Susan Shaw
Website: http://www.susanshaw.org
Biography:
I was born in a log cabin in Illinois - no that wasn't me!
I was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, grew up outside of Philadelphia with two parents, along with a wild assortment of brothers and sisters and cats and dogs. I did things like take music lessons and play relievo or baseball in the sideyard with the neighborhood kids. Went to school, which I really hated, but somehow managed to get through anyway. I was smart, but, boy, you couldn't tell it by my grades.
Well, maybe I didn't do my homework, but I read. If it didn't move, I read it. Chances are, I wrote about it, too, in the diary I kept all through my childhood. I've heard that that's called taking notes.
Eventually, despite engaging in various activities called play that periodically involved knocking myself out, I grew up. This much amazed my grandmother who said I lived a charmed life.
After graduating from Radnor High School, I attended Temple University, graduating with a music education degree. During my college years, I met my husband, a young man named John with a cute smile and a wonderful sense of humor. I married him quick before he had a chance to get away. Ah, young love! Since that time, we've had one adventure after another together, raising children, one daughter and two sons, and our love is still young. Despite John's gray hair, he still looks twenty years old to me.
What do I do when I'm not writing? Visit friends, ride my bike, sometimes with John, sometimes not. Hiking. I love to attend plays, too. Some of my recent favorites: Doubt, The Drowsy Chaperone, Eggs. (from Goodreads.com)
Books:
Twelve-year-old Suzie needs to feel safe and worthy of love. Suzie's stay in a mental hospital helps her tear down the walls of a devastating psychological prison she calls "the box." (from Goodreads.com)
Safe. To Tracy, safe means having Mama close by. Years after her mother's death, Tracy still feels her presence. But the moment Tracy is forced into a car as she is walking home from school one day, safe is ripped away. In the aftermath of an unspeakable crime, thirteen-year-old Tracy must fight her way back to safety and find comfort in her mother's memory once again. (from Goodreads.com)
For Charlie, the cold, dark basement is home. Father has kept him locked in there as punishment. Charlie doesn't intend to leave, but when he is accidentally thrust outside, he awakens to the alien surroundings of a world to which he’s never before been exposed. Though haunted by hallucinations, fear of the basement, and his father’s rage, Charlie must find a way to survive in his new world. He has escaped his past, but his journey has just begun. (from Goodreads.com)
Joey Campbell experiences them all, even though he knows what he should really feel is lucky. Lucky to have survived the fire that burned Village Park High School to the ground. Lucky that his best friend, Maureen, also survived, when no one else in his freshman history class managed to make it out alive.
Writing in a journal provides some solace, but Joey knows that redemption lies with the living. If only the living students and parents didn't blame him for the fire...
Startling, relevant, and honest, Joey's story is simply unforgettable. (from Goodreads.com)
On her way home one evening, Liza has to force her way through a group of men in a train underpass. She doesn't think anything of it, but when her mom is shot dead moments later, Liza’s world turns upside down. Even worse, Liza was really the target. Only hours after her mother’s death, Liza is nearly killed again and she and her dad are placed in the witness protection program. Leaving everything she's ever known behind, Liza and her dad pick up and move, never staying in one place for long. It's too big of a risk--and Liza's worst fear is realized when she gets recognized. The would-be killer is still on their trail, so all Liza ad her dad can do is keep running. Unsure whom to trust and where to go, they're just trying to stay alive. (from Goodreads.com)
I've read all of Susan Shaw's books, except for "Tunnel Vision". She has a distinct writing style that takes the impossible subjects she writes about and makes them easy to relate to. You are transported into the main character's head, and the main character is normally the "victim". It is powerful and heartbreaking.
