Signed copies of Susan's RAY CHARLES: YOUNG MUSICIAN book for the CHILDHOODS OF FAMOUS AMERICANS series (Simon & Schuster) are selling briskly at Jackson's Drugstore in Greenville, Florida, childhood home of Ray Charles. This promotion was arranged in conjunction with the mayor of Greenville, to honor its most famous citizen.
Susan appeared at the 2008 BOOK 'EM CHARLESTON literacy event on May 24, 2008 at Wando High School in Mount Pleasant, SC. She is slated to appear at the 2009 event, at West Ashley High School.
FORWARD TO CAMELOT won Honorable Mention in General Fiction at the 2008 Beach Book Festival! This is the third literary competition in which CAMELOT has been honored.
Susan's novel, STEALING FIRE, earned a semi-finalist spot in the 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (ABNA) contest. Hers was one of 836 novels chosen out of 5,000 submitted (about 16% of the total, for you math wizards!) The novel's opening excerpt earned 35 five-star reviews on Amazon.
As a result of the ABNA contest, Susan and other like-minded contestants have joined together to start their own global publishing company! The company, called TOTGA Books (for THE ONES THAT GOT AWAY), will publish primarily in e-book format and serve various types of e-distribution, as well as traditional paperback and hardcover books. Totga has already begun legal setup proceedings and has chosen its Board of Directors. Susan has been named Chairman of the Board and project manager and will also serve on the Editorial and Marketing committees.
In October 2007, Susan's children's biography for Bearport Press, titled RAY CHARLES: FIND ANOTHER WAY!, won a silver medal in the MOONBEAM CHILDREN'S AWARDS (Multi-Cultural Non-Fiction). The Moonbeam Awards are a division of the IPPYS, which awarded CAMELOT an honorary mention in 2004 for Visionary Fiction.
In May 2007, Susan chaired the first-ever EAST COOPER AUTHORS FESTIVAL, a program she founded to bring professional authors to local schools. Seventeen schools, from primary through high school, participated in this remarkable event, which affected almost 12,000 students in one amazing day.
