Friday's Guest - Suzanne De Montigny #MFRWauthor #Genres #Writing

1.      What's your genre or do you write in more than one?

Well, it seems I’ve been skipping around a bit. I started out with a Middle Grade series for kids 9 – 12 called Shadow of the Unicorn, and then I wrote a young teen novel, A Town Bewitched, and lo and behold, now I’ve jumped into a later teen and beyond novel, Fields of Gold Beneath Prairie Skies, book 6 of the Canadian Historical Brides series by BWL Publishing. But I have a new story lurking for kids under 9. So go figure.

2. Did you choose your genre or did it choose you?

Doesn’t appear to be me choosing. These stories just call out to me, “Write me, write me…” and so I do.

3.  Is there any genre you'd like to try?  Or is there one you wouldn't?

Okay, I’ll go with what I wouldn’t like to do. Definitely not erotica. Too embarrassing. Definitely not some big action thing with guns and stuff. Too guyish for my tastes.

4.  What fiction do you read for pleasure?

Hmmm. I like historical fiction the best, I guess, and especially I seem to be drawn to stories about WWI and WWII. But I also really like Dystopia.

5.  Tell me a bit about yourself and how long you've been writing.

I loved writing as a child, but pursued an education in music instead, teaching music in the school system for about 20 years. I began writing about 10 years ago after my father died. And I haven’t stopped since.

6.  Which of your characters is your favorite?

Darius from Shadow of the Unicorn. He’s the last surviving dinosaur and is a seer. He’s selfless and utterly wonderful. He made me cry in book 1 and 2 of Shadow of the Unicorn.

7.  Are there villains in your books and how were they created?

Villains! Argh! I think the worst one was Ishmael in Shadow of the Unicorn – a man who cared nothing for animals or other humans. All he wanted was gold and would stop at nothing to get it. Then there was Drachen, in book 2. He wasn’t exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer. Then Travis in A Town Bewitched, a typical mean boy…who had reason to be. And in Fields of Gold, I’d say it was the drought – not a real person.

8.  What are you working on now?

I’m just about to start editing Shadow of the Unicorn: The Revenge.

9.  What's your latest release and how did the idea arrive?

Fields of Gold Beneath Prairie Skies. It’s a historical romance and part of the Canadian Historical Bride series. My father spent the last 10 years of his life writing his memoirs, and most of this story came from those memoirs. This is based on what happened to my grandparents. Here’s the blurb.

French-Canadian soldier, Napoleon, proposes to Lea during WWI, promising golden fields of wheat as far as the eye can see. After the armistice, he sends money for her passage, and she journeys far from her family and the conveniences of a modern country to join him on a homestead in Saskatchewan. There, she works hard to build their dream of a prospering farm, clearing fields alongside her husband through several pregnancies and even after suffering a terrible loss. When the stock market crashes in ’29, the prairies are stricken by a long and abysmal drought. Thrown into poverty, she struggles to survive in a world where work is scarce, death is abundant, and hope dwindles. Will she and her family survive the Great Depression?

But if you’re too lazy to read that, then watch the book trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP0G0a-xsrk&feature=youtu.be