Susan Baldwin

It all started one day...

• I was born October 17, 1958 in Tacoma, WA to Merle and Barbara.  I grew up the youngest of three kids in Federal Way, WA.

• I have been very happily married (his name is Julien - a.k.a Val) with no children since 1981.  However, we do enjoy spoiling the nieces and nephews ... and then sending them home.

• My sister is Linda, who is living in Renton, WA.  Linda has two kids from a previous marriage — daughter Laurie has a daughter Kierra; son Kevin has a son Justice and daughter Brittney.

• My brother is Richard and he is married to Janet.  They are living in Wenatchee, WA.  Together they have a son and daughter.  Daughter Bethany is married to Mark with three kids; Jonathon, Luke and Jocelyn.  Jonathon, who is married to Jennifer with a son Koby and a daughter Kait-Linh.

• We also have 3 nieces - Mindy, KayLynn, Grace - and one nephew - Jayson - who live with their mother, Shawna, in Orting, WA.

• I went to Mirror Lake Elementary School kindergarten through 6th grade.  7th through 9th were at Sacajawea Junior High, and I graduated from Federal Way High School in 1976.

• We have a dog named Panda and a cat named Kodiak.  They are not spoiled -- nope, not at all.

• We like to travel and I would love nothing better than to someday live on the island of St. Thomas.

• I collect dragons.  My husband collects Tinkerbell.

I started writing in my early teens.  I loved making up stories whenever possible.  Sometimes I would sit and daydream, other times I would actually take the time to put them into words on paper.

I set the writing aside when I found my first job after high school.  In October 1981 Julien and I were married ... and immediately moved to Phoenix, AZ.  During our time in Arizona I took up writing again.  With me working a day shift for a bank and my husband working swings or grave shifts at a turbine engine plant, I needed some way to entertain myself.  By this time we had our first computer -- an Apple something or other -- and I would happily spend hours typing.  And that is when the first version of what would become "A Mystic Arrives" was born.

We discovered that we are just not desert people.  The webs between our toes began to dry up!  Neither of us had ever lived so far from the ocean!   So after about 4 1/2 years we moved back to Washington state.  We went back to Federal Way and rented a house until we found one to buy.  I got a job at Boeing and continued to write off-and-on over the next years.  Sometimes re-writing my mystic story, sometimes writing something totally different.  I never thought about publishing anything.  Very few people would ever read those fanciful stories at that time.  I wrote for myself.

After quitting my job at Boeing in the early 1990s, I decided to work from home.  Earn a little cash, not have to get up so early, work in my pajamas...  Well, after several failed attempts to find something that would interest me I went back to writing.  I finally had to admit to myself that this was what I wanted.  This was what I could do and be happy for the rest of my life.  I began writing fan fiction for a television show that I was watching and posted it on the internet for anyone to read.  Much to my delight I discovered that people actually liked what I wrote!

This was when I decided it was time to get serious.  I re-wrote "A Mystic Arrives" one last time and got on the internet to find me an editor.  I wanted someone fairly local to me thinking it would be easier to work with a person I could see face-to-face once in a while.  I looked and did find plenty of people willing to do the job  But Holy Cats!  I could not afford the price they expected me to pay.  After all, I wasn't even sure I had something that would be considered worthy of anyone's time other than my own.  I was rather shy and not not terrible sure of myself or my writing ability.

Then I came across a link to Night Writer Editorial Services.  For a small fee Charley Humphreys would take my material and evaluate it.  And THAT is how it all started.

Unfortunately, Charley passed away before he and I were able to realize our goal.  I have since moved on to iUniverse.  However, I am sure he would approve.