I get to introduce a lot of artists on this blog - Johnston County artists with talent in music, painting, pottery, and other mediums. But it isn’t often I get to share with you “word” artists. Susan Schild is one such word artist that calls Johnston County home. An author out of Clayton, Susan writes stories about good Southern women who make the best of everything life throws their way. Her books are hopeful, with settings and themes that will feel very familiar to people who love small town living in the south.

Linny’s Sweet Dream List is the first in the three-part Willow Hill novel series about a woman trying to rebuild her life. You can e-read the book or order a paperback copy of it through Amazon or Barnes & Nobles. There are a lot of relatable themes to the Willow Hill series, the second of which comes out August 2nd. The first book finds Linny Taylor at a low point in her life. At almost 40 she’s been widowed twice, once by a man who stole her heart and once by a man who stole everything else. Now, lonely and broke Linny has to find a way to set her life back on course and discover joy again. And so, the sweet dreams list is born. With help from her family, friends, and even a loveable stray Linny just might find happiness and even love again.

I cannot stress enough what a great read this book is. Just the first few chapters have you sympathizing with Linny and laughing out loud at her attitude. What done-wrong, good southern woman hasn’t chucked a glass bottle at a dumpster just once?

It was a pleasure to sit down with Susan to talk about Linny’s Sweet Dream List, love, and writing. The thing I noticed and loved about the book is the fact that Linny is 38, and yet the book is about her turning her life around and finding happiness and trying to love again. I feel like a lot of readers want to see fiction that closely follows their own life and women are waiting longer and longer to settle down. More women are also getting divorced or are, sadly, widowed and trying to find love again. It’s nice to see these realities reflected in print.

Susan explained what she wanted to convey to her readers through Linny’s struggles, “I think that sometimes love doesn’t come in the packages you want it to come in. Love can happen at any stage in life and at any age. Linny is in her late thirties when the first book opens and she’s been widowed twice. The last husband swindled away their money. It’s a low point in her life to be loveless and broke. But, Linny makes a plan to grow out of that and to keep looking for the joyful things in life. In that sense, I wanted her to be relatable and her circumstances to be relatable. That way readers could cheer her on through the bad and the good. I always want my books to have hope as a running theme.”

I asked Susan about keeping the hope in her books even though the first novel opens with such intense loss, “I do think it happens that way in life, that bad things happen in twos and threes but then good things happen too. And good people keep doing the right thing and life turns around.”

If you’re interested in how Linny turns her life around, read the first book ASAP to get ready for the second one – coming soon. They are full of humor and quirky people. For those familiar with Johnston County and the Clayton area, Linny’s hometown will have some vague familiarity to it. Willow Hill is a small town right outside of Raleigh, North Carolina and the characters mention places like Morehead City and other destinations.

Linny comes off the page as such a well-rounded character, flawed but fighting. I asked Susan if there was any of her in Linny, “I don’t think I set out to put any of myself into my characters, but I also have had a lot of neat women friends over the years. I used to be a therapist, so I see things in people that I put into my characters. So, in that way, Linny is a lot of things that I got from a lot of people, even myself.”

Susan started writing 10 years ago after wanting a career change and attending a writing workshop. I asked about her writing process. Is it more throw darts at the board or more detailed plot and characterization spreadsheet? She said, “it used to be free-form. But in the industry now your publisher and your agent and your editor want more from you then I have an idea. So I have, over the years, become a very big out-liner. Out-lining everything you’re going to write before you write it keeps you on the path. I write every day and the outline keeps me from wondering.”

Whatever methods she is using, it’s working. Linny’s Sweet Dream List has 4.7 out of 5 stars on Amazon reviews and some enthusiastic reader reviews. Adjectives used include charming, funny, moving, and witty. Be sure to pick-up an e-copy or a paperback of Susan’s first and soon to be second book to give this wholesome, sunny southern fiction a try.

If you’d like to meet Susan Schild for yourself, the Hocutt-Ellington Memorial Library in Clayton will be hosting a Meet the Author Event on Tuesday, August 9th from 5:30PM to 7:00PM with a Q&A and even some giveaways.

Thanks for taking the time Susan, Johnston County’s proud to claim word-smiths like yourself.