Susie Black’s Cozy Mysteries
Wild Rose author Susie Black writes humorous cozy mysteries. She is here today to share her background in the garment industry which is the setting for her debut.
Welcome Susie…
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I was born in the Big Apple but now call sunny Southern California home. Like the protagonist in my Fashion & Foul Play Mystery series, I am a successful ladies’ apparel sales executive. I began telling stories as soon as I learned to talk. Named Best US Author of the Year by N. N. Lights Book Heaven, I am an award-winning, cozy mystery author now telling all the stories from my garment industry experiences in humorous mysteries.
I read, write, and speak Spanish, albeit with an accent that sounds like Mildred from the Mid-West went on a Mexican vacation and is trying to fit in with the locals. Since life without pizza and ice cream as my core food groups wouldn’t be worth living, I am a dedicated walker to keep my girlish figure. A voracious reader, I am also an avid stamp collector. I live with a highly intelligent man and have one incredibly brainy but smart-aleck adult son who inexplicably blames his sarcasm on an inherited genetic defect.
What interesting jobs have you had?
My ladies’ apparel sales career started accidentally when my sales rep dad needed help at a trade show. I wrote so many orders, that dad offered me a job as a sub-rep traveling the deep southern states. I moved from Los Angeles to Atlanta and was the ONLY female sales rep traveling in that region of the country. I had to outperform my male competitors and prove myself every day to an industry that doubted a woman’s ability to do the job or last more than a season. I proved all the doubters wrong, and broke every glass ceiling.
How have those jobs affected your writing?
From the beginning of my career, I kept a daily journal that chronicled the interesting, quirky, and often challenging people I encountered, as well as the crazy situations I got myself into and out of. My journal is the foundation, prime research tool, and source of all I write.
As a female who has succeeded in a historically male-dominated industry, it was important to me to write about the apparel business from a woman’s point of view. Things rarely turn out the way you think they will. But I am living proof that things do happen for a reason. Life is indeed a circle. I got into the rag biz because I was destined to write about it.
How did you choose the genre you write in?
I came to write in the cozy mystery genre because I love solving puzzles. My parents would certainly confirm I have always asked a lot of questions, and I am naturally curious (some narrow-minded people say I am nosy…go figure…LOL). So, writing mysteries was the natural next step for me to take.
The bonus is that it was an excellent way to knock off some people on paper who I would have loved to eliminate in real life and still not end up in prison. Extremely therapeutic. I highly recommend it.
Can you tell us about any other upcoming books, series, or writing plans?
Book number two in the series is with the editor now and fingers crossed, will be published this spring. Books three and four in the series are written, but have not been edited or submitted for consideration yet.
I have written a coming-of-age story loosely based on how I got into the apparel business that my publisher has shown interest in. We are in talks right now as to the best way to introduce this story.
I have also mapped out a second series about an investigative reporter who reveals secrets about a powerful politician and loses her job and is exiled to a small town in the California desert. This series is only in the planning stage right now, with no manuscripts completed yet.
Is anything in your book based on real life experiences or purely all imagination?
Everything in my books in this series is based on real life experiences. All of the characters are based on real people, and the central characters are all strong, successful women like ones I know who have beaten the odds and broken the glass ceiling. Holly Schlivnik, the main character, is based on me with some poetic license taken, of course.
All my stories take place in the fast-paced ladies’ Los Angeles apparel industry. The premise behind my debut cozy, Death by Sample Size, is that apparel-industry-buying office exec Bunny Frank is so universally disliked that when she is murdered, it isn’t a question of who wanted her dead, but a question of who didn’t.
In real life, there was a real person the Bunny Frank character is based on, and while many in the apparel industry would not have minded had she been rubbed out, she managed to live out her days and die of old age.
Death by Sample Size: A Hilarious Whodunit
by Susie Black
Everyone wanted her dead…but who actually killed her? The last thing swimwear sales exec Holly Schlivnik expected was to discover ruthless buying office big wig Bunny Frank’s corpse trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey with a bikini stuffed down her throat. When Holly’s colleague is arrested for Bunny’s murder, the wise-cracking, irreverent amateur sleuth jumps into action to find the real killer. Nothing turns out the way Holly thinks it will as she matches wits with a wily murderer hellbent for revenge.
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Learn more about Susie Black
Named best US author of the year by N. N. Light Book Heaven, award-winning cozy mystery author Susie Black was born in the Big Apple but now calls sunny Southern California home. Like the protagonist in her Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series, Susie is a successful apparel sales executive. Susie began telling stories as soon as she learned to talk. Now she’s telling all the stories from her garment industry experiences in humorous mysteries.
She reads, writes, and speaks Spanish, albeit with an accent that sounds like Mildred from Michigan went on a Mexican vacation and is trying to fit in with the locals. Since life without pizza and ice cream as her core food groups wouldn’t be worth living, she’s a dedicated walker to keep her girlish figure. A voracious reader, she’s also an avid stamp collector. Susie lives with a highly intelligent man and has one incredibly brainy but smart-aleck adult son who inexplicably blames his sarcasm on an inherited genetic defect.
Looking for more? Reach her at mysteries_@authorsusieblack.com
