Q: What one thing would you like readers to know about you?
A. Gosh, this is a hard question because I’m far more complex than one thing. LOL But if I had to choose one—you said I did, right?—I would choose to mention that I am a child of God, and I would like to think that everything in my life is informed by that and my actions are a reflection of it. Note I said, I would like to think, because I know I don’t achieve it. I fail to do the right thing all the time, but in my struggles I am able to see how God brings me through them, and lo and behold my characters face the same struggles and I share God’s amazing nuggets of truth with them so they can find their victories.
Q: What is the craziest, most risk-taking thing you’ve ever done?
A. For this we have to go back to my younger years. The first year I was married we lived in northern Wisconsin. The weather that winter was inhuman. Minus twenty-five wind chills for months on end. Day after day of snow and cold. The vinyl seats in our car cracked in the cold. The door handle snapped off. It was BRUTAL. We had a friend who moved to Texas, and we were more than thrilled to visit her. After the terrible, horrible, really bad cold, the Texas heat felt like I can only imagine heaven is going to feel. So on a whim we quit our jobs, sold our cars, hired a mover, and when summer rolled around, moved to Texas. Yep. No income. No place to live. No way to get around. Texas here we come.
And surprise above all surprises, the first week we were there I found out that I was pregnant. And not just pregnant, but crazy sick from it. Throwing up just at the thought of food and losing forty pounds kind of sick. We lived in an apartment for the summer, that when we moved out, I had never stepped foot into the kitchen. LOL
I couldn’t possibly work. But my hubby soon got a teaching job, and when I made it to the fourth month of my pregnancy, I started to feel better so I took on substitute teaching and everything worked out just fine.
Funny aside, the only food I could keep down was Taco Bell tacos. Growing up in a rural farming community without fast food, I had never eaten them in my life, but they became the only nourishment our daughter received. Today doctors would intervene, but in those days, as long as I could eat something, they were okay with the severe weight loss.
Susan Sleeman
Susan Sleeman is the bestselling author of more than 35 romantic suspense novels with more than 1 million books sold. She has won several awards, including the ACFW Carol Award for Suspense for Fatal Mistake and the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Thread of Suspicion. In addition to writing, Susan also hosts www.thesuspensezone.com. She has lived in nine states but now calls Portland, Oregon, home.
