Tim Susman
Award-winning author Tim Susman began his writing career while pursuing degrees in chemical engineering and international business at the University of Pennsylvania. He later earned a master’s in zoology from the University of Minnesota, where he worked with primatologist Jane Goodall.
After relocating to the San Francisco Bay Area, he embraced writing full-time. Tim co-founded Sofawolf Press, co-established RAWR workshop, trained at Clarion and CSSF workshops, and completed Stanford Continuing Studies courses to further hone his skills. His stories have appeared in Apex and Lightspeed, and he’s authored 40+ novels under both his name and his furry alter ego, Kyell Gold.
Tim can be found at:
Website: the-price-of-thorns.super.site
Instagram: @writerfox
Facebook: facebook.com/timsusmanbooks
Twitter: @writerfox
Tell me what inspired you to write your book?
Initially my idea was a sort of redemption arc, that an evil queen from fairy tales would come back centuries later wanting to regain her glory but would be confused by the changed world and realize that the path to success now is to make up for the evil she’s done. That was in 2011, and the story has changed quite a bit since then, but you can still see traces of it.
What came first the character or the world?
The characters for sure. I knew that the world would have echoes of fairy tales, but I didn’t know how important fairy tales would be until I started building up the world around the characters. In that first note in 2011 the only mention I made of the world was “magic fantasy-ish setting.”
How hard was it to get your first book published?
A friend and I had started a small press, Sofawolf Press, that specializes in stories with anthropomorphic elements. Many authors we published for the first time have since gone on to award winning careers. When I wrote my first novel, I submitted it to him to see if he thought it would be worth publishing under our press. And he did.
How long did it take to write?
The idea for the book came in 2011. Over the next eight or nine years, I wrote a few scenes here and there and I really loved them. So in 2020, when my writing calendar opened up a bit, I dug into this one full time. I suppose that from that point to when I sent it to my publisher, it was a little over two years.
Do you have a writing playlist? If so do you want to share it?
I don’t have a specific playlist. My tastes range from 70s rock to 80s pop to 90s alternative to 00s punk pop and lots of stuff in between, but for writing I usually go with “music I’m familiar enough with that it won’t distract me.”
The Price of Thorns
How many publishers turned you down?
For this book I only approached the publisher I’d worked with on my last series and they were delighted to take it, so none.
What kind of reactions have you had to your book?
It’s still in pre-release, but people have been reacting positively. I guess if they have a negative reaction, they keep it to themselves! I’ve had people say they loved the characters, and that’s always one of the things I like to hear most when people read my books. I get very attached to the characters as I write, so hearing that other people also like them feels like meeting someone and finding out that you have a good friend in common. People have also been thoughtful about the themes and messages in the book, and that’s nice because that’s a thing that I have to think about; it doesn’t feel as natural to me as writing about characters, so to hear that those resonate is nice from a craft standpoint.
What’s the favourite reaction you’ve had to your book?
When my husband finished it, he came into the room where I was and hugged me. That’s the best reaction so far.
What can you tell us about your next book?
The next book being published is The Price of Thorns, on November 14th. The book I’m working on is book 2 in the Wolftown series that started with Unfinished Business last year. This series is about a private detective named Jae Kim who’s navigating a relationship with his boyfriend, a werewolf, in a world where werewolves, vampires, kitsune, naga, and other shifter types live in walled “Wolftowns” in cities in the United States. In book 2, Jae gets caught up in the death of a teenage girl and has to escort her ghost to safety while being pursued by sinister agents.
Do you take notice of online reviews?
I don’t now, but I did for a while. I found that positive things would stick far less than negative things would (like that old saying, a review could have 99 positive things and one negative thing and I’d remember the negative one), and often those negative things would just boil down to “I didn’t jive with this book.” Nothing I could do anything about, but I’d remember them. I get a lot of critique from my extremely smart writing group friends and I trust their feedback when it comes to improving my craft. Outside of that, I like knowing when someone’s had a really positive experience with the books (people do email me to tell me nice things and that’s fine). So now if someone says something especially nice then my publisher or my partners will forward it on to me, but I don’t go looking for reviews and I generally won’t read them.
Would you ever consider writing outside your current genre?
I’d have to define “my current genre” first. I’ve written contemporary romance, science fiction, mystery, fantasy, alternate history/historical fantasy, so I guess outside that would be hard science fiction and…westerns? My hesitation over hard science fiction is mostly that I feel like I would have to learn an awful lot about a hard science field to be able to write a convincing hard SF story in it, but if something inspired me, I’d do it. And I’ve toyed with a Western setting but haven’t really used one yet. It might happen.
What did you do before (or still do) you became a writer?
I’ve been a database analyst and a project manager, but what I liked most was my job as a product manager, designing new features of software based on user requests and needs.
Which author(s) inspire you?
My current favorite living authors are David Mitchell and Kazuo Ishiguro, but I’ve also been inspired by Ray Bradbury and Anne McCaffrey.
Which genres do you read yourself?
Fantasy, furry fiction, queer fiction, and non-fiction.
What is your biggest motivator?
I’m chasing that feeling I had growing up when I would finish a book and sit there wishing it wasn’t over, wishing the world was real so I could go visit the characters and places I’d just read about. I want to make those kinds of worlds for myself and my readers.
What will always distract you?
Everything, ha ha. Conversations, mobile games, research, something that needs straightening or cleaning.
How much (if any) say do you have in your book covers?
Quite a bit. I work with the artist to develop something that matches my vision of the book but also theirs, in the cases where they’ve read the book. Sometimes I work with cover designers and then it’s more me giving my input because the designer has rarely read the whole book.
Were you a big reader as a child?
Extremely. We would have reading challenges meant to last a month and I’d go home and read all the books in a week and then go on to read a pile more.
What were your favourite childhood books?
Susan Cooper’s Dark Is Rising series, Madeleine L’Engle’s Wrinkle In Time series, Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain series.
Do you have a favourite bookshop? If so, which?
Our local Books Inc. in Mountain View is a pretty great shop with fantastic staff.
What books can you not resist buying?
Anything by my favorite authors (see above), anything that promises a strange and delightful journey, anything with interesting animal characters.
Do you have any rituals when writing?
I usually put on music, but the music varies depending on my mood. I do need to have something else going on, though.
How many books are in your own physical TBR pile?
Which one? There’s twelve in the small one and maybe 20 or so in the larger one.
What is your current or latest read?
I’m currently reading Qoheleth + Gallery Exhibition by Madison Scott-Clary, a furry writer whose stuff I enjoy a lot.
Any books that you’re looking forward to in the next 12 months?
Smothermoss by Alisa Alering comes out next year. Disclaimer: I’ve read early drafts of it, and that makes me even more excited to see it appear on shelves.
Any plans or projects in the near future you can tell us about?
I’m planning to continue the Wolftown series after the second book, and I’m working on a furry horror novel as well.
Any events in the near future?
I’ve got a book signing at Books Inc. in Mountain View, CA on Thursday, November 16th. And I’ll be at Midwest Furfest in Chicago, IL between November 30th and December 3rd, and at Further Confusion in San Jose, CA between January 11th and January 15th, 2024.
and finally, what inspired you to write the genre you do?
I love all kinds of stories. I write the kinds of stories I’d like to see in the world, and that spans all kinds of different genres. I like furry fiction, or at least to include animal characters in my stories, whenever I can, probably because I fell in love with Disney’s Robin Hood when I was young and wanted to be a fox archer. But I also love the contemporary furry community because it’s full of fantastic people, and I want to keep creating stories for them.
