Susan grew up in a dysfunctional home and found her young life very difficult. Her only escape was reading and writing short stories about children who were never hurt and always loved.

At age ten, her beloved grandmother came to visit and gave her several Harlequin romance books to read. Susan was immediately drawn to the happy endings, a stark contrast to the constant abuse at home. That all changed just after her sixteenth birthday when her parents forced her out of the house. The only possessions she was allowed to take were a small backpack of clothes, her books, and the five dollars she’d made from babysitting the neighbor children that day.

Unable to contact her grandmother, who lived in another country, she was alone and scared. She wandered the streets for months doing odd jobs to make enough money to eat. During the darkness of night she hid in building doorways until the city buses came on shift at five a.m., having saved the last of her money to buy a bus pass. Exhausted, she would sleep a few short hours in the back row seat until the driver kicked her off to face another afternoon on the streets looking for work.

On one of those bus rides Susan met a young man. He was handsome and sure of himself. She was drawn to his strength and soon found herself married. She relished being a housewife and was overjoyed when she found out she was going to be a mother. Feeling stable in her life, she returned to writing. This time the stories she wrote were more mature and resembled the heartfelt romances her grandmother had given her to read. The way she wanted her own life to be.

But happiness was short-lived. Her husband decided he needed alcohol more than her and left, taking every last dime they had just after her son was born. Once again faced with no job and the prospect of losing her home, Susan was terrified she’d have to go back on the streets. This time with a baby. But fate stepped in when the manager at the apartment community she lived in was moving out of state and asked Susan if she’d be interested in the job. It paid no salary, but her rent would be free. Susan accepted, and for the first time in her life she had steady employment.

Susan excelled at managing the apartments, using the interpersonal skills she had honed on the streets to keep the owners and tenants happy. After working there for a year, she wore a dress she’d purchased at the second-hand store mustered up the courage to apply for a management position with a more prestigious company, and landed the job. She opened a bank account, purchased a car, and passed her GED. She even took a shot at love again, got
married, and had another child—a girl this time.

 
Susan spent the next twenty years in real estate, working her way up to asset manager of a portfolio with more than 2,500 units and a staff of thirty, all the while writing. But severe rheumatoid arthritis had taken its toll on her body and left Susan wheelchair dependent, leading to her inevitable decision to leave her job. Her husband, unwilling to stay and help her, did some leaving of his own.

Divorced again with a daughter still living at home, Susan felt that all-too-familiar anxiety over losing everything. She needed to pivot and fast. To pay the bills, she designed and made pageant wear for children. In the evening hours, she got serious about her writing on an old, used computer left behind by a tenant and finished her first romance book, Dance of the Heart.

 

By the time her daughter graduated college, Susan’s arthritis had progressed to the point that she could no longer sew. She now had a completed manuscript of her book and decided to pursue her childhood dream of being an author. After a disappointing one-book experience with a small publishing house, she chose to self-publish.

 

Susan soon penned The Reluctant Heart—a sequel to that first book—and felt energized about her writing career again. However, fate dealt the fledgling author another challenge. A severe accident resulted in a left leg  amputation. Now a bedbound, paraplegic amputee, Susan continued to write, and published Promise of the Heart, the third book in what became her Moments of the Heart series. Beneath the Evergreens , her first twentieth-century historical romance, was released in February 2023. Her well-received romance novels are heartfelt and
full of love’s possibilities, and she has plans for more books in the future.

Susan is often asked what keeps her going in the face of all the difficulties she has dealt with in her life. What gives her hope? With a smile on her face she replies it’s her faith that tomorrow will bring a new day and with it a chance to make a positive difference somehow, somewhere.

Today, Susan is content living with her hound dog, Max, and continues her journey as an author from the hospital bed in her living room. And when she’s not writing? You can find her watching old movies, eating decadent chocolate, and helping others, especially those who just need someone to believe in them.