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Interview with Susan Mac Nicol, author of Cassandra by Starlight

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Welcome to Sugarbeat’s Books – The home of the romance novel!

 

Today we are being visited by Susan Mac Nicol, author of Cassandra by Starlight.  Susan is here to answer some questions and share about her book.  If this book sounds like something that you would be interested in, please find buy links at the bottom of the post and pick up a copy!

 

A tragic event brings two people from different worlds together in a relationship that was made for a romantic movie.

Barb – How would your friends describe you in 20 words or less?

Susan – Isn’t she that stubborn, driven, yet fairly witty woman with radical views that just loves to tell stories?

Barb – State a random fact about yourself that would surprise your readers.

Susan – When I’d just left school, I started a new job in Hillbrow in Johannesburg. I went out to get some lunch and got lost coming back. I couldn’t find my office building. I walked up and down the streets looking for it and a man came up and offered me money. He thought I was a prostitute ‘walking the beat’. I wasn’t sure whether to be proud or scandalized.

Barb – What started you on your journey to be a writer?

Susan – I started on my writing journey when I was a child, writing poetry and a rather scary short story called ‘The Green Menace’ for a local competition. I’ve written ever since and my writing folder is filled with half completed drafts and snippets. But it was only when I got the inspiration earlier this year for a novel that I really threw myself into the fore and focused. I guess you could say the real journey started when I read a local newspaper article about a tragedy, met the leading man of my dreams on TV and decided I wanted to invent my own fantasy world where I could be the heroine. I’m glad to say they all came together in my debut novel.

Barb – Do you see yourself in any of your characters?

Susan – Yes, most definitely. Cassie Wallace, the leading lady in Cassandra by Starlight, is based on a lot of my experiences and character traits. She’s a strong, independent woman who has a fairly forceful view and isn’t afraid to say what she thinks. The accident she experiences in the opening scene- I had a very bad car accident in 1986 and broke my femur, ending up in an ICU Ward with some life threatening injuries. The old drunk in the book talking to Dr. Spencer- that was based on personal experience with a very close family member. There are other experiences in the books about Cassie which are true too for me but some are too close to the bone so I’ll leave those up to the reader’s imagination…..A lady shouldn’t reveal too many secrets about herself.

Barb – Why did you choose the genre you write in?

Susan – I didn’t choose the genre. The genre chose me. I don’t generally read romance, a terrible thing to admit. I used to read Mills and Boon when I was fourteen years old but that was it. But when I started writing Cassandra by Starlight, with an incredible passion for both characters and the world I was creating, it simply took hold of me and this book could never have been anything other than a modern romance story between two people destined to find each other. My family and friends still don’t believe I write in the genre I do. I get blank faces and quizzical glances.

Barb – How did you come up with your premise for your books?

Susan – At the beginning of this year, I read a newspaper article about some fool standing on a motorway foot bridge and throwing a concrete bucket down into the traffic on the motorway below. The woman in the car was badly injured. After the initial rage at this idiot’s actions, I started to think. What if that has been someone throwing themselves off the bridge? What if they landed on a car and the person in that car was rushed to hospital? What if the person who died in the suicide attempt had a family member who went to see the woman and they fell in love?

This was the basic premise for the book. All I needed were the heroine and hero. The heroine was easy enough for reasons I’ve already mentioned above. The hero started out being a professional business man and ended up being a younger man, in the film and theatre world, inspired by someone I was watching on TV at the time. Anyone that knows me knows of my passion for Benedict Cumberbatch and he was the inspiration for Bennett Saville.

From there, the book just grew and grew and eventually I had a trilogy.

 

Barb – Which genres do you prefer to read?

Susan – Generally I read horror, psychological drama, suspense and anything supernatural, mostly around witches and magic. (I prefer my vampires and werewolves on the big screen.) I have a yen for Stephen King, Peter Straub, Deborah Harkness, Jonathan Kellerman, Phil Rickman.

I have however started reading romance stories and books, mostly by my fellow Boroughs authors, as I think I need to learn more about the genre I write in. There is such a diversity of imagination out there that meets all my reading needs and introduces me more to the world of romance so I can become a better writer in my chosen genre.

 

Barb – Where can readers find your books?

Susan – My books are all available via my website –www.susanmacnicol.com – or on my publisher’s website -www.boroughspublishinggroup.com. They are available in a variety of formats to suit any Smartphone or e- reader – I-phone, I-pad, Kindle, Kobo etc and of course you can download a pdf for your PC.

 

Barb – If I give you a time machine, what time period and in what place would you travel to?

Susan – You’ll think I’m crazy but it would be Victorian London in the 19th Century, specifically 1888. I have a fascination with Jack the Ripper and I’d like nothing better than to try and figure out his identity. This particular era holds a lure for me and is even dealt with in my first book. The proviso would be that I’d have to be filthy rich. I wouldn’t like to be poor in this time- that would be too depressing. I’d have to be a daring noble woman from a reputable family who has a yen for the truth and disguises herself as a common vigilante trying to track down the infamous Ripper… and therein is an idea for yet another book!

 

Barb – What projects are you currently working on right now? Would you mind sharing them with us?

Susan – Other than the Starlight Trilogy, featuring Cassie and Bennett, (edits start soon for the next two books in the series), I’ve had another book and a short story accepted by Boroughs.

‘Saving Alexandria’ is a book about a damaged woman who needs to find a savior to help her overcome the demons from her past. I expect the edits on those to start in the New Year, if not sooner.

My short story is a fun piece with a Christmas theme and involves ice skating and a handsome millionaire…

I’m also ‘polishing’ my latest two book series, a paranormal contemporary romance, tentatively titled ‘Double Alchemy’, which I also intend submitting for consideration to my current publisher.

And on top of this, I’m busy writing a new novel, a little different from my norm. It’s a psychological crime thriller set in London, my favourite city, about a rough Italian detective, the independent investigative journalist who loves him and a very nasty, unpleasant yet charming serial killer. It’s taking some time as there’s a lot of research to be done on this one and it’s a little out of my comfort zone! But I like the challenge…

 

Interview with Susan MacNicol author of Cassandra by StarlightAll about the author

Sue Mac Nicol was born in Headingley, Leeds in the United Kingdom. When she was eight years old, her family emigrated to Johannesburg in South Africa. One day after yet another horrific story of violence happening to friends around them, as a family they decided it was time to leave S.A. In December 2000, they found themselves in the Arrivals area at Heathrow and have been in the UK ever since, loving every minute of it.

In between her day job as a Regulatory Compliance Office for a financial services company in Cambridge, and normal daily life, the inspiration for the Starlight series of romance novels was born. Her characters, Cassie and Bennett, finally made their debut onto the flickering screen of a laptop and gave her the opportunity she has today to realise a dream she’d had since being a young girl old enough to hold a pencil.

Sue is a member of the Romance Writers of America and the Romantic Novelists Association in the UK. She lives in a town house in the rural village of Bocking, in Essex, with her husband of twenty eight years, Gary (who believes he deserves a long service award for putting up with her for so long) , two children, Jason, 24 and Ashley, 19 and a mixed collie mongrel called Blu.

 

 

 

Interview with Susan MacNicol author of Cassandra by MoonlightThis was published as an e –book on 13 August 2012 by Boroughs Group Publishing.

This is the first in a trilogy which I call my ‘Starlight’ series. The second novel is due out by Dec 2012 with the final book in the Cassie and Bennett saga planned for early 2013. At the same time, I also have another new novel ‘Saving Alexandria’, due out in early 2013. This is a standalone book – details of what my new book/s are about can be found on my website www.susanmacnicol.com

 

 

 

Susan can be found:

Publisher   *   Twitter   *   Facebook Profile   *  Facebook Page   

Website    *   Pinterest   *   Amazon.com   *   Amazon.uk

 Cassandra by Midnight is available at:

Amazon.com   *   Amazon.uk

 

Amazon Author pages –

 

 

 


CASSANDRA BY STARLIGHT
Susan Mac Nicol
Chapter 1
The day the sky fell changed Cassie Wallace’s world forever. She woke up that morning with the
expectation that this day would be like any other. She also had a slight hangover from the
abundance of wine she’d drunk the night before to try and get through a blind date organised by
her work colleague, Sarah.
The evening had been a total disaster. Not only had the man been an absolute misogynist,
one of the cardinal male sins on Cassie’s unwritten list, he’d also had a habit of leering at her
chest every time he spoke as if he thought it might talk back to him.
She’d smiled politely whilst thinking she’d like to take his smarmy public school tie and
shove it down his throat. When she’d finally left at around eleven, she hadn’t been able to get
away fast enough.
She stood in her bedroom, checking her outfit in the mirror and sighed.
Was it too much to ask to find a decent man just to share things with and have a good time?
They all seemed to be absolute idiots and in the old but true cliché, only interested in one thing.
Cassie had been out on a few dates in the past few months but somehow she never made it
past the first one. A previous date gone wrong had told her she was too independent and perhaps
a little bit ‘emotionally challenged, not affectionate enough’ for him.
She’d shrugged this off but it had hurt her deep down especially as she knew it to be true.
My bloody expectations aren’t even that high, she thought in exasperation as she fastened
her necklace. It’s not as if I’m such a great bloody catch myself! Middle-aged and not really all
that exciting. I’ll take what I can get within reason.
Cassie smoothed her skirt down over her hips and picked up her handbag.
When she left the house at six thirty, it was a typical dark English winter morning. Forty-
five minutes later she was sitting in the traffic on the motorway, listening to the news bulletin.
“Bloody idiot,” she mumbled in between bites of a banana that she had hastily grabbed on
her way out. “He wouldn’t know a bloody budget if his life depended on it. Silly sod has got no
idea how to run a bloody country.”
She crept forward in her Honda Jazz at about two miles an hour, watching the traffic in front
which seemed to have ground to a halt for no reason at all.
I really need to try and find something closer to home, she thought, not for the first time.
This travelling lark is really starting to piss me off. Four hours a day in traffic is not my idea of
time well spent.
Cassie wasn’t sure what other quality pastimes she’d be engaging in if she did have more
free time, given her current ‘lack of male’ situation but she supposed she’d find something. Join
a book club perhaps, or find more time to get to the gym. She might even start writing that novel
she’d always planned on doing.
Her fingers impatiently drummed on the steering wheel in time to a melody on the radio. In
response to another bulletin by the newscaster regarding the level of binge drinking in the
county, she burst into a further diatribe. “For God’s sake, let the bloody idiots lay where they
fall. If they had any brains they wouldn’t let it get that far so they needed an ambulance to take
them to A and E. It’s my taxpaying money that’s looking after these morons!”
She glanced at the clock on the display. Seven thirty a.m. She’d be lucky to make it in on
time today.
The story of my life, she thought resignedly. Slow death by traffic jam.
The traffic still seemed to show no signs of moving any time soon. She switched off the
engine and took out her Kindle. She may as well catch up on her reading whilst she had nothing
better to do.
Her concentration span was low as she tried to read. Last night’s ‘date’ kept replaying itself
in random snippets of conversation. Cassie could still hear Ron’s supercilious comment about
women needing to have a man in their lives to keep them focused on what was important—the
man and the provision of all his needs.
She’d almost choked on her wine when she’d heard this and only just stopped herself
retorting sarcastically that as a man’s needs were so simple, the only ‘provision’ they really
needed was a soft toy shaped like a pair of boobs to play with and talk at. As she had very little
money in her purse other than her taxi fare home, she’d stopped herself.
After the hell she’d been through sitting and listening to Ron’s drivel, the least she’d make
him do was pay for dinner. Cassie had made a decision after last night. She’d stay home with her
own company for the near future, with a bottle of wine and a couple of decent movies. She’d
rather drool over a virtual Mark Harmon in NCIS than a real life douche bag like the Ronalds of
his world. As for sex—well, that was what vibrators were made for.
It was nearly ten minutes later before the car in front of her re-started its engine and she
followed suit and sped up to about twenty miles an hour as the queue took flight. She settled in
as it got back up to the more respectable speed of fifty miles an hour.
As she drove she glanced idly up at the foot bridges to see the people strolling with dogs, on
bicycles and footing it on their way to work.
At the bridge just ahead she saw a solitary figure leaning over looking down at the
motorway below. She slowed down a little. Ever since those incidents a few weeks ago when
someone had thrown a concrete bucket off the bridge at a passing car, she tended to be wary of
people standing watching the traffic.
The figure didn’t appear to have anything in its hands but then she had only caught a
glimpse of it before turning her eyes back to the road. She increased her speed as the traffic
flowed easier.
There was no warning, just a sudden deafening bang of metal as the windscreen of her car
collapsed inwards. Cassie screamed in terror as glass flew towards her like wafer thin slivers from a frozen icicle. Her hands left the steering wheel in panic, her foot pressing down on the
accelerator.
The Honda Jazz went out of control, spinning around like a dirt dervish. Debris from the
windscreen flew like lethal missiles around the interior of the car. Cassie cried out in pain as she
was subject to a vicious assault by anything lying loose in her vehicle. She tried to cover her face
in an instinctive reflex but her left arm seemed unresponsive. The pain horrifying. She
whimpered as she glanced down and saw the bone shard sticking out.
In her pain and terror she didn’t notice that the car had stopped spinning. Everything went
quiet. Cassie lay slumped in the driver seat, dazed and unresponsive as the shock set in. She
could hear the sounds of people shouting and heard someone asking her if she was all right.
She vaguely registered the sound of screeching metal as someone tried to pull the driver
door open. It was as if everything was being done underwater. The sounds were muted and her
brain was sluggish.
The older man looking in at her from the road was speaking but she couldn’t hear what he
was saying. Cassie looked at him blankly. She couldn’t see clearly, as if a can of fine red spray-
paint had been aimed at her and the nozzle depressed, coating her eyes. She tried to move her
body but the pain in her right leg was excruciating.
She watched dully as the man outside starting pulling away metal struts and twisted the door
to get inside to her. She could hear his voice vaguely now, a rough London Cockney accent as he
spoke reassuringly whilst trying to free her.
“All right, darling? Just stay calm and I’ll try and get to you. The ambulance is on its way.
They’ve told me not to move you so I just want to try get in and keep you company till they
arrive. You look as if you could do with a bit of company. Just stay with me now. Don’t go
anywhere.”
He smiled at her, trying to keep her reassured. With a final tug at the door, he made enough
of a space to squeeze in slightly and he took her right hand, avoiding the bad condition of her left
arm with its broken bone. Her hand was freezing and he rubbed it gently.
“There we go. That should feel better. You just stay calm now and we’ll have you back to
your old man in no time.” He continued holding her hand, talking to her as she slipped in and out
of consciousness.
In one of her lucid periods she raised an unsteady hand to her face to wipe her eyes. The fog
cleared a little and she was able to focus, then desperately wished she hadn’t. Lying in front of
her, across the bonnet, was a face, pulped and looking as if dark sticky jam had been smeared all
over it.
She could see the eyes open, looking at her and she could see the mouth forming words
before she screamed and screamed and eventually the fog of blackness claimed her and the face
could be seen no more.

About Barb Drozdowich

Social Media and Wordpress Consultant Barb Drozdowich has taught at University, trained technical personnel in the banking industry and, most recently, used her expertise to help dozens of authors develop the social media platform needed to succeed in today’s fast evolving publishing world. She owns Bakerview Consulting and is the only reviewer on this blog.

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