About Susan
Born in Buffalo, New York, Susan grew up editing and illustrating manuscripts for gifted and talented education for DOK Publishers. She had her first poem published in her local paper at age ten. Throughout her school years she was a regular contributor to the Lit Corner in the Buffalo Courier Express as well as contributing to her school newspaper and literary magazine. At 15 she won a citywide short story contest, and as a high school senior she won a statewide editorial competition.
After graduating magna cum laude from Damen College with a BFA, she co-developed and wrote a monthly parenting program, Carriage To College, for children from birth through age 19, which is now being reformatted for the internet. She also taught drama and creative writing at Calasanctius School for the Gifted in Buffalo.
In July of 2004 she moved to California’s Central Coast where she joined San Luis Obispo NightWriters. After serving as Board Secretary for a year, she was elected president of NightWriters in June of 2007. She is moderator of NW’s Red Ink Critique group, and a member of Ginger Lasher’s South County Writers critique group. She also writes and edits the NightWriter Newsletter. Since her first suspense novel, Tangled Webs, was published in 2005, she has been winning awards for her writing, among them: first place for short fiction from the literary journal MindPrints in 2006, and 2nd place for novel at the Central Coast Writers Conference; awards for poetry (3rd place) and short fiction (1st and 3rd place) in 2007 at the Central Coast Writers Conference; and 1st place for creative non-fiction in 2008 at the Central Coast Writers Conference, where she was also a judge for short and novel length fiction. In the summer of 2009, two of her stories tied for first place in the Central Valley Writers Workshop Short Story Contest.
Among her professional editing credits are: Miracles, Monads and Mandelas by Dr. William Stanton; Parenting Playfully (1st and 2nd editions) by Drs. Tom Potter and Beatrice Parnes; The Underbelly by Evelyn Cole; The Color of Music by Claire Gordon; Fool’s Justice by Richard Rachlin; The Spirit Garden by Anne Schroeder; The Story of Mary by Mary Joan Wallace, and numerous pieces of short fiction.
