Jeremy's Home

Wild Women Authors welcomes back Susan Payne and  Book 3 in her Sweetwater Series, Jeremy's Home. With her is the title character, Jeremy, third in line of the four Macgregor men. He'll go first.

Where were you born? On the Macgregor Ranch just outside of Sweetwater, Kansas.

Tell us a bit about the book: I have three brothers and we all took time working the ranch before we went off to college. My oldest brother, Mac, kept the ranch going while the rest of us got to do what we wanted. I’m back now to repay him and the town for all they did for me.

What did you think the first time you saw Faith St. Michaels? Hm-m-m, that’s a hard one. I had just broken off an engagement so wasn’t expecting to want another relationship so soon. But Faith was different. I knew right away we were going to be more to one another than friends.

What was your second thought? That I had finally found the woman to be my wife.

Did you feel it was love at first sight? Love? Not sure about that but I was certainly proprietary. Nearly punched out my youngest brother more than once, thinking he’d been taking liberties.

What do you like most about Faith? I think her innocence. Even after being physically attacked, she was more worried about getting her friend, Charity, settled. She helped my brother, Jessie, set up his newspaper while going through some pretty rough things. She always puts others before herself.

How would you describe her? Pretty as a peach – which is my favorite color on her. But she truly is beautiful – inside and out. I can’t tell you enough times how sweet and giving she is after surviving a difficult life.

How would she describe you? Too full of myself…but that didn’t stop her from helping me with my building designs for the school. For believing in my dreams.

What made you choose architecture for a career? I didn’t know until I got into university and was drawn to buildings. They were calling them skyscrapers like the ship’s masts and were said to be the future of cities. I wanted to be part of that bigness. I wasn’t sure how, but I wanted to build something from nothing. Build structures that would mean something to a lot of people. Not monuments, but buildings people lived in or worked in. Buildings to last hundreds of years.

What is your biggest fear? After my marriage, it has to be something happening to Faith. To our children when they come. There are so many dangers out there that I never considered before. Now, I see danger everywhere. Faith says I need to trust, to believe in a higher power. I trust her so I guess I should trust in what she says, too.

How do you relax? I draw buildings. I know that sounds like what I do for work, but putting lines down on paper also relaxes me. Most will never get built, but I enjoy figuring out the how and use of a structure. Faith and I do them together sometimes, our second favorite past time, you could say.

Who is your favorite fictional character? Captain Nemo, for sure. His mind went all over the place. I mean, underwater ship? What I would give to build something like that.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received? Trust in yourself. If you don’t trust yourself then you’re never going to trust in anyone. Faith, she taught me trust.

Jeremy, thanks for taking time away from drawing buildings to speak with us. Now we'd like to chat with Susan.

What movies or books have had an impact on your career as a writer? I love to read and began reading early. I would study in depth certain things or people. I read for weeks about President Lincoln and did the same with Napoleon. Then studied Josephine Bonaparte and Mary Todd. I love reading old diaries and journals of everyday people, especially women who often kept them from childhood.

What event in your private life were you able to bring to this story and how do you feel it impacted the novel? Sexual abuse has always been part of a woman’s life, something she was warned about even if not intentionally. This story handled Faith’s attack as I wished all such attacks would be handled. Without blame to the one attacked. Without blame to the possible infant conceived from that attack. With love and understanding by the people around the victim.

Tell us a bit about your publisher. The Wild Rose Press has been wonderful to work with. Can’t give them higher praise for the ease I have been able to get my books published. This is the third book in the Sweetwater series. The fourth, and last, book is being worked on and was released on May 6, 2020.

What book[s] currently rest on your TBR pile? It keeps growing, I’m afraid. My friends are very prolific writers and simply trying to keep up with them is difficult. Gina Conkle, Rosanne Bitner, Maris Soule, Lucy Kubash, and so many others.

Lastly, what's up next and when can we expect to see it on the shelves? I have the final two stories of Sweetwater – New Banker In Town and Happy Endings. The first brings a southern civil war veteran into town who finds the woman he thought would wait for him but didn’t. He isn’t sure if the heat he feels for her is due to anger for abandoning him or passion because he still loves her. The Happy Endings is tying-up relationships of people we’ve met along the way. New babies, new buildings, new people. All finding their way to Sweetwater and the citizens who make it what it is.

We hear there may be more novels being offered by you and Wild Rose Press? Yes, the Sweetwater series is written in a style used by many of the writers of other genres. These next novels are a little different. The first is a Regency, The Persistent Marquess. A western historical, Forever Kind of Woman, about a female doctor in the Texas town of Forever. And possibly a Regency Christmas story by the end of this year.

We are pleased to include an excerpt from Jeremy's Home:

     Jeremy was drawing out some rough plans on one of the brown papered packages.

     Faith was watching his long fingers quickly make sense of the lines and then offered a suggestion. “If you make the building a couple of steps higher, wouldn’t there be enough room in the basement to have a civic center, you know for town meetings and voting and such. It could have half windows at ground level which would appear at normal level from the room side.”

     Jeremy, his tongue touching his lower lip, drew in the higher stairs saying, “That would cover two birds with one stone, saving money and giving the town something, it needs. There will need to be a beam and supports but otherwise a fairly open space.”

     “And then divide the upper room in half this way, placing two doors side by side but with enough space between them,” Faith suggested taking the pencil from his hand drawing what she was thinking of for the entrance to the building at the top of the steps.

     “And we can either put in the central dividing wall or leave it until it’s needed,” Jeremy finished for her.

     “But you need to plan on that. A central chimney will work for both the rear living quarters and the stove to heat the schoolroom. I think a second should go on this side, too, so that when its divided, there will be a heat source on both sides.” She added the little square to reflect the chimney.

     “The basement can be heated by a larger stove sharing this chimney.” And more lines were added to the brown paper.

     “Oh, and there could be either a cellar door or a trap door of some sort so the fire wood or coal can be stored in the back area under the house portion of the building. The rear of the building could be set up with a garden and all the privies going on this side, closer to the front doors of both upstairs rooms. You’ll need a cloak room that can be used for the students during the day and activities in the civic room in the evening with a set of stairs going down to the lower room.” Again, she added the lines as she spoke.

     “I think we have a good plan, Faith. I might hire you for advice when I get stuck,” Jeremy said with admiration.

To find more of Susan Payne's books, go to:

Amazon Books

Nook

To learn more about Susan and the stories she creates, go to:

Website: http://authorsusanpayne.com

e-mail – authorspayne@gmail.com