I get a little heat once in the while, because the Parkers are a little messed up and they make all the mistakes we all make. It's quite a burden for them, but that's the beauty of fiction. We can learn from their suffering.

Every so often I'll get an email and it says This book is about "fear" or "loss" or "healing" or "hope" or "love". And it's interesting to see which books mean what to a reader. All my books are about all those things, but each series is heavier on a single theme. It's why I put my characters through so much. If they had easy lives I don't think their stories would have as much impact.

I get sad when readers say mean things about my characters, because I love them. Do not doubt it. Recently, I had someone calling Chrissie all kinds of not nice names and it hurts like when they call your child names.(which is silly, I know, but that's how it's works for an author). Another lectured me about how I know nothing of love. These books are not about love; she posted in heavy CAPS everywhere in a variety of different wording. That one hurt, too, but not for the reasons some might think. Part of why each "Girl's" story is so dramatic is because I've coupled it with who she is and her thoughts, and the overarching goal of that is to inspire compassion. Too see inside my characters and maybe judge ourselves less harshly and those  around us. That what we see in someone's life isn't the sum total of what we can know by observing them, so maybe we should all take a breathe, pause, and be less quick to judgement.

One thing I definitely love about the world of fiction is I don't have to wait a whole bunch of time for the kids to grow up. Poof, open my laptop and it's time for Krystal to come of age. And as her story is woven with Madison Rowan's I get to get to know Maddy--and you do too--in her parts of The Girl in the Mirror. But then, none of us will really know until it's time for her to tell her story in The Girl of Sun & Sand. Ah, but then that's the theme of my books.  "Face to Face we know in part, even as we are known."

Well, it's a quiet day and I'm off to our Lake House for some quiet in nature and hopefully to finish off the last of what I have to to release The Girl in the Mirror.  Then I'm on to another book. Another story.  Another fictional daughter as I live in the real world with my real daughters.

Last Sunday I was having a late birthday lunch for my husband on the river and my shell-bell brought a friend, and we were laughing, and she said something and I paused to tap into my notepad on my phone really fast. And she had that look, the oh no I gave mom an idea look, because she's used to me grabbing up the gems of her life for my books. Sometimes it's a phrase she says. Or a unique way of seeing relationships quintessentially her generation. Sometimes it's a book. A series. And sometimes its a universe.

I got an email this morning asking me if there would be more books because this reader loves my series. I laughed. New books. Of course, love is an enduring hope and challenge, and each generation recreates it and makes it new. And so do my daughters, real world and fictional. And I'm sure, when old enough, my grandchildren will as well.


As ever I wish you peace.

Well my month home alone while my husband travels China has been interesting. I thought I'd be more productive, churn and burn and get everything done. Nope, I'm not as focused when he's not around interrupting me...laughing...I so didn't expect that. When he's here I sneak out on the patio in little blocks of two hours and write like a demon, and when he's not here I spend 10 hours a day trying to work and getting hardly anything done. I'm such a creature of structure and routine. Did not expect having him off vacationing without me to throw me completely out of whack.  But it has...but lets not tell him...he already knows I adore him.

I have managed to get some things done, and I'm putting up preorders July 13th. My birthday. I don't normally do the preorder thing, but I am this time, since I'm down to the point where I'm just waiting for final edit and formatting, and I figure I'll put them up at 99cents for the readers who follow my work, and regardless of what the release date is, I'm going to release them as soon as I get the finished product back. So if you want own my next releases at 99cents, don't wait, they could price change and release at any time.

I'm also hoping laying my publishing schedule out online will get me out of my funk of not having my husband here, and back writing like a demon. My own sort of self-motivation. Though he's coming home soon, so I don't think I'll need the motivation. We'll be back to old married couple, happy and bickering, and me sneaking off to the patio to write and him saying, Susan, let's do something together today. When will you be finished? And of course, I'm never finished writing, there's always a new story rattling around in my head, but we won't tell Randy that, OK?

Thank you to all my readers who stay so supportive of me even in this year of slowing down and taking forever to release anything. I've had a pretty interesting 2016 and maybe it follows that I would be a smidge less organized and productive. In six months time I've learned I have another grandchild on the way, my youngest totaled her car and scared the heck out of me, our oldest graduated Grad School in China, we have one bug announcing she's getting married in the fall, and my  husband went on an adventure all by himself for the first time in our marriage. 

Definitely a full first half of the year. So much seems to happen in so little time the older you get and time moves so quickly it gets away from you. I recently read a letter by a USA Today Bestselling author explaining why she's stepping back from publishing--I totally get it, why she's retiring--but for me I want to find the perfect balance between writing and the real world. I hope you all stay with me until I get it right. I haven't quite found the perfect balance yet, but I'm getting closer this year.

As ever I wish you peace.

Well, here we are in July already. I'd planned to start the month with a bang and instead I started with a nap. Two years of publishing books and I still never know what will happen next in my universe. I have dozens of books mapped out in my head and 6 open WIP about 90% done, but I don't know what will get finished next.  I know what books my readers want, but I can't always control what project I work on. It is subject to day, mood, and those, Oh my gosh I have an idea moments. There's one thing I know for certain. I am slowing down.

Writing is a state of being, often times overshadowing the real world, and can be exhausting. To write well, you can't detach your emotions from  characters, and jeez, I put my characters through a lot sometimes. I need to take breaks, curl up, and shut down at times just to finish a story.

I'm finding that particularly true with Krystal in The Girl in the Mirror. Now, I knew she'd have issues. How could she not? She's Chrissie and Alan's daughter. But I didn't expect her story to unfolded as it did or how many complex threads are in her. How interrelated who she is with how she is and what becomes of her.

My newest fictional daughter I'm raising is putting me through quite a bit of grief.  I often don't want to do what I'm doing to my poor heroines, but I've got to let them  make their own mistakes and grow from them. I write not just to tell a story, but to share and empower women, to touch on issues most writers won't write about, hopefully in a way that conveys we're all women and whatever our background we are connected by the issues of being women. That we heal and succeed through love and tolerance and perseverance. That no matter the hurts we know, the errors we make, the power to succeed rests inside us all...and it doesn't hurt to throw in the love of a good man. I'm glad  a nice man to love Krystal  came to life in the telling of her story. She definitely needs a good guy and I really like Jacob Merrick my new hero.

But remember, it's a story by me, full of twists and turns into the unexpected, and I think I may shock some of my readers that this is how Krystal's story goes since she's always been the perky, brainy, sunny girl in the other books. She grew up, dears. Surprising us all I think. And I'm pretty sure I'm going to hear that "you made me throw my kindle, Susan" comment.

I can only tell her story how Krystal tells it to me.

Hoping to write some words today.

I am so ready to release The Girl in the Mirror.

As ever I wish you peace.