DLD | Dawn Davis | Ep 165
Desert Lady Diaries
An undeniable feeling
info_outline DLD | Kathy Goss | Ep 164Desert Lady Diaries
Make peace with solitude
info_outline DLD | Anne Lear | Ep 163Desert Lady Diaries
Art, Education and Uncle Bob
info_outline DLD| Jenny Kane |Ep 162Desert Lady Diaries
A Love of Landscape
info_outline DLD| Barbara Gothard |Ep 161Desert Lady Diaries
Talent discovered and nurtured early
info_outline DLD| Laurel Seidl |Ep 160Desert Lady Diaries
Jacqueline of all trades; lover of art and artists
info_outline DLD| Sandy Smith |Ep 159Desert Lady Diaries
Community involvement is key
info_outline DLD| Mary Helen Tuttle |Ep 158Desert Lady Diaries
Bloom where you're planted
info_outline DLD| Robin Lewis |Ep 157Desert Lady Diaries
From Canada to the California Desert
info_outline DLD| Kate McCabe |Ep 156Desert Lady Diaries
Milky Way Adjacent
info_outline
At eight months old, after being born in Hollywood, Susan was brought to her mother’s burnt homestead cabin in Pipes Canyon. The family first lived under the stars and later in an Army tent.
Susan was raised in upper Pipes Canyon – in what is known today at the Wildlands Conservancy. She attended a one-room schoolhouse, collected bottles for coins from Hollywood cowboys in Pioneertown and set pins at the original bowling alley there.
Walking from school, Susan would walk through the movie sets of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, though the excitement was lost on her as she watched them doing the same thing over and over. Sometimes she’d ride her pony to and from school.
Susan tells us about the community that at that time included the Golden Stallion Chinese restaurant (9:21), the Red Dog, the Hollywood influence and the rodeo grounds.
By the time she was 23, Susan had five kids and was still running around the desert barefoot, even on the campus of College of the Desert in Palm Desert and UC Riverside – it was the late 60’s and early 70’s. In those years she’d read Tolstoy, Freud and Dostoyevsky and though she felt a kindred spirit with these authors, because all of them were men, the thought of being a writer herself didn't come until later. Looking back, Susan believes writing was in her blood as her mother wrote a column for the Pioneertown paper and Susan’s sister has also written a book.
On her way to a mid-term just before graduation, Susan was in a car accident, which left her unconscious for 30 days . Her sister arranged with Susan’s professors to give her incompletes and she was able to graduate later, after writing one essay. In the midst of this, her husband left her.
These days, Prescott, Arizona is home for Susan where she founded and directed the Southwest Writers Series and the Hassayampa Institute for Creative Writing at Yavapai College. Currently, Susan is Faculty Emerita at Yavapai College, teaches courses at Prescott College, and serves as Event Coordinator at the Peregrine Book Company in Prescott, Arizona.
Susan still has ties to the Pipes Canyon area, visiting her brother who still lives in Pioneertown.
This month (October 2019) Susan will be reading and selling her books at the following venues in the Morongo Basin:
October 4 at 7 p.m. at Black Rock Nature Center, Yucca Valley
October 5 at 4 p.m. at the Sun Alley Stage near Space Cowboy Books
Monday, October 7 at 7 p.m. at Kip's Desert Book Club at The Palms Wonder Valley
You can find Susan's books here.
Or, visit Susan's website here.