About me

Hello! I write stories and the occasional poem, mostly about interesting women making space for themselves in a patriarchal world. Often these involve suspense, mystery and dodgy dealings. My stories range from 100-word flash pieces to novels, set in times medieval to more recent and places ranging from wildlands to densely urban. I am particularly fond of writing about people who, like me, have been around the block a few times.

I’m a recovering academic – an award-winning author and Fellow of the American Psychological Association, with a successful career writing about identity and motivation in social context now in the rearview. Writing fiction is way more fun.

Check out my debut novel, An Uncertain Age, coming soon from The Wild Rose Press.

Though I became a creative writer at an advanced age and live waaay out in the country, I’ve become very attached to my writer community. I am a member of the Historical Novel Society, Sisters in Crime, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society, and two outstanding critique groups. I’ve studied creative writing alongside amazing fellow students of the craft, in classes and workshops from authors like Peter Mountford, Sonora Jha, Elise Hooper, and Steve Weddle. I am grateful for all I have learned and continue to learn from my peeps.

I live in a multigenerational, multi-species household in rural Western Washington. I write mostly in my little studio space out behind the house, guarded by my faithful Pembroke Welsh Corgi. She doesn’t like to be in the studio; instead, she takes up her station outside, just below the window, watching for itinerant bears and coyotes and the occasional rabbit.

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© Susan B. Nolen, 2025.