Susan Griner

Coming soon in That Southern Thing anthology is a short story about a trip to my home state of TN with my teenage daughter. Seeing the south from her eyes helped me to put aside my sometimes painful experiences of growing up there and to make new memories.

When I started writing I was set on completing a middle grade novel, but I wound up writing short pieces for magazines. There are lots of reasons to go this route. The word count is manageable, it's good practice on the way to writing something longer. It may be a short story that leads to a novel later on and the publishing credits are noticed by agents/publishers. Writing for magazines is also nice break when you're between...

The mother in my book, Shy Ways, is based on my own mom. This is a picture taken of her in a kimono when she was a young woman. I'm not sure what the occasion was when she posed for the picture--another moment in her life I imagine on my own.

My book is a finalist in the Juvenile category for middle grade books. It looks snazzy with the gold foil sticker. 

Family and friends are dyeing to read my book!

Shy Ways is the title of my newest book. It's based on my pre-teen years growing up as a Japanese-American in the south.  The main character, Sarah Templeton, is similar to me, but the book is a work of fiction. Sarah is both ignored and ridiculed in her new school because she's different but she faces her own struggle to accept her Asian heritage. The story is set during the 1970's when the war in Vietnam is winding down, but...

A short poem I wrote several years ago is in the March issue of Babybug magazine. I used to read this magazine to my kids when they were younger. By reading the magazines over and over I got a feel for the content and for the length of poetry the editors were looking for. I was also much more observant of my youngest child's perspective of the world at that time. There was a brief window when I was in the right frame of mind t...

I Skyped with a sixth grade class from Beirut recently and was amazed at how well-informed they were about me and by the thought provoking questions they asked me. They especially wanted to know what led me to be a writer. Looking back on my life I can see that I gravitated toward it because I was always doodling, writing in my diary, daydreaming and reading.

I read a chapter from The Cemetery Sleeper, to the class but because...