Q&A: Susan May Warren (HEIRESS)

Heiress (Summerside Press). The beautiful and wealthy heiress daughters of August Price can buy almost everything their heart’s desire — everything, that is, but love. Coming of age in the glamorous world of the extravagant New York gilded society, these two women discover the lengths they’re willing to go to get what they most desire.

How do Esme and Jinx compare to Jacob and
Esau?
Esme is the older sister “Esau,” who “despises” her birthright -– her role as the elder sister and the expectations
to marry well. Jinx is the younger “Jacob” who wants nothing more than to step
into her sister’s shoes. However, Jinx’s
life does not turn out as she supposes. I took the themes of Jacob marrying Leah — thinking it was Rachel — and
of having to wait for love and applied them to Jinx’s life as she marries
Foster, and then falls for someone else.

What
lessons do the Price daughters learn that we can apply to our own lives?
That being blessed isn’t about what you have,
but in the fact that you are loved by your heavenly Father, and that your life
is in His hands.

Why
did you choose the “gilded age”? How is the “gilded age”
defined?
The Gilded Age is one of excess and a time
when people were coming into vast wealth (while the regular population made
very little).The gulf between the rich
and the poor widened.However, the high
society, despite their wealth, lived turbulent lives, some even committing suicide.If they were “blessed” then why were they so
unhappy?This book is a quest for the
answer.

Is
this story inspired by true stories?
I read a number of biographies and historical
records, so I tried to make it as accurate as I could.However, everything is fiction.

What
does it mean to be “Blessed”?
There are many “Blessed is he who…” in the
Bible.However, I believe all of them
come back to that foundational knowledge that seeps through and takes root in a
person’s heart, that they are in the hands of a God who loves them.