About Susan

Ever mindful of Elmore Leonard's admonition to "try to leave out the parts that readers tend to skip", I'll cut to the chase and make my story brief. Born and raised in NYC, I have lived in the hills of Hollywood, California for the past thirty years. At the age of ten, I set three goals: to live in Los Angeles, to be a lawyer and to write murder mysteries. With the publication of Hollywood Forever, I've accomplished my childhood aspirations. My adult goals are a more complicated story.

Unlike many authors I meet who have had what they call a variety of uninteresting jobs until they started writing, my "day job" has been anything but dull. In addition to doctors, writers, bankers, lawyers, actors, artists and teachers, I have had a chance to spend time with adulterers, thieves, sex addicts, compulsive gamblers, pornographers and yes, one mass murderer.

I have been a family law attorney (aka divorce lawyer) for thirty years. If the walls of my office could talk...ah, but that information is confidential. The stormy events and colorful people I've encountered have provided me with an abundance of material and inspiration for stories of deceit, disharmony and death.

Employing humor has proved to be the best and most reliable way to stay sane when assisting people as they navigate through devastation. I subscribe to the old saying, "if you don't laugh, you'll cry". It's a philosophy that permeates both my law practice and my books.

Writing books and practicing law consume most of my time. When not doing one or the other, I am usually reading, traveling, searching for a ping pong partner, or watching a great film noir.

Having chosen the writers' life, I occasionally ponder William Saroyan's line, "Writing is the hardest way of earning a living with the possible exception of wrestling alligators." My response: but infinitely more fun!