Interview with Suzanne Young

Today, on BNR, we have the author of A Need So Beautiful series and the upcoming 2013, The Project, Suzanne Young. We got a chance to catch up with her on the latest installment of the ANSB series, A Want So Wicked, and what new projects are in store for her readers!

Here is a quick bio about Suzanne:



Suzanne Young currently lives in Tempe, Arizona, where she drafts novels on restaurant napkins while eating chimichangas. When not writing, Suzanne is a high school English teacher obsessed with books. It works.

BNR: How did you find your love for writing and books?

SY: I’ve been writing since I was in middleschool. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I ever considered publishing.Writing has always been my escape, only now I occasionally get paid for it.

BNR: Why did you decide to write books for the Young Adult genre?

SY: At first I didn’t even realize therewas a YA market. I was just writing a book about an 18-year-old girl (my first,unsold novel). As I learned about the business, I found where my voice andcharacters fit in.

BNR: Do you ever take personal experiences or your environment into your writing?

SY: Sure. But it’s never as it happened,it’s more of an inspiration from an experience. Or a random line I heard somewhere.

BNR: For those of those who have yet to read A Need So Beautiful, what is a quick synopsis of the series?

SY: It’s a story about the Forgotten, who are here to help people—usually strangers—at a time when they need it most. But the Forgotten are blessed/cursed. Over time the pain of helping starts to wear them away, wear away even their existence to a point where no one will remember they ever existed. A walking déjà vu. Charlotte doesn’t want that ending, not when she loves her family, her friends, and her boyfriend Harlin. But the cost of staying could be so much worse.

BNR: Who is Elise and how is she the same/different from Charlotte from ANSB?

SY: Elise is sweet, and very innocent—but she’s also funny and brave. Charlotte had many of those same qualities, but she was a bit more street smart.

BNR: How did you come up with writing about angels?

SY: My original title was Beautiful, and I wanted to write about a girl who thought she was slowly turning into something awful, something ugly. But instead she was becoming beautiful—even if it wasn’t in an earthly sense.

As the story evolved, I thought about a moment in my life when someone helped me—a stranger. And that turned into the mythology of the Forgotten.

BNR: You also have a new book set to release in 2013, The Program, how is this story different from what you normally write?

THE PROGRAM is set in an alternate reality where suicide is an epidemic. The style is a bit more stark and creepy than A NEED SO BEAUTIFUL, but the romance is still a heavy element. As it will be with all of my books.

BNR: Is there any genre out there that you have not written that you would like to try some day?

SY: I’ve recently written an adult horror, so I’d love to publish that.

Bonus: What are three books you would recommend for summer reads?

SY: SOMETHING LIKE NORMAL by Trish Doller, THE GREAT GATSBY byF. Scott Fitzgerald, and NEVERMORE by Kelly Creagh

Check Out A Want So Wicked:

Elise is a normal seventeen-year-old girl until the day she wakes up in a desert park, with no idea who she is.

After that episode, her life takes a bizarre turn. She’s experiencing unexpected flashes of insight into people’s lives—people she’s never met before. Strangers frighten her with warnings about the approaching Shadows. And although Elise has never had a boyfriend, she suddenly finds herself torn between two handsome but very different young men: Abe, the charming bad boy whose effect on her both seduces and frightens her, and the mysterious Harlin, who’s new to town but with whom Elise feels an urgent, elemental connection—almost as if they are soul mates.

Now Elise begins to question everything about her life. Why do these guys both want her so desperately? What are the Shadows? Why does the name Charlotte inspire a terrifying familiarity? And who is Elise, really?

Where to find Suzanne:

Website l Facebook l Twitter l Goodreads

Peace and Fangs,

Alisha