Author Interview: Susan Nadathur: Author Of Outcasts And Outsiders

She is a widely-traveled writer, teacher, and self-proclaimed “outsider” from Connecticut (USA) who lives on-and-off in Spain with an extended family of Gypsies in Seville. She resides with her husband, a philosophical scientist from India, in Lajas, Puerto Rico. CITY OF SORROWS is her debut novel. Visit the author on line at SusanNadathur.com where she blogs about Gypsies and writing, and at LabelMeDifferent.wordpress.com, where she writes about the rewards and challenges of being different. Thanks Susan Nadathur for accepting the invite! Welcome!! Some of my best childhood memories: Summers in Connecticut reading under the old Beech tree near my home, the first snow fall, Halloween
Education: Bachelor’s Degree in American Studies, Master’s Degree in Spanish Literature
Career planned during education days: first to be a museum curator, and then to be a Spanish/English teacher (never to be a writer, that just sort of happened as life progressed)
Languages I can speak and write: English and Spanish
Biggest source of inspiration: great music, art, and literature
What hurts me most in this world: intolerance, when people treat others as inferior because of race, ethnicity, social standing, sexual orientation, appearance, or any other  factor The biggest challenge I have faced: marrying a man from India, a challenge I have worked every day to overcome by believing in our love, in God’s purpose for my life, and in my dream to make this world a more tolerant, more loving place. 
If I had to live one day of my life as another person it would be Martin Luther King Jr. If I could live just one day of my life through his, I would learn what total sacrifice to a just cause really means.
My favorite genre: young adult literature. I love the crazy uncertainty and passion for life that young people embrace
When I started writing: I started writing professionally when our daughter turned 13, so about ten years ago. I don’t write with a particular purpose. I write because I have to. It’s a part of me, as necessary as breathing and eating. That said I would like to believe that God’s purpose in my life may be achieved through my writing. If even one person becomes more tolerant of another because of something I wrote, than I will have achieved my goal of making this world a better place.
Published Books:
CITY OF SORROWS (Azahar Books, 2012) Synopsis: City of Sorrows is an emotionally intense story about how relationships can get complicated, and how life is not always the way we want it to be . . . Diego Vargas is a Spanish Gypsy from the Southside of Seville. Just turned nineteen, he is recently married, madly in love, expecting his first child, and completely unaware that his life is about to come crashing down around him. On a dark road beside a sweetly-scented orange grove, Diego’s life takes a tragic turn. He loses the woman he loves in a tragedy that could have been prevented–if the Spaniard he pleaded with for help had not been a troubled man. For months after the tragedy, Diego lives lost. But then a chance encounter with a man from India offers him the promise of change. From the depths of darkness, Diego must find the courage to face death, the strength to survive it, and the power to hold onto his humanity while his mind and his will scream against it. A devastating loss. A dangerous obsession. The wisdom of Mahatma Gandhi. City of Sorrows is an epic story of love, death, romance and rage. About what controls us, and the choices we must make to be free. DANTE’S KISS (Azahar Books, 2014) Synopsis: Dante’s Kiss is a supernatural love story about the down side of temptation and desire, the fragility of being human, and the challenges of being different in the Hispanic Caribbean. It's hard to be a sixteen-year-old-three-quarter angel when the one quarter human side kicks in. When Kiriela and her almost-boyfriend cause chaos in heaven, she is forced to live in exile with her parents in Puerto Rico. But because she is not fully immortal, Kiriela's father is overprotective. Fearing that she won't be strong enough to fight against the forces of evil that follow their family, Kiriela's father keeps her in a protective bubble. But when they move to Puerto Rico, he loses control over her. Finding her feuding parents too occupied with their own problems to deal with hers, Kiriela slips out from under her father's radar and finds the freedom she craves. But what this young angel fails to understand when she falls for a human boy named Dante is that when the supernatural collides with the natural world, something as simple as a kiss is more dangerous than it seems. Forthcoming Books: CITY OF SECRETS, the sequel to CITY OF SORROWS, and DANTE’S DEMONS, the sequel to DANTE’S KISS
Future plans: a memoir about my marriage, its trials and joys, and how it has come to define the purpose and plan of my life. Four top things I take care with while writing a book: that the characters are not one sided (meaning no one character is either all good or all bad), that what I write does not inadvertently contribute to furthering negative stereotypes, that what I write is true to me, and that it will not offend the readers it was intended to reach  
My dream destination on Earth: India
Origin of birth: Wethersfield, Connecticut (USA). Countries I have visited: Mexico, Spain, France, Italy, England, Ireland, Scotland, India, Hong Kong, St. Martin, St. Croix, Trinidad, The Virgin Islands, The Bahamas, Canada What I liked best in these countries: the people, always before any famous monument
My favorite time of day: night—after  11 pm and into the wee hours of the morning (I’m probably half vampire)
My zodiac/sun sign: Virgo
My favorite color: blue, because it’s calming
My favorite book: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare because it is set in my hometown of Wethersfield, Connecticut and focuses on the theme of intolerance and isolation of the “outsider.”
My favorite food: peanut butter
Quickies (answers in bold): Sun or Moon, Laughter or Smile, Morning or Evening,
Coffee or Tea, Mountain or Sea, Long Drive or Short Drive, Silence or
Conversation, Water or Fire, Air or Earth, Mars or Jupiter, Tulip or Rose, Red or Blue, Left or Right, Glance or Stare
What three words come to mind for each – Technology (Awesome), Life (Good), God (Great),
Humanity (Needed), Terrorism (Frightening), Racism (Intolerable), Childhood Abuse (emotional), Love (saving), Parenting (challenging), Old age (wisdom)
Signature line/ tagline: Susan Nadathur, author of outcasts and outsiders Favorite quote: “A room without books is like a body without a soul.” (Cicero)
The last line of my autobiography would be... “I persevered.”
Twitter handle: @SusanNadathur
Facebook page: http://Facebook.com/SusanNadathurTheAuthor Goodreads author page: http://bit.ly/1oTRoKm Amazon India link: http://bit.ly/PY7LG1 Author Web Site: http://SusanNadathur.com Author Blog: http://LabelMeDifferent.wordpress.com