Susan Schoenberger is the award-winning author of A Watershed Year and The Virtues of Oxygen. With a linotypist as a grandfather, she has ink in her blood and worked as a journalist and copyeditor for many years, including for The Hartford Courant and The Baltimore Sun. She currently serves as Director of Communications at Hartford Seminary, a graduate school with a focus on interfaith dialogue. She lives in West Hartford, Connecticut, with her husband Kevin. They have three grown children and a small dog named Leo.
We chat with author Susan Schoenberger about her latest release The Liability of Love, along with writing, book recommendations, and more!
Hi, Susan! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
By day, I’m a full-time communications director for a small graduate school. When I’m not doing that, I’m pursuing my career as a fiction writer. I might also be kayaking, reading, baking chocolate chip cookies, or walking my little monster of a dog, Leo.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
That would be Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh. I read it probably 15 times when I was in elementary school. Harriet’s voice was so unique and the humor so deadpan. I loved everything about that book. It made me want to write so I could give other people that kind of experience.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
I majored in English in college, but I never took a creative writing class. I started writing short stories for fun in my 20s but never submitted them anywhere. In my 30s, I finally had an idea for a novel, and I worked on it for years, but that one remains unpublished. In my 40s, I went back to short stories to work on my craft, and then wrote a novel based on one of those stories. My first novel wasn’t published until I was 49. So it’s been, basically, a lifelong journey.
Your latest novel, The Liability of Love, is out July 20th 2021! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Everyone loves the wrong person.
What can readers expect?
They can expect a love story told from four different points of view, two women and two men. It’s set in Hartford, CT, in the 1980s, and one of the main characters works in the insurance industry. Thus, there are a lot of references to liability and risk, which are also prevalent when someone falls in love.
Where did the inspiration for The Liability of Love come from?
It started as a challenge to myself to write some male characters that were truly three-dimensional. In the first version, the action focused around the character Douglas, but that attempt was pretty dismal. When I tried again, Douglas was still there but took a back seat.
Can you tell us about any challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?
In my non-fiction life, I’m someone who keeps an extensive “to-do” list and outlines everything. But when it comes to fiction, there are no straight lines. I typically write two or three full-length versions of a novel that get thrown out almost completely. Eventually, the characters start to gel and the story comes together. This one was no different.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
One of my male characters, Fitz, was such a joy to write. He’s a sensitive, overweight man who assumes that the object of his affection, Margaret, won’t love him because of his weight. Over the course of the novel, he develops an eating disorder, and some of my early readers have said how much his journey resonated with them.
What’s the best and the worst writing advice you have received?
The best advice I’ve received is that writers control very little of the publishing process except for the manuscript, so all you can do is focus on that. The worst advice was to rewrite my first novel, A Watershed Year, into a month-by-month format. I rejected that advice, and I’m glad I did. Sometimes you have to trust your gut.
What’s next for you?
I’ll be honest, I haven’t been very productive during the pandemic, but I did start a novel that centers on a hyperpolyglot, or someone who speaks an extraordinary number of languages. We’ll see where that goes.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
I would highly recommend Less by Andrew Sean Greer. It’s quite funny and won the Pulitzer Prize in 2018. Anything by Lauren Groff or Donna Tartt or Marilynne Robinson. I also loved Americhanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
You can find Susan on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, as well as at her website.
