SUSAN A. ROYAL -- TIME TRAVEL ADVENTURE ROMANCE WRITER

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It's about time we're fortunate enough to have Susan A. Royal return as a guest. Back in June 2013, we learned much about this gifted MuseItUp writer (see the interview on this site), including the fact that she lives "in a most unusual old farmhouse." NOT LONG AGO, the first novel in her It's About Time Series, has an exciting blurb to say the least:  

Erin has met the man of her dreams, but as usual there are complications. It’s one of those long distance relationships, and Griffin is a little behind the times-- somewhere around 600 years.     

      

Erin and her employer, March, are transported to a time where chivalry and religion exist alongside brutality and superstition. Something is not quite right at the castle, and Erin and March feel sure mysterious Lady Isobeil is involved. But Erin must cope with crop circles, ghosts, a kidnapping and death before the truth of her journey is revealed.

Forced to pose as March’s nephew, Erin finds employment as handsome Sir Griffin’s squire.  She’s immediately attracted to him and grows to admire his courage, quiet nobility and devotion to duty.  Yet, she must deny her feelings.  Her world is centuries away, and she wants to go home.  But Erin can’t stop thinking of her knight in shining armor.

~ Not Long Ago & From Now On ~

Not Long Ago was published in 2012. For the opening scene, I pictured a young woman in her twenties hurrying down a busy city sidewalk. On her way past a coffee shop, she notices a handsome stranger through the window. Their eyes meet and what she sees leaves her reeling. Not only does she recognize him, she knows things about the man…but how? Who is he?

From there, the story could have gone anywhere. Turns out it did. The idea of time travel has always fascinated me. Imagine getting up close and personal with history. Experiencing what life is really like in another time. My main characters, Erin and Griffin, meet and fall in love in his world, a harsh and sometimes violent place.  I never expected it to become a series, but my daughter insisted the story wasn't finished, and she was right.      

From Now On came out in June 2014, and it takes up where the first book left off. Some of my favorite characters are back. Arvo: the tall gangly young man with a disreputable shock of red hair who becomes Erin’s good friend and confidant. Sir Edevane: Griffin’s fellow knight and friend. Kat: Griffin’s fiesty little sister.

Sir Griffin travels across centuries to find Erin, the woman he loves. Before they can begin their new life together, he’s sent on a mission to a strange island. When he doesn’t return as planned, Erin assembles a group of his friends to search for him. Followed by his strong-willed sister, Kateryn, they travel to Swansea and secure passage with the notorious Captain Akin.

Erin discovers firsthand how the island has earned its dark reputation when she battles freakish weather, encounters a race of little people known as “Prowlies” and experiences ghosts of the long departed.  Even worse, she discovers there are “ley lines” crossing the island’s mountain peak, creating all sorts of strange phenomena.  Yet these obstacles pale in comparison to the secrets she uncovers while trying to rescue the man she loves.

If you love a time travel adventure with a twist (and a love story) and haven’t read Not Long Ago, please do. You can continue Erin and Griffin’s story with From Now On. As for what’s going to happen to them in Book 3? It’s too soon to tell, but here’s a hint. As the relationship between the two love birds grows, they’ll have more obstacles to overcome. In addition, you’ll likely see something about the caves in Wales, blood moons and ghost stories.

The It’s About Time series is available at MuseItUp, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Goodreads.

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HERE ARE THE LINKS: 

Xander’s Tangled Web (fantasy, mystery) (Due out in Fall, 2015)

In My Own Shadow (fantasy, adventure, romance)
http://tinyurl.com/bqbxm41

Not Long Ago (time travel, adventure, romance)

http://tinyurl.com/85vgye3

Not Long Ago book trailer

http://youtu.be/vOIQVdWUigU/

All books available at MuseItUp, Amazon, B&N, Goodreads

http://susanroyal.moonfruit.com

http://susanaroyal.wordpress.com

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I ASKED SUSAN WHY SHE SEEMED SO INTERESTED IN TRAVELING TO THE PAST, AND HERE'S WHAT SHE TOLD ME.

The idea of being able to travel through time has always fascinated me. In a way I guess you could say I am a time traveler. Every time I read a book it transports me to another world. Some of them actually exist and some are only fantasy, but that doesn’t matter.

When I’m immersed in a good story, it becomes as real as anything around me. I can cross the sands of ancient Egypt, attend a jousting tournament in England in the Middle Ages, take in the countryside in 17^th century Scotland (get a load of those kilts!!), see what it’s like to live during World War II, live in the south during the Civil War era or ride a stagecoach in the American west. Imagine traveling to another world entirely and see dragons, trolls, dwarves, fairies and other beasts. I can go to a dimension where magic is real or visit alternate realities and see what my life might be like if history had been different.

One of my favorite time travel stories is Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Claire Randall is a 20^th century woman sent back through time to 16^th century Scotland who must learn to cope in a world far different from her own. Ultimately she chooses it over her own time, because of the man she loves and cannot forget. It’s being made into series for STARZ, and I dearly love the words that flash across the screen on the trailer: What if your future…was the past.

I’d love to visit medieval England, 16^th century Scotland, or the WWII era. I’d love to travel across America when it was still a wilderness. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to talk to someone like Abraham Lincoln or Mark Twain in the flesh? Get up close and personal. Find out what they were really like. To have the chance to meet them or even listen to them speak, instead of seeing them through someone else’s eyes. Form your own opinions.

What if you could go back and see your parents or grandparents when they were your age? Observe them from a totally different viewpoint. What would they be like? Would you find things in common with them?  What if you had the chance to visit a younger you? A you that hasn’t made the mistakes or learned the lessons you’ve learned. Would you try to change the past?

You have to admit the idea of time travel is intriguing. How would you cope? Could you live without electronics or indoor plumbing? What would society be like? It’s fascinating to think of what it would be like to visit. And who knows?  You might decide you actually prefer it to living in the present.  It’s a thought… 

BIOGRAPHY:

Born in west Texas and raised in south Texas, Susan makes her home in a 100-year-old farmhouse in a small east Texas town that comes complete with a ghost who has been known to harmonize with her son when he plays guitar. 

     She is married and the mother of six (she counts her children’s spouses as her own) and five grandchildren who are all unique and very special. Her family is rich with characters, both past and present. Her grandmother shared stories of living on a farm in Oklahoma Territory with three sisters and three brothers and working as a telephone operator in the early 20^th century.  She heard about growing up in San Antonio in the depression from her father, and experienced being a teenager during WWII through her mother’s eyes.

   

     When she isn’t writing, she still has a day job working as a secretary in the public schools in east Texas. She also does her best to keep up with her grandchildren. Music and painting are two of her passions. Susan is a firm believer in getting what you want without breaking the bank. She loves to bargain shop anywhere there’s a sale and began repurposing long before it was popular. She paints, crafts and sews. Her office/craft/sewing room is littered with her latest projects.

     Susan loves to take her readers through all kinds of adventures with liberal doses of romance. So far, she’s written two books in her It’s About Time series, Not Long Ago and From Now On. They are time travel adventures with romance about two people who fall in love despite the fact they come from very different worlds. In My Own Shadow is a Fantasy adventure/romance. Look for her books at MuseItUp/Amazon/B&N. You can also find Odin’s Spear, one of her short stories featured in a Quests, Curses, and Vengeance anthology, Martinus Publishing, available on Amazon.

     Want to know more? Visit susanaroyal.wordpress.com or susanaroyal.moonfruit.com for a peek inside this writer’s mind and see what she’s up to. You never know what new worlds she’s going to visit next.

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