Susan Brearley Mystery writer. Developmental editor. I build author websites.
Thirty-one years ago a doctor told me I was dying. I told them, "you don't get to tell me that." And then I went about figuring out how to defeat cancer.
Before writing fiction, I spent 27 years at IBM as a systems engineer and architect. I still think that way. A novel has load-bearing walls. If the structure fails, the beautiful sentences don't save it.
What I write
Mystery and suspense with older protagonists — women with long memories, old debts, and considerably less to lose than the plot expects. I'm finishing the first book in a series about a seventy-five-year-old retired con artist who has spent five years cleaning house for the collector she intends to con. Sneaky Pete with a Hudson Valley estate and a woman nobody bothers to look at twice.
I also write essays, humor, and poetry. More than 1,400 pieces on Medium, where I'm Editor-in-Chief of thirteen publications. Former food critic for Chronogram Magazine.
What I do for other writers
Developmental editing. I work with novelists preparing to query agents or to self-publish, or publish with an indie publishing house. Structure, pacing, stakes, voice — the things that decide whether a reader finishes chapter three. Send your first ten pages to susan@susan-brearley.com and I'll send back an honest editorial read. Currently booking for October.
Author websites. Through Brearley Author Sites, I build sites for writers who would rather be writing. Fixed price, no dashboard for you to learn. Recent builds: alfredine.com, gardenofneuro.com, gardenofneuro.org, susan-brearley.com.
Cohort courses. Small groups, twelve weeks at a time. Memoir, mystery, horror, defeating your inner critic and listening more to your inner mentor, women's sovereignty, round-robin romance series, and prolific-writer training.
Garden of Neuro Institute
I founded and direct a 501(c)(3) literary nonprofit that publishes anthologies and work by emerging writers, and works to remove the financial barriers that keep people out of creative life. Open submissions run April through September via Submittable.
Everything lives at susan-brearley.com.
