This week it’s my pleasure to welcome Suzanne Hurley, author of the Samantha Barclay mystery series. Suzanne has taken her own profession and put it to work for her in her series. She also writes women’s fiction. Thank you for visiting today, Suzanne.

Marja:  Please tell us a little about your background and how you put your profession to work in your mysteries.

Suzanne: I just recently retired from being a counselor in a high school for twenty years. I loved my job and nothing made me happier than having an office full of students. I learned so much from each one of them. I also love to read mysteries and women’s fiction so one day I decided to write a mystery and also use what I know. You always hear that – write what you know – so I did. I made my main character a counselor in a high school. I never used any real life stories but I certainly wrote about school life from my experience and perspective.

Marja:  I have to be honest. I haven’t read any of your books yet, but they’ve come highly recommended, so I’ll be picking one up soon. What made you decide to write mysteries? They really can be such a challenge.

Suzanne: I have two older brothers who had the Hardy Boy Series when I was a kid and I devoured every one of them, then moved on to Agatha Christie and still read every mystery book I can get my hands on. I especially love reading books about independent, gutsy heroines who save the day, so to speak. So it was great fun to try my hand at creating such a character which I tried to do with Samantha Barclay and then throw her in among dead bodies, mysterious circumstances and lots of stuff to solve. Challenging but great fun.

Marja:  I had to laugh when I read that you threw her in among dead bodies – great way to put it. Tell us a little about your protagonist. Does she deal with life like you do, or does she find her own way?

Suzanne: My protagonist is called Samantha Barclay and she is a little like me but mostly her own person. I would never take the risks she does when helping people as, to be honest, I’d probably be fired from my job. But I admire Sam for going to the ends of the earth to help someone in need. I also love her sense of humor and kind of klutzy, not very confident moves when solving a mystery.

Marja:  I love anything that includes humor. What kinds of challenges did you find while working as a high school counselor? Knowing teenagers, I’d imagine it was an interesting job on a daily basis.

Suzanne: It was a fascinating job and one of the main aspects I loved the most was encouraging teenagers to follow their dreams and never give up on them. I liked urging them on to try new things and get involved. There were sadder challenges, when dealing with very complex situations where students were very depressed and almost not capable of functioning. I tried hard to give them a ray of hope, hoping myself that it would blossom into sunshine for them.

Marja:  What a lovely thought. I understand a lot of your time is devoted to dog training, and that your dog, Rico, recently received his first title, Agility Dog of Canada. Congratulations! Do dogs figure in any of your books? Does the repetitiveness of training offer you any insights that you can use in your stories?

Suzanne: I love dogs and there are dogs in all my books. Max and Maxine – two delightful Red Irish Setters – are in all my mysteries. There is also a cat named Scruff. In my women’s fiction books, Havanese dogs appear and that’s the kind of dog I have now, a two year old Havanese named Rico. He just finished a competition on the weekend where he received his first Qualifying score in Advanced Agility.

Marja:  Congratulations, Rico! Other than reading, writing and dog training, what types of activities do you involve yourself in for entertainment?

Suzanne: My three main hobbies – reading, writing and dog training – take up most of my time but I also walk every day for an hour and love to spend time with family and friends – especially if it involves good food to eat.

Marja:  I can relate to that. Do you have a mentor? If so, who is it and why?

Suzanne: I have two mentors. Dorothy Bodoin is definitely one of my mentors. She did a review for my first book and we have chatted constantly since then. I adore her and she has so much wisdom to share plus she’s loads of fun. Canadian Author Lynda Simmons is also a mentor. I enjoy her books and she also shares her writing knowledge with me.

Marja:  Who are some of your favorite authors?

Suzanne: I have so many as I read all the time – about 5 books a week. I love Marcia Muller, Janet Evanovich, Dorothy Bodoin and my brother Peter Hurley.

Marja:  So your brother writes, too. You two must have so much to share with each other. As a mystery writer, is there one piece of advice you can share about writing in this genre?

Suzanne:  Hmmmmmm… I don’t have advice directly relating to the mystery genre, but my advice to people wanting to write a book is the Nike motto – Just Do It. I know so many people who start books and never finish, or get hung up on a chapter and stay there forever. To me, I write from start to finish. It’s like I race through the book trying to figure out what happens next. Sometimes my chapters are long, sometimes short but I need to get to the end. Then I go over it and flesh it out. So my main advice is – don’t procrastinate – just write the book. I write every single day, even for a short while depending on whether I have appointments or not. Before you know it, that little bit every day adds up to a book.

Great advice. It’s been a pleasure visiting with you today, Suzanne. I understand one of your books is an Epicon Finalist. Please let me know how that turns out. I hope you’ll return for another visit one day soon.

Suzanne’s website:   www.suzannemhurley.com

Suzanne on Amazon: Click Here

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