Crandall, Susan

PERSONAL:

Born in Noblesville, IN; married; children: one son, one daughter. Hobbies and other interests: Writing, reading, movies, music, outdoor activities.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Noblesville, IN. E-mail—susan@susancrandall.net.

CAREER:

Worked as a dental hygienist. More magazine, editor.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Two National Readers Choice Awards; Golden Quill; RITA Award, Romance Writers of America.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

Back Roads, Warner Books (New York, NY), 2003.

The Road Home, Warner Books (New York, NY), 2004.

Magnolia Sky, Warner Books (New York, NY), 2004.

Promises to Keep (sequel to The Road Home), Warner Forever (New York, NY), 2005.

On Blue Falls Pond, Warner Forever (New York, NY), 2006.

A Kiss in Winter, Warner Forever (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Author Susan Crandall is fond of outdoor adventure, and her most frequent partner in such pursuits has been her daughter, Brook Wilkinson. Together they have been involved in racing cars, bungee jumping, long-distance bicycling, and, in 2003, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in East Africa. Crandall's adventurous spirit carries over into her novels, which feature women who lead challenging and interesting lives.

Crandall's debut, Back Roads, features Leigh Mitchell, the thirty-year-old sheriff of Glens Crossing, Indiana. Leigh's response to newcomer Will Scott's invitation to ride the carnival's Ferris wheel with him is uncharacteristic. She agrees, and then accepts his offer of a beer. When they dance, the romance is set in motion, although Will, who has a past that he must keep hidden, knows that he is making a mistake in beginning this new relationship. Will once spent time with an aunt in Glens Crossing, however, and he finds it impossible to leave the place he came to love and the woman with whom he is now falling in love. He takes a job as a mechanic, but soon after, when a local teen is missing, he becomes a suspect. He is unwilling to share his past with Leigh, who must investigate, and she is torn between her faith in Will and his reluctance to tell her more. BookLoons Web site reviewer Martina Bexte wrote: "Back Roads is an accomplished and very satisfying first novel."

Crandall takes a character from her second book, The Road Home, and makes him the protagonist in Magnolia Sky. Luke Boudreau's reversal of an order was partly responsible for the death of his fellow Army Ranger and friend, Calvin Abbott, as they carried out a rescue mission. Now he is in Grover, Mississippi, visiting Calvin's mother, Olivia, younger brother, Cole, and the wife he did not know Calvin had. Olivia welcomes him warmly and insists that Luke stay awhile, particularly to help ease Cole's loss of his older brother. Luke helps with the family's landscaping business, all the while falling in love with Analise, Calvin's widow.

Promises to Keep is the sequel to The Road Home, and is the story of Molly Boudreau, a Boston pediatrician who abandons her practice to shelter a baby orphaned as the result of a gangland-style shooting. Molly returns to her hometown of Glens Crossing, but is tracked down by Dean Coletta, the brother of the victim, a war correspondent who believes Molly knows more than she is admitting about his sister's killing.

The protagonist of On Blue Falls Pond is Glory Harrison, who returns to the Tennessee town where her husband and unborn child died as the result of a fire. She discovers that Scott, the small son of Eric Wilson, the fire chief who saved her life, has developmental or mental problems that are going untreated because Eric's former wife refuses to acknowledge them. Although she no longer wants Eric, she also doesn't want anyone else to have him, including Glory.

Caroline Rogers is torn between her dream and a new love who settles in the place she had planned to leave in A Kiss in Winter. Caroline has raised her stepsiblings since the deaths of their parents, and she will soon be able to pursue a career as a photographer and leave her small hometown in Kentucky. Psychiatrist Mick Larson leaves his practice and buys her family farm, creating the obstacle which Caroline may or may not want to overcome. Library Journal contributor Kristin Ramsdell wrote that in this story Crandall explores various issues "with consummate skill and perceptiveness."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, August 1, 2004, Lynne Welch, review of Magnolia Sky, p. 1908; February 15, 2005, Lynne Welch, review of Promises to Keep, p. 1067; December 15, 2005, Diana Tixier Herald, review of On Blue Falls Pond, p. 30; January 1, 2007, Diana Tixier Herald, review of A Kiss in Winter, p. 67.

Library Journal, December 1, 2006, Kristin Ramsdell, review of A Kiss in Winter, p. 103.

Mediaweek, October 6, 2003, Anne Torpey-Kemph, "It's All Uphill This Week for More Editor Susan Crandall and Her 24-year-old Daughter Brook Wilkinson, an Assistant Editor at Conde Nast Traveler," p. 17.

ONLINE

BookLoons,http://www.bookloons.com/ (August 9, 2007), Martina Bexte, reviews of Back Roads and Magnolia Sky.

OnceWritten.com,http://www.oncewritten.com/ (September 15, 2003), Monica Poling, review of Back Roads.

Susan Crandall Home Page,http://www.susancrandall.net (September 4, 2007).