8.SR: What makes a person worthy or a good candidate for a biography?
Susanna: Like a novel, a biography should tell an interesting story, with intriguing characters, a suspenseful plot, and well-drawn settings. I look for people who have achieved something extraordinary and try to figure out how they did what they did, and why. I try to find the overarching themes that define a person's life.
9.SR: How does a writer make the biographical narrative interesting and not just a collection of facts?
Susanna: Choose your subject carefully, then think like a novelist. Explore the intrigues, obstacles, and conflicts of your subject's life, as well as the successes.
10.SR: What is the best writing advice you have ever received?
Susanna: I remember my very first assignment in 11th grade English. We had to write two essays, each one proving the opposite side of an argument. This taught me to look at things from more than one angle, to use reason and analysis, to think logically. At the same time I had to free my imagination, not just to find the best words and the most useful metaphors, but to explore things I'd never thought about before. Some people tell you, "Write what you know." I think it was Ed Young who said, "Write what you don't know." Writing is a way to explore the unknown.
11.SR: Can you discuss your current or future projects?
Susanna: I just sold a picture book biography to Simon & Schuster, which is slated for publication in 2005. For the past three years I've been working on a middle-grade historical novel, set in late 19th century San Francisco. It's about a girl who wants to become an actress, and the obstacles she encounters in her proper Victorian family.
12.SR: What are you currently reading?
Susanna: I read mostly children's literature -- everything from picture books to young adult novels. This month I read Jennifer Holm's "Our Only May Amelia", "Feed" by M.T. Anderson, "Locomotion" by Jacqueline Woodson, "Paradise" by Joan Elizabeth Goodman, "Blues Journey" by Walter Dean Myers and Christopher Myers. Also several books coming out this fall, including "Facing the Lion: Growing Up Maasai on the African Savanna" by Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton, and a new novel by Avi called "The Mayor of Central Park". I regularly read Publishers Weekly and the Sunday New
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