Author seeks reader for long-term (open) relationship! Must enjoy:

literary fiction
speculative fiction
fiction that's sort of in between
the great outdoors
the great indoors
complex characters
a strong sense of place

My debut novel, HOT SEASON, helped me find my tribe: smart people who care about the natural world; down-to-earth idealists; travelers of the road less taken; dreamers, makers, and agitators. Now I'm ready to extend that circle, with a collection of short fiction entitled DREAM STUDIES: stories that blur the line between literary fiction and fantasy; stories that tackle race, class, gender, and the environment, but in ways that are less than obvious, and always (like all of my fiction) deeply rooted in the places I know and love, including Oregon, Arizona, Michigan, and South Carolina.

In 2018, I'll be sharing these stories--along with some speculative flash fiction, and a few selections from my next novel--with my Patreon subscribers, as well as my journey toward publication with these stories and projects.

For as little as $1/month, you can share in that journey--and make a real difference in the life of an emerging author.

Since the spring of 2016, my Patreon subscribers have helped me to get the word out about my novel; they've helped to fund my book tour, and they've helped to review the book on Amazon and Goodreads.

Even more importantly, they've helped to fund the time it takes for me to produce new creative work--including the short story you'll find in Forest Avenue Press's collection of supernatural tales set in Portland, City of Weird (the first published story from the new collection). Unlike many writers, I do not have a "day job" that supports me--instead, I make my living as a freelance editor and book coach (more about that here), and I depend upon the support of my readers. As an emerging author, that largely means patrons like you.

My Patreon subscribers are my tribe, the people who have come together to support my voice and vision in the world. Join them, and share the journey.
--
Named "One of 25 Oregon Authors Every Oregonian Must Read" by The Oregonian

2017 Gold IPPY Award Winner

Finalist, Best of the Net Award

About HOT SEASON:
Recommended by Get Booked, the personalized book recommendation podcast from BookRiot.

An outlaw activist on the run. A pipeline set to destroy a river. And three young women who must decide who to love, who to trust, and what to sacrifice for the greater good.

Based in part on real events in the Northwest and the Southwest in the early nineties and mid-aughts, Hot Season explores what Oregon Book Award Winner Cari Luna called “the charged terrain where the youthful search for identity meets the romantic, illicit lure of direct action.”

“From Franzen on down, activist lit is so hot right now. Portland’s Susan DeFreitas gets it right.”
—The Portland Mercury
“A brisk read with a potent mix of wit and edge.”
—Arizona Daily Sun
“[A] really fun read with a complex political issue interwoven into its narrative of three young women, and all in the span of 200 pages—as if Donna Tartt had been edited by Gordon Lish.”
—Read It Forward
“Hot Season is both relevant and prophetic, given how recently, shockingly more perilous our world has become.”
—Huffington Post Books
“A stunning book, choked with the beauty of the natural world and our conflicts of how to manage both it and our desires.”
—Rene Denfeld, author of The Child Finder
“Literature not only deploys the lexicon of empathy, but is quite possibly one of the few languages left that can still interrupt monostories of power. As far as examples go, Hot Season is fucking fantastic.”
—Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The Book of Joan