AUTHOR INTERVIEW - SABRINA SUMSION

1. What is your name, where were you born and where do you live now? My name is Sabrina Love Sumsion, I was born in an ice storm in Oklahoma Chit, Oklahoma .  (There’s a story about my uncle driving my mom with bald tires thirty miles to the hospital.  I’m just glad I was still safe and unaware in my mom’s tummy!)  I live in a small town called Dwight in Nebraska .

2. Did you always want to be a writer? If not what did you want to be? I didn’t plan on being a writer.  I planned on being a brain surgeon.  Then a vet.  Then a marine biologist.  Then a computer programmer.  In other words, my interests bounce around.

3. When did you first consider yourself as a "writer"? I think when I published my first book, Produce, Publish, Publicize.  It didn’t sink in until I had a book in my hands.

4. Do you work another job as well as your writing work? I’m a home schooling mom now.  When I wrote Produce, Publish, Publicize, I arranged media interviews for authors.

5. What is the name of your latest book, and if you had to summarise it in less than 20 words what would you say? My latest book is Jasmine: Energy Book 1.  It’s a story of a girl who wants stability and love.  Who knew aliens would complicate that?

6. Who is your publisher? or do you self publish? I have my own publishing imprint Sanguine Publishing.  Technically I’m a self publisher but I’m helping a few people publish their books as well.

7. How long does it usually take you to write a book, from the original idea to finishing writing it? Produce, Publish, Publicize took me 2 years.  Jasmine took me about the same from conception but I’ve worked on it steady for about 8 months.

8. Which of your books were easier/harder to write than the others? Produce, Publish, Publicize was the easiest.  I knew what I wanted people to know and I typed it out.  It took me a long time because I worked a lot of hours with kids at home. 

9. What can we expect from you in the future?  ie More books of the same genre? Books of a different genre? I have at least 5 more books in the Energy series for the main plot line.  After that I have ideas for 2 alternative time lines and now the back story for the aliens book is explaining its plot line to me.  (Yes, my characters talk to me.)  Outside of the Energy series I have 2 darker (adult) plot lines I have about 50% complete.  One is an alternative future and the other is a fantasy.

10. Where do you get your book plot ideas from?What/Who is your inspiration? For Jasmine, I had a crazy dream where I walked in my high school halls and saw a girl surrounded by a group of people that seemed to be guarding her.  As I watched this girl, I saw a flash of blue light.  The people around her tried to scare me off but I wouldn’t leave.  As I thought about the book, the story grew.  I chatted with my family and a couple friends and finally in April of last year I sat down and typed out the story line. For Produce, Publish, Publicize, I ran into so many authors who were scammed for thousands of dollars by publishing companies that I finally sat down and created a basic guidebook to navigate all the publishing options then market yourself.

11. Do you have a certain routine you have for writing? ie You listen to music, sit in a certain chair? I listen to Jon Schmidt on youtube.com.  He has  playlists and I turn on Study Mix and type away.  I tend to get my best words-per-minute while listening to him.

12. Do you gift books to readers to do reviews? Of course!  I am actively searching for reviews so if anyone wants to contact me with the intention of reviewing my book (an honest review, of course), I welcome them contacting me!

13. Do you read all the reviews of your book/books? I do.  It’s great to include blurbs in promotional materials.  J

14. Would you ever ask a reviewer to change their review if it was not all positive about your book/books? Nope.  A person has the right to their opinions.  If I tried to write a book that everyone loved, it would end up a book that no one really liked.

15. How do you come up with the Title and Cover Designs for your book/books?Who designed the Cover of your books? Victorine Lieske designed the cover for Produce, Publish, Publicize. I did the cover for Jasmine.  The gal on the cover is my niece Emma.  Isn’t she gorgeous? 

16. Do you choose a title first, or write the book then choose the title? The title changed several times.  It was Plain Jane originally but a friend said she had a reviewer blast her for being cliché.  I played around and changed it.

17. How do you market/promote your books? I’m working on blog tours/ review websites at the moment. I’m running book giveaways, I review books for other authors, and I am looking to connect with many other people. After I finish the bulk of that, I will talk to podcasts and online radio stations for interviews.  By the time I’m done with that, hopefully I’ll have some good reviews posted, some sales numbers and I will talk to broadcast radio stations about doing interviews.  At that point, I’ll look at print media.

18. What do you do to unwind and relax?Do you have a hobby? I have too many hobbies if you ask my husband.  I create jewelery, make lotions and paint.  I have little creation stations scattered through the house.  My daughter gets into it a lot and scatters things which drives my husband crazy

19. Which format of book do you prefer, ebook,hardback, or paperback? My husband just bought me a Kindle for my birthday so I think I will begin to prefer eBooks.  Before that, I was chained to my computer. 

20. What is your favourite book and Why?  Have you read it more than once? I love anything written by Brandon Sanderson. I discovered him when my husband introduced me to him.  Turns out they played D&D growing up.  I’m working on getting the holy grail of Brandon ’s writings through inter-library loan.  I am determined to read his college project.  There’s a copy at BYU and no where else. I love a challenge!

21. What are you currently reading? Are you enjoying it? What format is it?(ebook, hardback or paperback) I just downloaded Victorine Lieske’s YA novel, The Practice Date.  It looks like a fun read!

22. Are there any New Authors you are interested in for us to watch out for? and Why should we watch out for them? My mom, Kathryn A. Gilmore, is working on her first novel.  It’s a romance and I get to beta read so I can tell you it’s awesome!