This really is the view from here. The photo above was taken by me, standing in my bathrobe at the water’s edge. I’m extremely lucky to live here on the beach, on an island in Puget Sound, in view of Mount Rainier. This is the sight that greets me each morning. There are more pictures of my part of the world here and http://susanwiggs.shutterfly.com/action/ for those who care to take a look. Thanks for stopping by.

Here’s my bio: Using blunt scissors, pages from a Big Chief tablet, a borrowed stapler and a Number Two pencil, Susan Wiggs self-published her first novel at the age of eight. A Book About Some Bad Kids was based on the true-life adventures of Susan and her siblings, and the first printing of one copy was a complete sell-out.

Due to her brother’s extreme reaction to that first effort, Susan went underground with her craft, entertaining her friends and offending her siblings with anonymously-written stories of virtuous sisters and the brothers who torment them. The first romance she ever read was Shanna by the incomparable Kathleen Woodiwiss, which she devoured while slumped behind a college vector analysis textbook. Armed with degrees from Texas and Harvard, and toting a crate of “keeper” books by Woodiwiss, Roberta Gellis, Laurie McBain, Rosemary Rogers, Jennifer Blake, Bertrice Small and anything with the words “flaming” and “ecstasy” in the title, she became a math teacher, just to prove to the world that she did have a left brain.

Late one night, she finished the book she was reading and was confronted with a reader’s worst nightmare–She was wide awake, and there wasn”t a thing in the house she wanted to read. Figuring this was the universe’s way of taking away her excuses, she picked up a Big Chief tablet and a Number Two pencil, and began writing her novel with the working title, A Book About Some Bad Adults. Actually, that was a bad book about some adults, but Susan persevered, learning her craft the way skydiving is learned–by taking a blind leap and hoping the chute will open.

Her first book was published (without the use of blunt scissors and a stapler) by Zebra in 1987, and since then she has been published by Avon, Tor, HarperCollins, Harlequin, Warner and Mira Books. Unable to completely abandon her beloved teaching profession, Susan is a frequent workshop leader and speaker at writers’ conferences, including the literary institution Field’s End and the legendary Maui Writers Conference. She is the proud recipient of two RITA awards for Lakeside Cottage, Lord of the Night and The Mistress. Her novel The Charm School was voted one of RWA’s Favorite Books of the Year. She is the proud recipient of many RT awards, the Peninsula RWA’s Blue Boa, the Holt Medallion and the Colorado Award of Excellence. Her books appear regularly on numerous “Best Of” lists.

Susan enjoys many hobbies, including sitting in the hot tub while talking to her mother on the phone, skiing, cleaning the can opener, sculpting with butter and growing her hair. She lives on an island in the Pacific Northwest with her family.