I am very happy to welcome Sue Rovens back to The Write Stuff as our special guest today! Please join me in making her feel right at home! Sue, the stage is yours! š¤
A big, juicy THANK YOU to Marcia for allowing me the opportunity to visit with you today! While I donāt have a brand-new book to promote, I do have one that came out last year which might be of interest. (More on that shortly.)
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā I am a suspense/thriller writer from Normal, Illinois. I used to say I write strictly horror, but over the years, I discovered two important things.
One, I actually donāt write exclusively āhorrorā per se, but rather a mix/mash-up of suspense with some horrifying elements woven into the story. Lately, when asked, folks who have read my books told me that the stories are more weird than scary, which I find to be a compliment. š So, I dropped the HORROR label (except in relation to some of the short stories), and now promote my work under the banner of suspense/thriller.
The second thing I learned came directly from interacting with people at events and seeing how their demeanor changed when I said that I wrote āhorrorā. While a few folks were intrigued, the majority cringed, backed away, or refused to engage at all. They wouldnāt even pick up one of my books and read the back. Something about the very word was off-putting. It didnāt matter how much I tried to explain that my stories werenāt hardcore horror or gore-heavy. Just the fact that I used āthat wordā turned them off completely.
Iāve read hardcore horror (body horror, splatter, etc ā not my bag, but Iām familiar). My books are NOT that. I was mistaken to ever label the novels āhorrorā and thus changed how I promote myself and my work. When I was a new writer (back in 2012), I pegged myself as a horror writer because I wanted to be in that camp ā with the Stephen Kings and Jack Ketchums of the world. While I enjoy reading some select horror (good stories and not just killing for killing’s sake), I had to realize that my own books simply didnāt fit that moniker. Theyāre related in a very distant way, but they are what they are: suspense/thrillers.Ā Ā Ā Ā
Rage is Available on Amazon HEREĀ
Author Sue Rovens
Sue Rovens is an indie suspense/horror author who hails from Normal, Illinois. She has written four novels and two books of short horror stories. She is currently working on her fifth novel, Sanctum, which should be out sometime in 2023.
Track 9, her second novel, snagged a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly (May 2018), her short story, āComing Over,ā from her book, In a Corner, Darkly (Volume 1) was turned into a screenplay and short student indie film by the theater department of Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, and another short story, āWhen the Earth Bled,” won 2nd place in the Support Indie Authors short story contest in 2021. Her two most recent books (Buried and Rage) are under Plump Toad Press.
Sue owns a blog (suerovens.com) which includes interviews with authors, musicians, podcasters, and artists. She is an Executive Producer for an indie (short) horror film which is currently in production called “Let’s Do Things that Make Us Happy.”
Sue is a member of The Chicago Writers Association and the Alliance for Independent Authors (ALLi).
***Special Note!***
I, too, interview authors (as well as musicians and artists) on my blog. If you are interested, please shoot a quick email to me. ALL are welcome on the blog regardless of professional level or genre. Email me at srovens@yahoo.com. Thanks! š
You can reach Sue on Social Media here:
Email: srovens@yahoo.com
Author Page
Blog
Twitter
Instagram
The Write Stuff 
Scary cover, but that’s the idea. The title and cover get your attention.
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It is scary, isn’t it? But I don’t immediately think “horror” when I see it. More like “murder” on an ugly scale, so I can see what Sue means. Glad you enjoyed her post, and thanks so much for stopping by this morning, Darnell! š
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Absolutely!
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Thanks!! That’s exactly what I was going for – something that GRABS you. But, here again, people at events either LOVE it or are freaked out by it. LOL.
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You hit the mark in that one.
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Good to meet you, Sue…
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Glad you enjoyed meeting Sue, Ladies. And you might enjoy checking out her #TenThings Post from last year, too: https://marciamearawrites.com/2021/07/07/tenthingsyoumaynotknow-about-sue-rovens/
Thanks so much for stopping by today! Have a great one! š
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Thanks, Marciaā¦ I will!
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Well, maybe not! I keep getting booted out when I try to answer people individually. For the moment, I DO want to thank everyone who has read and commented and I will try again later to answer each comment.
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Things are changing all the time these days, and most of the time, not for the better, Sue…
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Thanks so much for reading!! š
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Love the cover! Wishing Sue all the best with her new book! Thanks for sharing, Marcia. Hugs šš
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Always a pleasure to have Sue visit us, Harmony, and I’m so glad you enjoyed the post. I love the cover, too. Chilling, though again, I think “murder” rather than “horror,” so I think it does what she needs it to do.
Thanks so much for stopping by today! Have a wonderful afternoon! š ā¤
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Thanks for the kind words. I appreciate it!
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Really enjoyed this. I struggled with the genre of my first book – different readers labelled it as horror, romance, thriller, suspense or simply literary fiction. It’s a tricky one, isn’t it? Label it horror and if it isn’t horrific enough it doesn’t appeal the hard-core audience, label it romance and those wanting something dwelling on a developing relationship will be put off by the elements of horror. Love the cover of Rage and all the best with Sanctum. Many thanks for this opportunity to know a bit more about Sue’s books, Marcia. ā¤
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I always struggle with genres too, Trish. I think my books tend to spill over into several, and I know I need to do some serious updating in that regard. (Also the elusive “keywords!” Urk!!)
So glad you enjoyed Sue’s post, and I agree that Sue’s cover immediately grabs your attention. (Kinda hard to ignore a big, bloody knife, isn’t it? š) So it seems to me it does just what it should in that regard. Pinning down those genres, though … frustrating as heck, for sure!
Thanks for stopping by today! š ā¤
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Thanks for reading! š It was kind of a shocker to me at first – I wanted to be “in the genre I loved to read” but ultimately found I was actually writing a bit adjacent to it.
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Interesting story about how to pigeonhole our stories. Thanks for sharing it.
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I find choosing genres and keywords to be one of the hardest things about self-publishing, Craig. I don’t have genres in mind while I’m writing, and my stories seem to crossover a lot. *sigh* Let us know if you have any secrets for choosing them and/or keywords. (Maybe you can do a guest post on the topic? Or any other you’d like??? ššš) Thanks for stopping by today! š
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Not my strongest point either.
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Thanks for reading! š
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Nice to meet you, Sue!
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Thanks so much for stopping by, Jeanne. I’m glad you enjoyed Sue’s post! š
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Same! Thank you for reading!
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Great to see Sue here. I agree, that we need to be careful how we label our books. I used to label mine children’s or middle-grade books but I learned over the years that readers of all ages enjoyed my travel adventures. When I stopped calling them children’s books, my sales increased.
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Oh, wow. Who would have thought, Darlene? Thanks so much for sharing that. I really do need to get busy and make some genre and keyword changes on my own.
Glad you enjoyed Sue’s post, and thanks for taking the time to weigh in on this topic, too. š
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Hi, Darlene. Exactly. Once I started calling my books suspense/thrillers (and rightly so), folks started giving my books a chance. (and in most cases liked them!)
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It’s hard to know what label to put on our work, Sue. I love the Stephen King type of horror but not the heavier types with too much gore. I like to add in the scare though š I’m off to check out your book.
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On my kindle š
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So glad you enjoyed Sue’s post, Denise, and she’s gonna be delighted you’ve already bought the book, too! Thanks for stopping by today, and Happy reading! š ā¤
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Thank YOU, D. L. I hope you find Rage to your liking! I honestly believe most people who end up reading my stuff are kind of surprised at what the story REALLY is (in a good way)
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Hi Marcia! Something weird is happening! I’m trying to reply back to folks, but it won’t let me and keeps kicking me out. Anything I can do from this end?? Thanks! Sue
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I have over 50 emails from you asking for authorization. I’ve gone through all of them and authorized what I could and dumped the rest that looked like repeats. I have no idea what happened, but I do know these all seem to be coming from your work email instead of your normal one, so I think that’s the problem. WordPress doesn’t recognize that one as a follower. Hopefully if you can use your regular email, it will quit doing this. Good luck!! š ā¤
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Thanks. I’ll see what I can do on my end as well!
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This one came through fine, Sue. Maybe it has healed itself! ššš
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Okay – it’s behaving better now! LOL.
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I can relate to Sue’s reader’s reaction when she said she wrote horror. My favorite reaction was, “Can’t you write anything happy?” Fabulous guest post!
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LOLOL. I know. Hey, if people want happy and rainbows, there are plenty of other authors. LOL. I love spending time in the underbelly of society…probably why I keep watching Breaking Bad so many times. š
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It’s good to know your stories are more weird than scary, Sue. I’m a visual learner. I retain images, and horror images keep me awake. Marcia, thank you for introducing me to Sue. š
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I totally get it. If you wanted to try one of my books, I would suggest Buried. It’s a wee bit more on the “easy going” side. š
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So glad you enjoyed meeting Sue, Miriam! Thanks for stopping by and taking a moment to share your thoughts. š ā¤
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You’re welcome, Marcia! ā¤ š
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Hi, Sue! The word horror usually turns me away, mostly because I think of scary, and I donāt want to lose sleep at night. Lol! I read plenty of violence with vampire stories, but I donāt like the sake of killing for killing. (Iāve never watched the chainsaw massacre movies.) How we label our books determines what audience will pick them up, so kudos to you for reevaluating your genre of choice. Thanks for sharing Sue with us , Marcia! š
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Same, Yvette. I don’t care for “killing and gore” for shock value. Whatever happens in my books happen for a specific reason. It’s never glorified or extended beyond the needed point. It’s difficult to spell that out when only using a one or two word genre label. But, yeah, mine are most certainly suspense/thriller rather than horror.
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It was a pleasure having Sue here to meet new friends, Yvette! I’m glad you enjoyed her post, and thanks for your input. I don’t mind scary books, especially in the fantasy genre, but I don’t like gore very much, so I can understand how you feel. Thanks for stopping by today and taking a moment to comment, too. š ā¤
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