Susan, describe yourself for our visitors.
I am a pastor’s wife, mom to four wonderful young adults – a daughter and three sons – and I work part-time at my church as director of small groups and connection ministries. I love the ocean and the mountains – am rather schizophrenic about my admiration and devotion to both so I am glad I live in SoCal where one is a few miles this way and the other a few miles that way. I love books, bookstores, coffee shops inside bookstores and the smell of bookstores. My favorite music is a hard one nail down; there are so many wonderful styles and artists. Current favorites are Building 429, Lifehouse and Mercy Me.
How do you find time to connect with God?
I’ve discovered it’s not something you find, it’s something you make. There are always too many things to do and not enough time. I have to choose – make that, get to choose - how I divvy up the minutes of my day. I can spend 20 minutes dialoguing with God or 20 minutes doing just about anything else. I always have a better day and a better outlook on my day when I’ve connected with God before I dive into it.
Who are your favorite authors? Favorite books?
Yikes. That is almost like asking what is my favorite breath of air! I read a lot of general marketplace fiction. It’s where I find out where the heart of the people on the street is headed. I’ve been moved by the writing of Khaled Hosseini, Jane Hamilton, Diane Setterfield, Geraldine Brooks, Ann Patchett and Gail Tsukiyama. My favorite book from 2007 was Setterfield’s “The Thirteenth Tale.” On the inspirational side, I enjoy Lisa Samson, Ann Tatlock, Siri Mitchell, and W. Dale Cramer, to name just a few. I am currently reading Siri Mitchell’s “A Constant Heart” and loving it.
Tell us about your journey to publication.
I’ve loved to write for about as long as I can remember. I wrote once-upon-a-time stories in grade school, a ton of teenage drama poetry in high school and then in my 20s when I was newly married and working fulltime and then in my 30s raising four kids, I let the creative writing slide because I was afraid to see if I was really any good at it. I became editor of a small town newspaper and did the journalism thing for 10 years. But there were stories inside me clawing to get out. I realized I’d rather live with rejections than regrets. I quit my 50-hour a week job at the newspaper in 2002 to write my first novel, “Why the Sky is Blue” and wrote it in 10 weeks. In 2004, Harvest House Publishers released it. I wrote eight more for Harvest House in the next four years.
Tell us about your current book?
The Shape of Mercy is my first with WaterBrook. Of all the books I’ve written, this one – so far – has revealed the most to me about me. The story line is this: A college student, the only child of affluent parents, takes a job she doesn’t need transcribing the 300-year-old diary of a victim of the Salem witch trials. She encounters through the pages of the diary interesting parallels between the snap judgments and fear-motivated crowd mentality of that sad moment in history with current day prejudices and preconceived notions. Woven through the story is a romantic thread, because, hey, love is what we are meant for. If we loved more, we’d judge less.
How did you come up with ideas for this book?
I read an article a couple of years ago about a woman petitioning a Massachusetts court to exonerate her great-times-eight grandmother who was accused and convicted of witchcraft during the trials, was released when the hysteria ended, but whose name was never cleared. Reading the article brought back memories of reading The Crucible in high school and being in a play called “To Burn A Witch” when I was in junior high. The men and women hung in Salem in 1692 were all later declared innocent. They died proclaiming devotion to God and refusing to confess to an allegiance with Satan, even though a confession would have kept them from execution. That is remarkable to me. And there was a story there to be told. Heroism is always story-worthy.
List your three most recent books.
Behind The Shape of Mercy is Blue Heart Blessed, published by Harvest House in Feb 2008, about a woman who opens a used wedding dress shop when she gets stood up at the altar. She sews a little blue heart into each used dress as a way of recommissioning these gowns of wonder. The only trouble is, when someone wants to buy her one-of-a-kind dress she always rips off the price tag and says it’s not for sale. Poor thing! It’s a light, romantic, smart chick-lit. Before that, Days and Hours, released by Harvest House in 2007 is a legal mystery. This third Rachael Flynn tale finds my prosecuting attorney on the hunt to find the person who kidnaps a baby only to abandon it. Twice.
What’s next for you?
I just finished a manuscript for WaterBrook called “White Picket Fences,” which is a story about a family that seems to have the perfect iconic life. Perfect house, perfect jobs, perfect neighborhood, perfect everything. But they live on the same fallen planet as the rest of us and suffer the same flaws. To pretend all is well when all is not is to doom yourself to a life of pretense and disappointment and maybe even despair. We all have our flaws but we also have a our strengths – and these shine brightest when we are honest about who we are and Who we must run to for help, healing and hope.
Where can visitors find you online?
I am at home on the web at www.susanmeissner.com and at my blog Edgewise, http://susanmeissner.blogspot.com. I am putting the finishing touches on a blog dedicated to The Shape of Mercy which will be up and running soon at: http://theshapeofmercy.blogspot.com
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