ll try to adhere to updating the blog only about once a month. It will free me up to be more active in the comments section and make longer posts. I really do love keeping up with this blog! That said, I present to you the Mother of All Blog Posts.

Travel news:

I just returned from another adventure! This time not for work. This was for pleasure, and what a pleasure it was! I took my kids and my daughter’s best friend on a trip to the countries that border the Baltic Sea. It’s an area of the globe I’ve always wanted to visit. From biking through Copenhagen to touching a section of the Berlin Wall, to eating lunch with a Russian family in their pre-Soviet era flat, we did it all. I just adore traveling and think I am a gypsy at heart. My kids have caught the bug, too. Especially my daughter who said when I asked her where she wanted to go next, “I don’t care, as long as it’s traveling.” I’m with her! I didn't want to come home!

Here are a few of the 900+ photos. This trip pumped up my muse so much, I have stories bursting out of me.

First we visited Tallinn, Estonia. It is one of Europe's finest examples of a medieval walled town because of the city's miraculous survival of the wars. The turreted wall is still mostly intact. We had fun exploring the nooks and crannies, and feeling the ancient vibes.

But modern tech is slipping in everywhere--note the satellite dish on the centuries-old building:

Then it was on to Russia. The cathedrals of St. Petersburg were stunning works of art. Many like St. Nicholas were badly damaged during WWII. The city is adrape with scaffolding and canvas coverings as the city painstakingly repairs the neglect leftover from Soviet times:


I never thought about the individual domes, or that they would have so much detailing. But they do!

I like this photo of a Russian grandfather that I took in the gardens of the Catherine Palace outside St Petersburg. His little granddaughter kept him on the move, and I had only a fraction of a second to shoot, but I think his expression says it all, the love between members of a family:


The palaces were extraordinary, the wealth displayed staggering. No surprise there was a revolution. We visited both the Catherine Palace and Peterhof, the summer palace of the Czars:

Next we traveled to Finland. As I will post in my writing news below, I'll be doing a Christmas themed novella in 2008. It just so happens that while in Finland I spotted Santa on his day off. You know he lives in Lapland, right? Here he is in the Kauppatori Market Square in Helsinki, calling The Mrs. on his cell phone, when I got this pic of him using my zoom lens:


I think the camos were left over from the last elf uprising. (The Claus needs to know when to be alpha or the elves will roll right over him)

I was so taken with the fresh produce in the market. This is only one of many photos I took of the stands. I love salmon--raw, cooked, smoked, barbequed--and so do the Finns. The extent of salmon varieties had my mouth watering:

But they eat ... reindeer. (Do you think Santa knows? Was that why he was at the market that day? I wonder what happens to the sled pullers when they retire...or the ones that don't make the team...oh God...)


From Finland we sailed to Sweden. On the way I witnessed an area on this beautiful planet Earth to where I must return. It's called the archipelago and it consists of 10s of thousands of islands and islets, many with lovely little summer homes. It takes five hours at least to sail through. This is where the Swedes vacation, and my God, they do it right. I was transfixed by the serenity. My only regret? It was overcast and the lighting did not do the scenery justice. But, I'll be back...

I was enchanted by Stockholm. The time there was all-too short. It is a city to be revisited when I have more time and money. My friends know that I love Absolut Vanilla vodka. I sip it from the freezer and straight-up. Needless to say, the Absolut Ice Bar was a must-see stop on our itinerary. All of us loved it! It is the first of the ice bars now cropping up around the world, built by the Ice Hotel people. The ice is imported straight from Santa's backyard--Lapland. The kids sipped lingonberry juice, and me? Absolut Vanilla, of course!

Just mosey up to the bar (made of solid ice) and grab a glass (also ice.)


Take a seat on the reindeer skin lined seats (all ice, of course). It's minus 20F inside, so a warm place to park is a must!

And enjoy...

Since Stockholm is built on a marsh, many of the old buildings have started leaning. That above shot reminds me of a beginning art student's attempts at learning perspective!

Then I had a majorly fun "author moment" when I was drawn in to this book store in Old Town Stockholm. With a sign like this, how could I not?


Just for fun, I asked if they carried any Susan Grant books--and they did! How fun is that?


After Sweden we crossed the Baltic Sea once more to Germany, where we traveled 3 hours roundtrip on a bus to have the opportunity to visit Berlin. This was a favorite stop. My kids will never learn as much history in school as they did witnessing it in this incredible, resilient city.
Here is my son, 6-feet-tall but dwarfed by the memorial built to remember the Jewish citizens killed by the Nazis. It's an eerily beautiful but controversial structure. Controversial because there are no signs telling you what it is (or even that there's a museum underneath), our guide explained. Some say it's this way because the Jews didn't know what was to happen to them when they were "relocated" and this attempts to express that:

The Berlin Wall.

Most of it has come down, but the entire length is still marked by cobblestones:


Some areas are intact and you can touch:

Some are on display behind plexiglass and you cannot:


All the panels left tell a story I hope the world never forgets. Unfortunately, history repeats itself.

After Berlin, we traveled to Denmark and the city of Copenhagen, where we went on a 5 hour bike tour of the city with Jon Martin, operator of City Safari. It's just him running the company, so don't expect big-business, but that's precisely why I loved the tour he gave us. I loved the colors of the buildings lining the many canals in the city.

I have to admit the love story between Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik has me charmed. I've followed it since I saw banners in Sydney announcing their engagement(she is from Australia). I've even been to the Slip Inn, the bar in Sydney where they met. Sigh. :)

This trip was a fantastic experience.

Now, for some writing news!

How to Lose an Extraterrestrial in 10 Days comes out in...10 days! This one is special for many reasons. The issues I touch upon on in this work of fiction are, unfortunately, quite real. The slave trade is back--in high gear. However, this time it’s not limited primarily to Africans. People of every race are enslaved in almost every continent. Not only adults. It’s estimated that over ten-million children work in abysmal, slave-like conditions from private homes to brothels to the plantations that produce the cocoa for our cups of hot chocolate. Unbelievably, the number of slaves of all ages--today, worldwide--is more than double the number of those enslaved in the entire 400-year history of the transatlantic slave trade! And, yet, it goes almost unnoticed in our modern world. While I couldn't promote this book as I wished I could, I do hope the story will speak for itself and open people’s eyes. I hope that the story can help in some small way, sending out ripples of awareness like a pebble dropped into a vast lake.

What you can do: The UN’s International Labor Organization has a website where you can learn more. Then tell a friend to tell a friend. A future where no human owns another is one that’s within our grasp.

The wonderful blogger scifi chick has posted an interview with me. If you haven’t read her blog, it is great. She's also an artist. Her work is amazing and I hope to have a chance to buy some for myself one day.

What’s coming up in Susan Grant books? After a bit of a break between books (August 07 to June 08) my stuff will inundate the shelves! Here’s what I know so far:

June 2008: Moonstruck: A tale of the Borderlands (kicks off a new series)

Summer 2008: Mysteria II (anthology with MaryJanice Davidson, Gena Showalter, PC Cast)

Summer/fall 2008: Untitled (likely another Borderlands Book)

November 2008: Silhouette Suspense anthology (gasp--a NON-paranormal. It’s a 2-fer, a two-in-one military suspense with a Christmas theme in a book with bestselling author and sister Romvet Lindsay McKenna).

2009--another novel

Now do you understand WHY I've been scarce? Eesh!

As I mentioned in the interview with Angela, I’m over-the-moon excited about Moonstruck. Basically, it’s a deeper, more complex series spin-off of the Otherworldly Men books, and kicks off the science fiction romance Borderlands series, what I hope will be an ongoing. Moonstruck takes place almost entirely on a spaceship after the Drakken surrender and concerns the difficulties in combining the former enemies (as well as Earth) in a cohesive force. They have to learn to work together, and it makes for some great conflict! I pair old enemies: Coalition Admiral Brit Bandar and former pirate Drakken Warleader Finn Rorkken on a ship crewed by Drakken, Coalition, and Earthlings. I’ve never, ever written a couple with more chemistry. It wasn't anything I did--they are fully responsible. They wrote this book, I simply sat there and typed as fast as my little fingers could go. I particularly enjoyed writing a high-ranking female officer who is as legendary in her military as Patton was in mine.

If you have a blog, or are a reviewer, librarian or bookseller, please contact me to get on the ARC list. I plan to send these out early...as in SOON. Can I say again how excited I am for this one to come out?

Last, I heard Dorchester will re-release my very first book Once A Pirate with a NEW cover! (the link leads to the old version, as I have no date yet for the new) Hooray! I just love how Dorchester keeps my entire backlist in print. Sometimes the stock empties out but they always eventually refill. Three cheers for publishers who know what readers want! And while we're cheering publishers, more for HQN who are open-minded enough to allow me to write my genre-mutts!

So my friends, how is YOUR summer going? What have you read lately that you loved? Where have you traveled and enjoyed? And as always, talk food to me. Food! I adore food! (everything but black pudding which I smartly avoided while in Europe! I must have a dozen or more photos from the meals we had, everything from beef stroganoff and borscht in Russia to pastries in Germany.

Forgive my long absence and I'll see you around online!