When We Lost Touch received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Susan Kraus.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
When We Lost Touch was released 11-18-22
What’s the book’s first line?
The first line of When We Lost Touch is the same as the first line of my last novel, Insufficient Evidence: It is: “And then what happened?” Grace McDonald asked.” What is different are the clients – Grace is a therapist—who answer her question. It’s a question posed by a character to another character, but also to me as writer of their stories. And that’s the way it feels: that I’m given these stories to tell, to make real. Some writers know what will happen, and have plotted it all out. For me, the writing is an adventure in itself as characters reveal their lives.
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
When We Lost Touch is a COVID novel, told from multiple POVs during the first 18 months of the pandemic. You may react to that with, “Oh, no, downer. I’m sick of COVID.” Sure, we all are. But do we even remember how it started? What we felt then? Were we hopeful? Did we trust our government to lead? To do whatever it took to protect us?
This novel has been described as contemporary historical fiction (i.e. historical fiction in the future– what we all experienced, but are already forgetting, now.) It leans left, with the POVs of front- line workers, a single mom, grief group members, a therapist, a long-hauler, a kid on the spectrum, a young couple in Q-Anon, Zoom relationships, and family struggles. A critical friendship is strained after George Floyd’s murder, and BFFs have to find a way to repair a racial divide. There is intensity, but also ordinary messy, flawed lives.
When We Lost Touch is layered, literary, complex yet accessible. Readers discover empathy when least expected. At times, it packs a gut-punch, but also moments of joy and connection.
If you have a clear idea of what you like, or want, from a novel, this might not be for you. Better to come to When We Lost Touch with an open mind, open heart– and see if you end up in a different place than where you start.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
I was compelled more than inspired. I dropped a book I had been working on and started this one. It felt to me that our entire country was being gaslit by the administration— being told that we were not seeing what was in front of us –and, as a therapist, like we are one big polarized and dysfunctional family.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
Readers will find characters to care deeply about, and stories they did not know about. But it’s more that When We Lost Touch is about the ‘we.’ Readers have told me that they found themselves crying about their own losses, their own fears. It’s fiction that mirrors what many of us felt and have already buried. So, in the book, the joy, the love that manifests, is all the more powerful because it is, after loss, so unexpected.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
The main character is Grace McDonald, a 60-ish therapist and mediator who is the hub of the wheel: helping her single-mom daughter raise her grandson (on the spectrum); navigating her own unexpected relationship with a man (both of them with dead spouses); balancing the needs of her clients with ethical constraints. She is not a heroine, not bigger than life, but relatable, flawed, who shares the struggles that all women and families experience.
When did you first decide to become an author?
I’ve written my whole life, but still cannot self-describe as an “author.” It was not an option for me when I was in university, or not an option I allowed outside of my dreams. I feel a deep sadness when I think of what I might have written had I started decades ago. But then I would not have the decades of other experiences that now fuel and inform my writing.
Is this the first book you’ve written?
When We Lost Touch is my 4th novel. Are my other books thrillers? Mysteries? Yes, BUT … All of them deal with polarizing social or political issues, but from the POVs of those intimately involved in the issue. I believe in the power of fiction to change beliefs or attitudes where non-fiction fails, to elicit empathy as a reader comes to care for a character. Fiction is a back-door to understanding
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
I’m a social worker/therapist (marriage and family mostly) and mediator (high-conflict divorces and custody issues mostly.) So, I write what I know. I aspire to be for social work what Scott Turow and John Grisham are for law— we share flawed, ethically challenged protagonists who grapple with just causes in screwed-up systems. Hey, a girl can dream, no?
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
When in the ‘throes’ of a book, it can be 10-12 hours a day. Then nothing. But my mind is always chewing on something about the book.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
I loathe marketing and dream of having a ‘team’ that would do that for me. But I also like going rogue with my writing and a traditional publisher might want me to stick with a genre. None of my novels are ‘straight’ genre. They blend different genres – women’s issues, relationships, thriller, socially conscious.
What’s a great piece of advice that you can share with fellow indie authors?
Do NOT do what I’ve done with marketing (like ignore it.) If you believe in your work, and want readers, then recognize that a new phase of hard work starts when the writing ends. I have to tell this to myself every day because I’ve written really solid books but then I abandoned them. Do not abandon your children.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
Maybe. What are they calling to offer?
Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?)
Validation. I’m actually terrifically insecure.