my promise to you
I will do everything possible to be sure your
book reflects your best work.
I want each of you to be proud of the work you publish.
I’m not very good when it comes to writing about myself – tooting my own horn, so to speak. It all sounds so boring, a little flat.
But, the basis of all of it is I hold a BA from Vermont College and an MFA from Antioch University Los Angeles with a dual concentration in Fiction and Creative Nonfiction. I am also a certified Creative Writing Instructor and the author of Song of the Earth, a novel said to be ‘a journey into our consciousness, both as a people and as a nation’ which will be re-released this summer.
I have a passion, actually two or three or four of them, but we will just talk about this passion for the moment. A passion for exploring the depths of human nature through writing, and to see that look of knowing in my student’s eye, that ‘aha’ moment, when it all comes together into one – when they discover the key to good writing is to open up their ‘emotional center’ where feeling emerges.
By exploring the ‘writer self’ through the essence of nature, my students are able to create characters and a sense of place that brings them alive on the page, rising up from the land as if it/he/she/they were born of the earth.
I have carried my passions with me crisscrossing the country – managing a guest ranch in Arizona for many years, caring for my elderly parents in Missouri while writing each day.
I took several months off, spent a lot of hours hiking in the foothills with the dogs, giving great thought to offering these classes, or just not to do anymore at all. Soon I realized that wasn’t an option as I love to teach, coach and edit. Then I thought it would have been easiest just to re-offer the ones I have taught in the past, but circumstances change us as we move forward, and now as you peruse through the classes, you will discover everything is new, ready to take us towards the world of possibilities. No looking back, just moving forward. You will notice an added layer of depth and excitement to each of my new offerings.
Explore the possibilities and see what fits for each of you. If you have any questions, just email me.
Susan
By exploring the ‘writer self’ through the essence of nature, my students are able to create characters and a sense of place that brings them alive on the page, rising up from the land as if it/he/she/they were born of the earth.
I have carried my passions with me crisscrossing the country – managing a guest ranch in Arizona for many years, caring for my elderly parents in Missouri while writing each day. I now live in Boise, ID with Ellie, my Golden Retriever.
My writing journey
How It All Began
I had been working on my writing for years. After completing the BA at Vermont College, I worked and worked on my writing still more, then finally, I applied to an MFA program and was accepted at Antioch University Los Angeles.
When I arrived on campus, I was such a novice. I had a completed manuscript in my hands. I was so proud of myself for actually finishing it. I can’t even tell you how long I had worked on this, or how many revisions I had done. My professor read it, and sent me home to rewrite it, saying it was more like a movie script, and he wanted me to write it as a novel. Whew.
That was the best thing that ever happened to me, but I didn’t know it on that day. Thank you Leonard Chang! My heart fell to my feet. I was devastated, but I didn’t quit. Instead, I set out to figure it all out.
I decided to go for a dual concentration, both in Fiction and Creative Nonfiction, and then when I graduated, I stayed another term to get certified as a Creative Writing Instructor. That is what brings me to you today. I have been writing since I was about 14 years old starting with a teen column in a Nevada newspaper, the Tonopah Times Bonanza and went on from there, but I had never been taught what I am about to teach you.
My book, Song of the Earth, was/is about the US/Mexican Border crisis. I had been living this at the time but had since gone to Missouri to care for my elderly parents and to finish my book there. When I got back to my parents’ home from LA and was trying to figure out how I was going to put this book together, I wrote something about the Border. Just two or three pages, and sent it off to a friend of mine, a Mexican diplomat, in Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico. I asked him for his opinion, and I certainly got it. He was livid! “Susan, my dear, this isn’t Mexico and the Border, you’ve missed the essence of it all.” And that was when I realized what this was all about. I was standing back, writing about it from a distance. On that day, I fell off that perch I had considered a safe place, where I could see and document things, but not get involved. I knew if I got too close to it, my emotions would get the best of me. So, I moved up closer, figuratively speaking, and wrote the story from the inside, from my heart. My life and my writing changed forever.