Susan Jane McLeod has been writing since she was seven years old. At age eleven she won a county-wide essay contest and her professional career was launched. By the time she was nineteen, her poetry had appeared in several magazines, including American Girl and Seventeen. She also won an honorable mention in The Writer.
She grew up in Rochester, New York, with three sisters and one brother. In her early thirties she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and given a 50-50 chance to live. After two surgeries and chemotherapy, she is cancer free today.
She has worked at several jobs ranging from a baby store to a research consultant, but her favorite was managing a bookstore, surrounded by her passion: literature. She is currently employed by a non-profit foundation that runs Zara’s Center, a home for AIDS-impacted orphans in Zimbabwe.
Susan has published several short stories and two novels. The first, Soul and Shadow, is an award-winning paranormal historical romance. The second, Fire and Shadow, is classified as paranormal suspense. Both books have been in Amazon Top 100 bestseller categories.
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Artist and Egyptologist Lily Evans struggles with her newly discovered psychic talents, while trying to get her life back to normal now that her mother is in a mental institution and the man Lily loves is far away in England. But "normal" is the last thing she finds.
When her best friend Katy takes her to a Celtic Faire, Lily meets a druid fortune-teller, who warns her that she can “never escape the Other.” Frightened and angry, Lily ignores his dire warning and stumbles across an eerie old portrait of a beautiful woman, who has something to tell her.
With the help of the enigmatic druid and his gifted friends, Lily embarks on a dangerous journey to unravel the mysteries of the portrait, the tarot card reader, an ancient book and whispers of witchcraft. She must discover the truth behind them all…or risk losing her very soul.
Q) What inspired you to write this story?
Stories grow from the smallest seeds. I was looking out my window and suddenly I got an image in my head of a jewelry box with a pop-out ballerina inside. I had one when I was small and I loved to watch her “dance.” The whole book came out of that vision. I wrote it because people who liked Soul and Shadow kept asking for a sequel. I wanted them to be happy.
Q) How long did it take you to write?
About a year to write and revise.
Q) What is your favorite thing about writing?
Being sucked into another dimension where nothing but the story exists. I experience so many emotions through my characters that it’s like living infinite lives. It’s almost as if I have my own TARDIS!
Q) What is your least favorite thing about writing?
I think most writers would agree with me-editing!
Q) If you could be any famous person for one day, who would you be and why?
Now that is a very hard question. I know for certain that I’d be someone super-rich, so I could give as much away as possible. That would make me happier than anything. I guess I’d be someone super-rich who got to spend the day with Chris Hemsworth and Tom Mison helping me give it away!
Q) What is the oldest thing in your fridge and how old is it?
I don’t even want to tell you. It’s too embarrassing. There’s an entire ecosystem living in there and I think intelligent life is evolving, so how could I clean it?
Q) What can readers expect from you in the future?
I’ve just finished Shell and Shadow, a novella in the Lily Evans series. All the profits from it are going to Zara’s Center, a home in Zimbabwe for AIDS-impacted orphans. I’m about half-way through Storm and Shadow. After that it’ll be time for a change, I’m just not sure what yet!
