Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Susanne Lambdin. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Susanne, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

At the age of 8, my older brother told me to either ‘get out of his room’ or ‘sit down and write something.’ I wrote my first novel, a fantasy, 250 pages that I still have (the penmanship was excellent as a child). I was reading at a college level by that age. I read the classics by Dickens, Austin, C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, and Burroughs. But I also read kid books as I was a child, and I had big dreams of being a published author as an adult. I have written a novel every year of my life. It was not until I was 50 that I finally published. In the last ten years, I have written 27 new novels. I occasionally rewrite an older book and turn it into something new. To be a writer, you must write. That’s the criteria. You write whenever you can, even if it’s a sentence a day, and it’s not about getting published. Writing is a personal journey. You write about what you know, what you have experienced in life, and the pain and love along the way, all disguised in fiction.

There are many authors too afraid to let people read their work. That’s okay. Writing for the pleasure and love of writing is what it’s about. And if you only let friends read your stories, you’re still a writer. I know plenty of successful authors who make loads of money, who write only to be famous and rich. I don’t agree with that approach at all. If you write and dream of publishing, you make it happen by writing every day and through perseverance – never give up, never surrender. It’s not easy. I also know people who, after they retire, start writing and hope to make money with a new career. This isn’t easy either, and too many people give up, get discouraged, and feel rejected because literary agents and publishers reject them. Even readers can be cruel and say the worst things about your work.

Remember this: write for yourself. Write because you love to write. Don’t let criticism or rejection make you stop writing. Ever. The only person you have to impress is yourself. If you believe in your work, others will, too. And you can start writing at any age. It’s all I ever wanted to be. Now that I’m successful, I do my best to inspire and help younger or newer writers to complete the project (the hardest task of all), how to publish with or without an agent, and how to market through social media. Whenever you finish a project, don’t sit there and wait for a paycheck or think fame will fall into your lap. This is an extremely competitive market. The only way to survive is to write and hold onto your dreams because sometimes dreams come true.

Susanne, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My claim to fame – in 1985, I was a bailiff in criminal court, right out of college, not doing what I thought I would be doing with a BA in Professional Journalism. I went to Oklahoma University, and at that time, they did not offer a writing degree through the English department, but I did have to write a novel and a movie script to graduate. The daily newspaper had an article about a new TV show at Paramount Pictures, Star Trek: The Next Generation, starring Patrick Stewart, who I adored. I quit my job, sold my horses, moved out to Los Angeles, and, in six months, had a job at Paramount. Six months later, I had a teleplay for ST:TNG. I went to producer Michale Pillar’s office with my script. His secretary asked, ‘Do you have an appointment?’ I said no, and I went into Michael’s office, bold as brass, and walked up to his desk and said, “If you’re looking for a good script on Wesley Crusher, this is it.’ I tossed the script on his desk and walked out. Michael called the next day and said, ‘You have big balls coming in here like that. Come back. I want to meet you.’ I returned. If you’re a fan of the show, watch Season 4, Eps. 76 ‘Family’ and the storyline about Wesley Crusher meeting his father on the holodeck is my contribution to my favorite show. If you can get your hands on Starlog Platinum 1st Edition, there is a wonderful article about me that tells you all about how I wrote for the show and background information that’s fun to read.

However, writing for Hollywood is nothing like being at home and writing a novel. It involved power lunches, rubbing elbows, having scripts stolen, and being sexually harassed and bullied. I tried for four years to get on the writing staff for ST:TNG, pitched 15 story ideas, and was always turned down for the job as they apparently didn’t think women could write sci-fi. After I left the studio, they finally hired female writers, whom I have met, and they didn’t do anything that I did in the late 80s and early 90s in L.A. I had a Hollywood agent, and I had a literary agent, as I was still writing novels. I had to decide what I really wanted. It wasn’t swimming in shark-infested water and playing the Hollywood game, which is exhausting, so I returned home to write what I wanted to write without having to play games or go to lunch with actors who weren’t happy with the scripts I wrote for them. I write what I want to write, and I write for me, and I’m happier as a writer. I feel accomplished. I have a screen credit and attend comic cons where fans ask about my days at Paramount, all the Star Trek actors, and I oblige. But honestly, I only went out there to write for Star Trek. After I achieved what I set out to do, I came home.

Writing a script is technical. It’s not as enjoyable for me as writing a novel. I write dark fantasy, sci-fi, and horror novels. I put in a little romance, but I stopped writing historical romances and erotica long ago. Now that its popular and where the money is at, I’m still not interested. The funny thing is, I wrote a fanfic piece on ‘The Mummy’ in the 90s, sent it to Sony to be considered as a script, and lo and behold, a college friend who worked at the studio ended up with the story. He contacted me and said, “I see you’re still writing swashbuckling s*x stories, Susanne.’ I thought, ugh, he knows me too well. I really need to write something else. As my favorite novels are ‘The Three Musketeers’ by Dumas and “The Hobbit’ by Tolkien, it wasn’t a tough decision to start writing fantasy novels instead.

I will share one thing the late Michael Pillar taught me. When you are writing a story, don’t write about the entire planet. Write about one specific place and the people who live there. Keep it simple.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

While attending a comic con in Colorado, I met a photographer who took photos of me and a beautiful Native American actress who cosplayed as my Cherokee heroine in my zompoc “Dead Hearts’ series. (This character is called Freeborn, and later, a con was held with this actress dressed as my character. I was the featured artist, and it was amazing). However, the photographer sent me a message. He told me that he had read my novel ‘Morbid Hearts,’ and that he had a troubled, sad life, but in those few hours that he spent reading my story, he was transported somewhere else, temporarily forgot about his troubles, and was happy. He said that I should never give up writing, that I touched his life and made a difference, and that’s why I should be writing.

Whenever someone comes up to me and says, I read your book, and I loved it, it means everything to me. I have had people come up and say awful things. Some man spent 30 minutes at a con telling me what was wrong with some zombie story, and a crowd gathered. Turns out, this young man was talking about my zombie novels (there are 11 in the Dead Hearts series). He told me that if I were more famous, he’d write fanfiction and correct all the errors I had made in the story. He didn’t like my mutating H1n1z virus that made not only zombies, but had created the ancient gods, all mythological creatures, including werewolves. I told him that was okay, write your own novel then, and he gave me a weird look and walked off. My first book review for ‘Morbid Hearts’ was written by a former friend, and it’s awful, just awful. And it makes me laugh how much she hated my heroes wearing a blue beret in the story, of all things. Well, you can’t please everyone. But the people whose lives you do touch, that’s who I write for, and that’s who you should for. It only takes one person to say, “I love your work,’ to make your day.

I was contacted by a lady who said after reading ‘The Seeker of Magic,’ in my ‘Realm of Magic’ fantasy series, that she felt that she had been to all the places I read about in another life. It was odd. But it also told me that I had connected with her on a level that meant more to me than a big paycheck. I touched her life, and as a writer, that’s my goal, that’s my dream, and that’s why I will always write. I don’t read book reviews people write on my books. I don’t have an ego that needs to be stroked or enjoys being slammed. And I don’t count book sales like some writers do, which is annoying.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Ah, the internet. I can actually say in my day, I went to the library to research my books. I checked out numerous books on whatever topic I was writing, took them home, read them all, and then I wrote a book. Now days people rely on the internet to research their stories. They also rely on AI now. Blah. Look, the internet has made information easier to obtain. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t stop going to the library and actually picking up and reading a book on the topic you are going to write about. I own 800 books. While I enjoy the easy approach and can look up whatever I want on the internet, I still go to the library and check out books. The idea that you would do anything else is alien to me. It’s as strange as writers who now rely on AI to write for them. I’m so opinionated on this particular topic – if you are a writer, use your brain. If your brain can’t come up with the story, then do something else. You’re not an artist if you let a machine write the book for you. Sure, you can use AI to write a resume, fine. No problem. But if you think, ‘Oh, I can write a book, then have the AI rewrite the book for me, and it’s going to be a best-seller,’ then you’re not writing because you love to write. You’re writing to make money. I read books written by people who suffer and struggle and take years to complete a project. It shows in the final project all that pain, all that love, and all that soul.

I’m an artist. My canvas is the page that I paint words onto to create a masterpiece. I’m not going to have a soulless AI write a story for me. I checked it out. I see what AI can do. It’s disgusting. No life, no soul, no love. No, thank you. Technology has made things easier, people lazier, and I won’t take shortcuts.

Contact Info:

• Website: susannelambdin.com
• Instagram: susannellambdin / lambdinsusanne
• Facebook: Susanne Lambdin / Dead Hearts Novels
• Linkedin: Susanne Lambdin
• Twitter: SusanneLambdin@SusanneLambdin