Susan is the youngest daughter of artist Jayne P. St John, who painted this portrait of Susan at the age of five. Her mother, who died in 2021, also illustrated two of Susan’s novel covers.
Susan has an MFA in Creative Writing, a dual BS in English, Creative Writing, and in Motion Pictures, Screenwriting. For 16 years, she taught writing and literature at high schools and colleges.
She wrote her first novel, The Disciplinarian, in her MFA program. Her second novel, Bullet Holes, Lethal Injections, and Hiccups, she wrote while teaching in Kansas. A native Californian, she returned home and began writing Weighing God’s Heart, Book One of The Lost Halls of Heaven series.
Susan has written three screenplays, one play, many short stories, and some poetry, but she prefers the freedom of novels. In her writing, she tends to tackle serious themes by combining elements of drama, comedy, and fantasy. She has just finished the first book in her fantasy series. She is currently working on book two of the series, Kingdom of the Dead (working title). She is also working on the second draft of a contemporary women’s novel, which she has entitled This Close to Sin. In this deeply personal novel, Susan is tackling themes of child and spousal abuse, both subjects she experienced firsthand, and which led her to adopt four children as a single parent.
