About Me
Susan Hughes is a writer and editor, and has been writing children's books and articles for nearly twenty years. Susan has always loved writing. When she was in grade five and six, she and several friends had a writing club. They would gather with their poems and stories and read them aloud to one another. It was hard to wait for the responses! The group members always tried to say one thing that was positive, along with a constructive comment.
After finishing high school, Susan studied English literature at the University of Toronto. One summer, before her last year, she went to the job posting board and saw an ad: A children’s publishing house was looking for summer help from students. She answered the ad and was hired. She learned a lot that summer about writing, researching, editing, proof-reading, and working as a team. When she graduated, she worked for a year with the children’s publishing house – then began freelancing, working on her own to find editing and writing work. Soon she was getting calls asking her to do jobs such as write short articles for educational books. While she was doing this paid work, she was also working on her own ideas for books.
Susan writes both fiction and non-fiction. She is often asked to write a book on a topic she knows little about! So she does lots of research and briefly becomes an expert on that subject. Sometimes she works with experts, for example when she wrote about the Megalodon, the prehistoric shark, or Titanic. She often has to do research for her fictional works as well, for example, the Wild Paws series. Susan had to learn a lot about how to care for injured or motherless wild baby animals so that she could make the books realistic and factual, as well as entertaining.
Susan lives in Toronto in a tall house with a red door. She works in her living room at home. She opens the windows wide -- and sometimes the front door too! -- and sits where she can see the trees and the sunlight.
She lives with her three children, her boyfriend, and his two children. One of her favourite parts of the day is when all the kids come home after school and she gets to visit with them and hear stories about their day.
Here is an audio clip of Susan pronouncing her name.
Interview
Check out the following interview with Munchkins and Manuscripts:
1. How long have you been writing?
I began writing when I was a child. Several of my neighbourhood friends and I actually started a writer's club when we were about eight or nine. We'd meet once a month or so and exchange poetry or short stories. We had a rule: you had to say one positive thing about everyone's work before going on to make any constructive criticism. We were very sensitive!
I studied English at university, and, one summer, before graduation, I got a job as a writer and editor with a children's book publisher. With a team of other university students, I researched, wrote, and edited books about early settlers in Canada. The next summer I returned there to work on other books about holidays and festivals.
Eventually, I decided to make a career as a freelance writer and editor. Educational publishers would call me to write on specific topics for certain grade levels. I continued to work on my own stories, and also began putting together ideas for non-fiction books. Now I have had over a dozen books published, including a picture book, a series of chapter books (Wild Paws), a YA novel (Virginia), a graphic informational book (No Girls Allowed) and many non-fiction books, including Case Closed.
2. How long did it take to write Case Closed?, and what did the research entail?
I loved doing the research for this book. I learned so much! Unfortunately I couldn't include all the many cool stories of disappearances and the hunt for recoveries that I discovered. I did most of my preliminary research online. Then I got in touch with the people involved in the "cases," usually by email, and asked questions. Almost everyone I contacted for information was extremely helpful in passing along details about their experiences. I love learning about events from first-hand sources. It's so exciting!
3. What was your first publishing experience?
My first book, a juvenile novel, Anything Can Happen, was published in 1991. It was amazing. I recall sending in the first three chapters of my novel and within a few weeks, I got a phone call asking for the rest of the manuscript. Within a month or two, I had a contract for the book! This has never happened to me again. Usually the world of publishing is slow as molasses. It takes ages for an editor to read the submitted manuscript, and then usually it is rejected. If not, it can take months for a publisher to consider and then accept the manuscript. I must admit though, when I hold my book in my hands for the first time, feel its weight, leaf through its pages, it is an incredible feeling and definitely worth all the agonizing and waiting!
4. What is your favorite book?
This is too difficult to answer. The book I am writing at the time is always my favourite book!
5. What inspired you to write Case Closed?
I originally began doing research about people who had vanished because I realized that sometimes, long after someone has gone, evidence can turn up to solve an old mystery. I wrote my idea and sent in the "pitch" to the editor at Kids Can. She had a marvellous idea: to go into detail about the science used to solve the mystery. She suggested we emphasize that as a key part of the book. Then I had to go through the various subjects I'd chosen and try to choose ones that revealed different aspects of scientific discovery. It helped shape the whole book. Editors are wonderful. I often think readers may not realize how crucial they can be to the writing process, especially when one is writing non-fiction. A good editor can spark wonderful ideas to take a book into new places.
6. If you could write about anything you wanted, what would it be?
I do usually write about the things I want! I generate most of the ideas for my non-fiction books by going where my interests, my thoughts, and my imagination take me. Sure, not all my ideas will finally make into book form, but so far, I've been lucky with many of them!