SUSAN SHIPE CALFEE

         “I love sketty, can’t wait till it’s retty.” So began Susan Calfee’s writing career with a rhyme published in the second grade. She was hooked on words from then on, later becoming a Speech Communications major at the University of Maryland, her home state.  Susan lives in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, where she joined the local Shantyboat Writer’s Workshop, learning craft techniques and developing her skills and passion for the written word. She’s published poetry, short stories, magazine articles and in 2013 an award-winning children’s book, St. Augustine A to Z – A Young Reader’s Guide to America’s Oldest City. Still popular today, it’s the subject of school visits where Susan’s greatest reward is introducing children to the magic of language and the wonder of what 26 little letters can do!

       When her author-mother, Bess Paterson Shipe, at 95, moved from the Washington D. C. area to live with her in the Florida warmth and sunshine, Susan was thrilled.  And her writing took an unexpected pivot.

        As a prolific and accomplished writer Bess’s notes, files and publications came with her. Last off the moving truck was a trunk brimming with versions of a novel she had been writing for years. When Bess asked Susan’s help with the completion of her book, their mother-daughter writing team was born. After ceaseless work and endless edits, the novel sprang to life as seamlessly as if two hands held the same pen. Sadly, before they could finish their collaboration, Bess passed away. Susan completed the project as promised, though as a solo act, honored to save it from another trunk, and give this compelling, complex saga the life it so richly deserves. Susan is proud to be among many authors in her family. The Forces of Bay House is her first novel.