Talkshow Thursday: Welcome Back, Susan Page Davis

Talkshow Thursday: Welcome Back, Susan Page Davis 

I'm a big fan of Susan Page Davis's books, so I'm thrilled to welcome her back to my blog. 

How do you deal with the pressure of deadlines? I’m one of those people who thrives under deadlines. When I have one, I tend to start right away and plan out my work, so much per day or week on the project. If there’s no deadline, there’s no push to start and see progress. I need that push to get me going and keep me on track.

What was your inspiration for the story? I love writing historicals, and I’d read several nonfiction accounts of women on sailing ships. I had the idea of a captain dying in a foreign port and his wife taking over to sail the ship home, but having to raise a crew of women after all the men disappeared. My son Jim, who had spent time in Australia, thought the Australian Gold Rush would be the perfect backdrop for this, as many ships were abandoned in harbors there when it occurred. We decided to write the first book in the series with this premise, and The Seafaring Women of the Vera B was born. We followed it up with The Scottish Lass, and now we’re bringing out the third book, The Seafaring Women of the Faithful. All follow the same main cast of characters. Each book can be read alone, but I know readers will love the series most if they read all three books.

How do you develop your characters? (e.g. decide on their vocation, names, etc.)? In this book, the

vocations were easy. They all ended up as sailors. But their backgrounds were a little harder. We tried to give them some major differences. This included their names, ethnicity, and accents. Sri is one who moves from the Malay culture into the British culture, and we show some of her struggles with language, manners, etc. For Bessie, a former slave, we’ve tried to be sensitive in showing her growth into a free society and being an equal with the other sailors.

What sort of research did you do for your story, and was there an exceptionally interesting tidbit you knew you had to include? We had to do a lot for this book, as with all historicals. We used several resources, both online and off. A history timetable gave us several key events happening that year to fit into the story. It would have been odd if the characters hadn’t commented on events happening back in Australia, for instance. We did a lot of geography research on eastern Britain, southern Scotland, and the North Sea. As always, our study of sailing ships and methods helped us keep it realistic. But there were a lot of minor things too, such as fashions for an Edinburgh wedding “back then,” and divorce laws in England at the time.

If your book is part of a series: Did you set out to write a series? Why did you decide to write a series? I don’t think we did at first, but it soon became obvious that Book 1 could not contain the women’s full story. We took them as far as Batavia (Jakarta) in that one, and in Book 2 sent them on an Indian Ocean adventure. In #3, they are back in the British Isles—or, for some, for the first time.

If you were to write a spin-off book about one of your secondary characters, which one would you choose and why? Maybe Sonja Frantzen, the Norwegian girl who has never been in the northern hemisphere before. She’s traveling to America to find her extended family, and the story could go in any direction.

How do you come up with story lines? Jim and I discuss our ideas extensively before starting to write, and we prepare an outline. That can be amended as we go, but it gives a little structure and helps us to know where we want to end up. Then we go on and plan it more thoroughly.

What is your next project? Susan: I’m polishing up a novel I started and laid aside for a few years. Hope I finally get to write “The End” this time. Jim: I'm working on a young adult modern thriller involving a fictitious island nation. I began the story over 30 years ago and it got lost, so I'm making a much better version of it now.

About Susan:
Susan Page Davis and James S. Davis are a mother-son team. Originally from Maine, they’ve relocated father south. Susan is the author of more than 100 novels and has won the Carol Award, three Will Rogers Medallions, two Faith, Hope, and Love Readers’ Choice Awards, and more. Jim is a fiction writer in multiple genres and has produced novels, short stories, and serial fiction.

Social media links:

Website (Susan): https://susanpagedavis.com
Website (Jim): https://jsdauthor.com/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Susan-Page-Davis/e/B001IR1CGA
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/susan-page-davis
Twitter: @SusanPageDavis
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/susanpagedavisauthor
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/255473.Susan_Page_Davis

BOOK BLURB:

Their ship was declared lost. Their courage was not.

Captain Alice Packard and the women of the Vera B have crossed the ocean and reached England, only to discover their ship has been written off and marked for the wreckers’ yard. With no clear path, Alice and her crew face an impossible choice: scatter in search of work and family, or fight for the vessel that has carried them through danger.

When a wedding calls them north to Scotland, hope seems to rise with the tide. But at Dunbar Castle, Sarah Fiske is refused entrance to her husband’s home, two young women vanish, and the crew is drawn into a dangerous scheme of greed, kidnapping, and betrayal.

As secrets surface and danger follows them from castle walls to the open sea, the women must rely on faith, friendship, and hard-won courage.

Then a brutal North Sea storm places beloved friends in the path of disaster.

Read The Seafaring Women of the Faithful and set sail on a historical adventure where found family, fierce loyalty, and faith hold fast through every storm.

Pre-order Link: https://amzn.to/4i9UfP3

Photo Credits:

Author headshots and book image: Courtesy Susan Page Davis

Globe: Pixabay/lrewolede