Having already worked on the Alaskan pipeline and appeared as a television anchor, an NPR essayist and an answer in a board game, Susan Arnout Smith turned her talents to writing. Smith's first thriller, THE TIMER GAME, has been called "explosive and terrifying" and "intelligent and literate." Her second Grace Descanso novel, OUT AT NIGHT, was just released by St. Martin's/Minotaur, and we had a chance to talk to her.
You were born in Anchorage, grew up in Colorado and then returned to Alaska. What brought you back?
Bright lights, small city. An Alaskan cousin, living in Fairbanks, called and told me that if I ever wanted to break into television, (I had a degree in print journalism), I should come to Fairbanks, because everybody was leaving in droves to work on the trans-Alaska pipeline. I went to Fairbanks, worked in television. . .and left to take a job on the pipeline.
I know that you now live in Southern California. Finally get cold?
Oh, yeah. With the wind chill factor, that first winter in Fairbanks, it was minus seventy-two. We'd keep our car motors running when we went grocery shopping, so that the engines wouldn't crack. I breathed through the scarf. It's not natural, breathing through the scarf, unless you're holding up people at gunpoint. After the pipeline, I moved to Anchorage, where I learned all about damp. And then I married a nice San Diego man and wised up.
You were born in Anchorage, grew up in Colorado and then returned to Alaska. What brought you back?Bright lights, small city. An Alaskan cousin, living in Fairbanks, called and told me that if I ever wanted to break into television, (I had a degree in print journalism), I should come to Fairbanks, because everybody was leaving in droves to work on the trans-Alaska pipeline. I went to Fairbanks, worked in television. . .and left to take a job on the pipeline.
I know that you now live in Southern California. Finally get cold?
Oh, yeah. With the wind chill factor, that first winter in Fairbanks, it was minus seventy-two. We'd keep our car motors running when we went grocery shopping, so that the engines wouldn't crack. I breathed through the scarf. It's not natural, breathing through the scarf, unless you're holding up people at gunpoint. After the pipeline, I moved to Anchorage, where I learned all about damp. And then I married a nice San Diego man and wised up.
While THE TIMER GAME was your first thriller, it was your second book. When did you write your first novel, THE FROZEN LADY?
Anchoring in Anchorage. I figured out there was an employee at the station, only there mornings, who had an office with a door that actually locked. She let me use her office during what was euphemistically called a lunch hour, and I started writing the book then, locking the door so nobody knew where I was. (For Alaskans, who know my story cold, this was not the cool station where I worked for awhile; this was the other one). I also worked weekends. And nights.
When I had an outline and the first couple of chapters, I saved money, and flew to New York. (What did I know? I thought agents would actually talk to me. Or publishers. Yes, they'd line up. And Dorothy has such a twinkly pair of shoes). But I actually got an agent to read it. He called Alaska that next week and told me he'd take me on as a client.
It took another year of working around my job at the station before I had something to show him. I was at the station, about to go on air, when I got the call that it had been picked up by Arbor House.
You've also written NPR essays, plays and even some television movies. How did all that come about?
I wrote an essay as a surprise anniversary present from my husband, Fred, and talked a friend of mine at the Anchorage PBS radio station into running it on our anniversary. Fred kept trying to switch the station to sports. Afterwards, I submitted a packet of essays for a new NPR show just starting out: Weekend Edition-Sunday. About a year went by and I got the call. I was actually in Michigan, at Northern Michigan University, working on a production of my first play, BEAST, (which had just won the Stanley Drama Award and the Albert and Mildred Panowski/Shiras Institute playwriting award), when I got the call from NPR. I recorded a tighter version of the anniversary piece in a studio there and it aired almost immediately nationwide. That led to about a ten-year gig at NPR.
I started writing plays while I was home full-time--pregnant with my second child, Martha, (my first child, Aaron, was seven at the time). That's also when I started writing a teleplay, Different. I bought how-to books on playwriting and screenwriting, took a weekend seminar taught by a Hollywood guy on how to write teleplays, and started sending stuff out. I'm the anomaly: I've written four teleplays over the age of forty, while living outside of Los Angeles (Anchorage and San Diego), and they've all been produced, (two for Lifetime Television, one for ABC, one for CBS). I've also had full productions (including some Equity-waivers) of both my plays. Different was chosen as a play for the Eugene O'Neill Theater, National Playwrights Conference, and later was a finalist for a Pen West award and a nominee for a Hollywood Access award.
Every night, I would sit down with a packet of 3 x 5 cards, and a list of places I was going to approach. Luckily, I lived so far out of town, it just didn't occur to me it couldn't be done.
What made you decide to write thrillers?
I love reading them. The idea of constructing an elaborate puzzle I found enormously appealing. And difficult, I soon found out. Writing a good thriller is, in my opinion, one of the most engaging, complicated art forms ever invented. And for that reason, one of the most absorbing.
Tell us about your protagonist, Grace Descanso.
Ah, Grace. I wanted somebody funny and bright, because I'd be spending a lot of time with her. And I needed somebody flawed, because, well, that's pretty much everybody on the fun team. I wanted her to be grounded in science as something true and solid, a place to which she could retreat for solace. I thought having that safe place invaded, as it was in THE TIMER GAME, would create the kind of conflict that brings a book alive.
THE TIMER GAME was called "an entertaining, intelligent, and really good medical thriller." Do you have a medical background of some kind or are you a great researcher?
Tenacious. I love research. My mother was a librarian at my high school, and I've always been surrounded by books. I love science; having Grace move in that world opens up every book to wonderful possibilities.
One aside about research: When I lived in Anchorage, getting through the door to talk to experts came easily, because, (being on-air), I had credibility. It was difficult in San Diego, in the beginning, to get through those doors. I just kept pushing. (Which is my advice to writers. . .keep pushing. You can get do this, get through the door; don't give up). The publication of THE TIMER GAME changed everything: OUT AT NIGHT was created with the input of generous experts, including a source at the FBI. I decided early on not to use my lack of a medical/science background as a liability, but as a strength: I wanted to create accessible worlds for my readers, and break down complex science into understandable bites, while still having a story that moved. So that's the other thing: as a writer, you don't have to have a specific background to do the work; you just have to do the work. Of course, I'm always having to re-learn that one.
Finally, the most important question: Is it true that you are an answer in the Alaskan version of Trivial Pursuit?
Yes! At least it was years ago. A friend pointed it out to me. (Perhaps they've changed the game since then). Although it's somewhat a trick question/answer: Q: What is the name of Susan Arnout's first novel? A: The Frozen Lady.
With my marriage to Fred, I changed my name to Susan Arnout Smith, so THE FROZEN LADY is not only the name of the first novel by Susan Arnout. . .it's the name of the only novel by Susan Arnout.
Contributing editor Sandra Balzo
turned to mystery writing after twenty years in corporate public
relations, event management, and publicity. Bean There, Done That, the
sequel to her Anthony and Macavity-nominated novels, Uncommon Grounds
and Grounds for Murder, received a starred review from Kirkus last year
and will be followed this spring by Brewed, Crude and Tattooed.
Anchoring in Anchorage. I figured out there was an employee at the station, only there mornings, who had an office with a door that actually locked. She let me use her office during what was euphemistically called a lunch hour, and I started writing the book then, locking the door so nobody knew where I was. (For Alaskans, who know my story cold, this was not the cool station where I worked for awhile; this was the other one). I also worked weekends. And nights. When I had an outline and the first couple of chapters, I saved money, and flew to New York. (What did I know? I thought agents would actually talk to me. Or publishers. Yes, they'd line up. And Dorothy has such a twinkly pair of shoes). But I actually got an agent to read it. He called Alaska that next week and told me he'd take me on as a client.
It took another year of working around my job at the station before I had something to show him. I was at the station, about to go on air, when I got the call that it had been picked up by Arbor House.
You've also written NPR essays, plays and even some television movies. How did all that come about?
I wrote an essay as a surprise anniversary present from my husband, Fred, and talked a friend of mine at the Anchorage PBS radio station into running it on our anniversary. Fred kept trying to switch the station to sports. Afterwards, I submitted a packet of essays for a new NPR show just starting out: Weekend Edition-Sunday. About a year went by and I got the call. I was actually in Michigan, at Northern Michigan University, working on a production of my first play, BEAST, (which had just won the Stanley Drama Award and the Albert and Mildred Panowski/Shiras Institute playwriting award), when I got the call from NPR. I recorded a tighter version of the anniversary piece in a studio there and it aired almost immediately nationwide. That led to about a ten-year gig at NPR.
I started writing plays while I was home full-time--pregnant with my second child, Martha, (my first child, Aaron, was seven at the time). That's also when I started writing a teleplay, Different. I bought how-to books on playwriting and screenwriting, took a weekend seminar taught by a Hollywood guy on how to write teleplays, and started sending stuff out. I'm the anomaly: I've written four teleplays over the age of forty, while living outside of Los Angeles (Anchorage and San Diego), and they've all been produced, (two for Lifetime Television, one for ABC, one for CBS). I've also had full productions (including some Equity-waivers) of both my plays. Different was chosen as a play for the Eugene O'Neill Theater, National Playwrights Conference, and later was a finalist for a Pen West award and a nominee for a Hollywood Access award.
Every night, I would sit down with a packet of 3 x 5 cards, and a list of places I was going to approach. Luckily, I lived so far out of town, it just didn't occur to me it couldn't be done.
What made you decide to write thrillers?
I love reading them. The idea of constructing an elaborate puzzle I found enormously appealing. And difficult, I soon found out. Writing a good thriller is, in my opinion, one of the most engaging, complicated art forms ever invented. And for that reason, one of the most absorbing.
Tell us about your protagonist, Grace Descanso.
Ah, Grace. I wanted somebody funny and bright, because I'd be spending a lot of time with her. And I needed somebody flawed, because, well, that's pretty much everybody on the fun team. I wanted her to be grounded in science as something true and solid, a place to which she could retreat for solace. I thought having that safe place invaded, as it was in THE TIMER GAME, would create the kind of conflict that brings a book alive.
THE TIMER GAME was called "an entertaining, intelligent, and really good medical thriller." Do you have a medical background of some kind or are you a great researcher?
Tenacious. I love research. My mother was a librarian at my high school, and I've always been surrounded by books. I love science; having Grace move in that world opens up every book to wonderful possibilities.
One aside about research: When I lived in Anchorage, getting through the door to talk to experts came easily, because, (being on-air), I had credibility. It was difficult in San Diego, in the beginning, to get through those doors. I just kept pushing. (Which is my advice to writers. . .keep pushing. You can get do this, get through the door; don't give up). The publication of THE TIMER GAME changed everything: OUT AT NIGHT was created with the input of generous experts, including a source at the FBI. I decided early on not to use my lack of a medical/science background as a liability, but as a strength: I wanted to create accessible worlds for my readers, and break down complex science into understandable bites, while still having a story that moved. So that's the other thing: as a writer, you don't have to have a specific background to do the work; you just have to do the work. Of course, I'm always having to re-learn that one.
Finally, the most important question: Is it true that you are an answer in the Alaskan version of Trivial Pursuit?
Yes! At least it was years ago. A friend pointed it out to me. (Perhaps they've changed the game since then). Although it's somewhat a trick question/answer: Q: What is the name of Susan Arnout's first novel? A: The Frozen Lady.
With my marriage to Fred, I changed my name to Susan Arnout Smith, so THE FROZEN LADY is not only the name of the first novel by Susan Arnout. . .it's the name of the only novel by Susan Arnout.
Contributing editor Sandra Balzo
turned to mystery writing after twenty years in corporate public
relations, event management, and publicity. Bean There, Done That, the
sequel to her Anthony and Macavity-nominated novels, Uncommon Grounds
and Grounds for Murder, received a starred review from Kirkus last year
and will be followed this spring by Brewed, Crude and Tattooed. 
