Neptune's Tears Blog Tour: Interview with author Susan Waggoner.

Thanks to Susan Waggoner for stopping by the blog today as part of the blog tour for her new book Neptune's Tears.

Neptune's Tears by Susan Waggoner

Publisher: Piccadilly Press

Release date: September 2012

It is love against the odds. There is his word, and there is hers. How can they feel so connected?

It is 2218 and Zee McAdams is in her second year as a healing empath at a busy London hospital. When a mysterious young man arrives for treatment, Zee's hard won calm is pierced. She will need all her courage if she's to follow her heart.

Especially when David reveals a devastating secret.

Author Interview: Susan Waggoner. 

 Describe Neptune’s Tears in five words or less.

A futuristic star-crossed romance.

 Neptune’s Tears is set in a future society and contains themes of both dystopian and science fiction, but at it’s heart is Zee and David’s love story? Where did you get the inspiration to write Neptune’s Tears? 

I’ve always been interested in mental phenomenon and it seems logical, to me, that in the future we will make use of the mind’s untapped powers. I remember watching an episode of the original Star Trek TV series that was about an ‘empath’. This concept of a person who is able to use their mental powers to absorb the pain of others and heal them always fascinated me so that’s where that aspect of Neptune’s Tears came from.

Then, a few years ago, when dystopian books became popular, I began to wonder if it was possible to write an exciting love story in a futuristic setting but in a world that was more like to our own. That’s when Zee arrived.  I knew right away that she was an empath, and created a plotline around her.  But guess what?  Zee had other ideas.  She turned out to be much bolder than I’d imagined, and because of that, the book is not at all like my original outline!

 I always think that setting a book in a future society must be a lot of fun. You can make it whatever you want it to be. For Neptune’s Tears what kind of research did you do in terms of world-building? What did you want to add to Zee’s world? What did you want to take away?

The future is impossible predict. You never know what humans will invent or what opportunities they’ll miss. I think a mistake science fiction often makes is to see the world as all one way or the other.  They assume every country will advance at the same pace or that new inventions will solve all our problems, but in reality, when in human history has this ever happened? So I tried to create a world that had experienced some scientific progress but still had the same problems that have always plagued human society, such as war.

If I could add one thing to Zee’s world or even our own, it would be the ability to “shop from the past.”  We are always giving up old things to make way for newer versions, but we lose a lot of great objects from each era.  I wish we had a way of recreating it on demand.

What would I take away from Zee’s world?  That’s a dangerous question!  I’d be tempted to say the anarchists, which seems like a no-brainer, but messing with a world, even for good reasons, can have unintended consequences. If I took away the anarchists, would Zee and David have bonded as they did? 

 What song would you choose as a theme tune for NT?

I’m a big fan of movie soundtracks, so I’d choose the gorgeous music that lit up the screen for Nathan and Cora in The Last of the Mohicans, starring a young and gorgeous Daniel Day-Lewis.  Has there ever been a better on-screen kiss? 

 Can you name three other books that readers of NT might also enjoy? 

These three books may be old but they remain unforgettable classics:

• Portrait of Jennie by Robert Nathan: A struggling young artist falls in love with a haunting young woman.  Is Jennie real, a wandering spirit, or just a figment of his imagination?
• I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith: If you’ve ever wondered what life would be like in a falling down castle with a very eccentric, this book has the answers.
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith: Growing up in Brooklyn in the early 1900s can be a rich experience, even if your family is always scrambling to make ends meet.

 What book are you currently reading? 

 I’m working hard on the sequel to Neptune’s Tears right now, so I’m treating myself to fun, cosy reads.  I’m halfway through Country Passions by Rebecca Shaw, the fourth book in the Barleybridge series. The series is centred around a village veterinary practice and escaping to the idyllic English countryside is just the break I need at the end of my work day. 

 What was you last ‘five-star-couldn’t-put-it-down’ read?

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See.  The first part of the book offers a tantalizing portrait of glamorous and wealthy Shanghai in the 1930s, when it was known as the Paris of Asia. When the scene shifts to Los Angeles, I was equally fascinated to learn what Chinese immigrants went through to become Americans whilst still preserving their own culture and traditions.

The Neptune's Tears Blog Tour continues tomorrow at Strictly Writing!

***

And that's not all! Take a look at the cover for Starlight's Edge, the second book in Susan Waggoner's Timedance series, releasing in 2013 from Piccadilly Press.