Q&A with Susan McBride

 

Today on My Overstuffed Bookshelf, we have Susan McBride, author of The Cougar Club sharing an interview with us!  I am reading the book now, and loving it! Look for the review to be posted tomorrow!  Lets get started with the interview!

1. Can you tell the readers a little about yourself?

I'm the author of THE COUGAR CLUB as well as five books in my Debutante Dropout Mystery series for Avon and two books in my DEBS young adult series for Random House (there's a third completed but with pub date in limbo).  I was a St. Louis Magazine "top single" in 2005, which is how I met my husband (we were married two years ago on February 24!).  He's nine years younger but looks like a college frat boy, which makes for some interesting times when we go out (he gets carded a lot!).  I'm a breast cancer survivor of three years (and counting!), and I'm trying my darnedest to stay healthy.  My writing reflects my sense of humor, which tends toward sarcastic, and my observations about people and the world.  Though my books have little bits of me in them, all the characters and situations come from my vivid imagination.  My hubby calls me "Crazy Brain" because my mind never stops whirling and coming up with stories.  Maybe that's why never get enough sleep!  

 

2. Can you tell the readers how you came up with the idea of Cougar Club?

 

After my mystery series ended and I was writing my young adult books, I was talking with my former mystery editor who wanted to work with me again.  She mentioned my being a Cougar since I'd married a younger guy and wondered if I'd write about Cougars in a novel.  I thought it sounded like fun!  Pretty soon after, I started on The Cougar Club, and it felt a lot like playing the sandbox!  It was a blast setting a novel in St. Louis (where I live) and coming up with these three women--Kat, Carla, and Elise--who are 45 years old and going through various crises.  Their friendship is at the heart of the story, but it's also about following your heart, no matter your age. Our society treats women over age forty pretty roughly, and I felt compelled to re-invent what a Cougar is.  I know lots of vibrant, fabulous females who are "medium young" (what I like to call middle-aged!), and they're not desperate harpies looking for one-night-stands with 20-year-old boys.  They're successful in business, have raised children, maybe gone through a divorce or were widowed, and they're open to falling in love again.  If it's with a younger guy, so be it. Hitting forty can be inspiring--it shouldn't be depressing!  I wanted The Cougar Club to be funny and hopeful and just a really juicy read.  I hope readers like it!  

 

3.  If I was a fly on your wall, what would I see in the day of Susan?

 

There's no way I can make this NOT sound boring!  ;-)  I get up with my husband when his alarm goes off, and I check emails and clean litter boxes while he showers.  I make sure he gets off to work and then I'm at the computer, dealing with business first and then starting on whatever project I'm working on at the moment (right now, a proposal for my next women's fiction book).  Every other day, I'm either on the treadmill or working out with light weights and my Big Red Ball before I shower and have lunch.  I try to work most of the afternoon, often checking emails, doing laundry, and occasionally running errands in between (the ladies at my local post office know me by name!).  If I have a gig that night, I usually like to start getting organized a few hours before.  If I don't, I try to wrap up my work before six or six-thirty when Ed gets home.  Then it's dinner and TV (or a hockey game if the Blues are in town!).  By 10:30 or 11, it's lights out in our house.  Exciting, huh?

4.  List your favorites of the following: 

Food:    I'm really into broccoli and cheese at the moment!
Drink:  Green tea or water with slices of lime.
Perfume:  I love Shikai Vanilla Bath Gel and their Vanilla Body Lotion.
Color:  Gray.
TV Show:  NCIS and Burn Notice.
Movie:  All the Harry Potter movies.  I can watch them over and over!

 5.  What are 3 things you must have when you sit down to write?

I must have my jammies on, preferably a gray sky outside, and my notebook with all my scribbles lying open on my desk.  

 

6. Do you have a blog or website for readers to keep up to date with you and your books?

 

I have a web site at http://SusanMcBride.com, and I'm on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Cougar-Club-A-Novel/214091944767).  I blog twice a month with the Stiletto Gang (http://thestilettogang.blogspot.com), and I share a web site with The Book Belles (http://thebookbelles.com).  I'm on GoodReads and LibraryThing, too.  So you can find me lots of places!  

 

7.  Where can we purchase your book(s)?

 

The Cougar Club and my other novels are widely available.  So online booksellers and bricks & mortar stores should carry at least some; and, if they don't, please ask them to order copies!  I've got links to booksellers from my web site to make it easier, too. 

 

Thanks so much for having me, Amy!  Loved your questions!  

 

Thank you so much for joining us Susan!