Today we’d like to introduce you to Susan Meissner.
Hi Susan, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I grew up in San Diego, went to college here, got married here and discovered my love for writing here but I didn’t do anything professionally with it until my 30s. For a long time, I’d thought of my writing as just a hobby, a happy past time; I didn’t think I had the pluck or determination to pursue writing as a career. But it was an itch that had to be scratched. On an impulse and without a journalism degree, I was offered and took a job at a small-town weekly newspaper working as a part-time reporter. And because I was finally doing what I was gifted to do – write – I learned very fast. Within five years I was named managing editor of a sister newspaper in a neighboring town. This gave me the courage to finally try my hand at writing fiction after putting in off for years. I’m so glad I did, as I soon found out it was my lane all along. I have never looked back and am now at work on my twenty-second novel.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
With any career pursuit, there are going to be hurdles to clear and obstacles to face. I think that is all part of not only discovering what you are best at but also producing in you the strength and fortitude to withstand and push through the hard times. I was lucky enough to be picked up by a publisher after querying for a year. At the time it seemed like a very long year but in retrospect, I know that twelve months is hardly any time at all to land a book contract. But it was with a small house so for a long time I felt like I was writing in obscurity. My earlier titles failed to gain much notice in the marketplace. It was enough to stay published but I still had to have a day job. It wasn’t until the mid-2000s that I started to feel like I had a real writing career and a real paycheck and I was no longer a novelist who was working tirelessly for what amounted to a couple of bucks an hour. But I don’t regret those early days when I was still holding down a day job because it made the writing time rather special and sacred. And even now that I’m writing for one of the big five publishers, there are still tough days. There are so many things about this gig that we writers cannot control. In the end I have to do my best and leave the rest. Getting caught up in what you can’t control is no way to live, especially if you are creating something.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
While I started out writing contemporary novels, I switched genres in 2008 and have been writing historical fiction ever since. I love this genre because historical fiction is able to transport its readers to another time, another place.. It’s like time travel without any danger involved. Narrative nonfiction can sometimes do that as well, but I find historical nonfiction to be about what happened in an event and fiction is all about what it was like to live through it. The historical novel is focused on the human element. Nonfiction can describe the logistics of a certain time in history and maybe expound on its impact on humanity, but only a novel can really let you feel what it was like. A great historical novelist will not only vault you to the past but put you into the mind and soul of the characters who are at that moment living it. In my opinion, that kind of reader experience is a better tutor of the past than a dry textbook that you read and quickly forget.
I hope that it is said of me that I write book club fiction. I like to write the kind of novels that spark conversation such that when you are done reading one of my books, you want to gather with friends who have also read it to talk. Those are the kind of books that I enjoy reading the most, the kind that invite dialogue because the story was more than just what happened to the characters on the page, it’s also about what happened to me while I was reading it.
One of my novels, A FALL OF MARIGOLDS, might be the one I’m best known for. It was published in 2014 but continues to be chosen by book clubs all across the United States. It is the dovetailed story of an Ellis Island nurse in 1911 and a 9/11 widow in 2011. Both women are dealing with the aftermath of loss and even though they are separated by a century they are stuck in the same in-between place that grief can be if you do not keep walking through it. On the other side of sorrow is the ability to love again, but that can be a hard and scary transition. For some people, it’s easier to stay where they are, even if where they are is not meant to be a place to stay.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
My favorite books on the craft and soul of writing include Stephen King’s ON WRITING, Anne Lamott’s BIRD BY BIRD and Blake Snyder’s SAVE THE CAT. My go-to on story structure is Donald Maass’s WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL. If you need a good jumpstart on a book you’re writing, I highly recommend participating in NANOWRIMO (National Novel Writing Month) which happens every November. It’s easy to sign up, it is free, and it allows you to track your daily writing goal with tens of thousands of other people who are all on a mission to write 50,000 words in one month. It’s pretty inspiring. It’s easy to find on the web at https://nanowrimo.org/
Contact Info:
- Email: susanlmeissner@gmail.com
- Website: http://susanlmeissner.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/susanmeissnerauthor/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/susan.meissner/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/SusanMeissner
