[Interview] With River Road Author, Suzanne Johnson

Welcome Author Suzanne Johnson

Suzanne Johnson writes urban fantasy and paranormal romance from Auburn, Alabama, after a career in educational publishing that has spanned five states and six universities.  She grew up halfway between the Bear Bryant Museum and Elvis' birthplace and lived in New Orleans for fifteen years, so she has a highly refined sense of the absurd and an ingrained love of SEC football and fried gator on a stick.

 Suzanne's Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Publisher Page

If you could have any superpower what would you choose?
Asked this question last week, I’d have said teleporting, the better to avoid airports and such. Now I’d choose telepathy, since my day job’s in sudden turmoil and I’d know what everyone was thinking. Oh, okay. Might as well throw mind control in there, too!

Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published.
Wow, there have really been a lot. Anytime someone takes a few minutes to send an email or note to tell me they like my books (or voice an opinion about what the characters should do next—LOL) is incredibly rewarding. It reminds me I’m not doing this just for myself or writing in a vacuum, even though it feels that way sometimes.

Please tell us in one sentence only, why we should read your book.
It will make you laugh, turn some fantasy conventions upside down, and leave you feeling as if you’ve just returned from a trip to New Orleans and South Louisiana.

Favorite food?
It changes from week to week. This week, it’s oysters—fried, baked, broiled, doesn’t matter.

What book are you reading now?
I just finished a new post-apocalyptic YA by Tim Lebbon called London Eye. Next up: Kim Harrison’s Ever After, which I’m reviewing in advance of its January release.

What’s your favorite season/weather?
Fall. The summers are so hot in the South that when that you feel that first hint of coolness in the morning air, it’s heavenly. It’s going to be in the 80s here this week, and that’s just wrong. It’s December, for crying out loud.

What was your favorite children's book?
Probably Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden, although I also was a huge fan of Heidi.

Beach or Pool?
Inside in the air conditioning, looking out the window at the beach. Did I mention I hate hot weather?

What is one book everyone should read?
I’m tempted to say the Bible and the Koran, because even if the reader is not a person of faith it will help lend understanding to what is driving so much of our world. However, I won’t say that, because I don’t think there is one book everyone should read. One of the beauties of life is the freedom to choose what one reads or doesn’t read. Except mine, of course. Wait—I want to change my answer. Everyone should read River Road—LOL.

Any other books in the works? Goals for future projects?
Elysian Fields, book three in the Sentinels series, will be out next August, and I will have one or two digital shorts out before then set in the Sentinels world. At least one, if not both, will be told from the point of view of the undead pirate Jean Lafitte, a major character in the series. I also write a paranormal romance series under the name Susannah Sandlin, and there’s a new book out in that series in early February.

Thanks for having me here, Michelle!

Thanks so much for being here!! :)

River Road

Sentinels of New Orleans, Book 2

Suzanne Johnson

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Tor Books

ISBN: 978-0765327802

ASIN: B00842H5VI

Number of pages: 336

Word Count: approx. 92,000

Cover Artist: Cliff Nielsen

Book Description:

Hurricane Katrina is long gone, but the preternatural storm rages on in New Orleans. New species from the Beyond moved into Louisiana after the hurricane destroyed the borders between worlds, and it falls to wizard sentinel Drusilla Jaco and her partner, Alex Warin, to keep the preternaturals peaceful and the humans unaware. But a war is brewing between two clans of Cajun merpeople in Plaquemines Parish, and down in the swamp, DJ learns, there’s more stirring than angry mermen and the threat of a were-gator.

Wizards are dying, and something—or someone—from the Beyond is poisoning the waters of the mighty Mississippi, threatening the humans who live and work along the river. DJ and Alex must figure out what unearthly source is contaminating the water and who—or what—is killing the wizards. Is it a malcontented merman, the naughty nymph, or some other critter altogether? After all, DJ’s undead suitor, the pirate Jean Lafitte, knows his way around a body or two.

It’s anything but smooth sailing on the bayou as the Sentinels of New Orleans series continues.

Purchase Links

Amazon  Barnes & Noble

Book Depository  Indiebound