Meet Susan

Susan Wingate is an award-winning author of several novels, including a #1 Amazon bestseller. Her books appeal to a wide range of readers and incorporate themes from several genres. She has written on family drama, mystery and thriller, romance, YA lit, inspirational fiction, and poetry.

When she is not writing, Susan participates in the Authors of San Juan Islands, an association she cofounded for authors living around the San Juan Island archipelago. She loves to spend time in libraries and bookstores in Friday Harbor, Washington where she lives with her husband. Her novels encapsulate real-life circumstances and feelings almost any reader can relate to, and she draws on personal experience to create one-of-a-kind works.

Susan’s latest book, Storm Season, received a Book Excellence Award in the Thriller category. This psychological thriller follows Meg Storm who is suffering the loss of her daughter and husband to drug overdoses. As a grieving mother with nothing left to lose, Meg tackles the sordid underworld of drugs that is overtaking her island home. The novel is a stunning work of fiction that grips the reader from the very beginning and makes you question the lines between victim and vigilante.

The road to success is rarely easy, and Susan has faced her fair share of challenges. She pours her heart and soul into her writing and found unique ways to make her work stand apart from the countless published authors in her field.

“It’s always hard to stand apart from the many great books and authors already published.”

Throughout her writing career, Susan has learned the best way to make her work stand out is by connecting with the audience.

She seeks to craft one-of-a-kind characters that are relatable to her readers. By drawing the reader into the story, she is able to write novels that people cannot put down and must pass along to their friends and family.

She used this approach when writing Storm Season to make Meg Storm a hero that readers would care about and invest their time in.

“The single goal I had for STORM SEASON was that people could relate to the main character, Meg Storm and her problem—the death of her daughter—and people would hand it off to other readers because they thought it was a great story.”

Becoming a Book Excellence Award Winner

When Susan learned that Storm Season won the Book Excellence Award in the Thriller category, she was over the moon.

She knew the success of an international award as highly regarded as this would skyrocket the readership for Storm Season and her many other works.

“Having a stand-out book because it won an award helped my exposure incredibly. STORM SEASON reached #1 Amazon bestseller in several categories this past summer.”

The success of Storm Season since the announcement of her win has been incredible.

The Book Excellence Award has lent increased credibility to her novel and brought in record sales.

The increased readership and word of mouth exposure has driven Storm Season even further to the top.

“The increased credibility always helps sell books. It was an automatic sales force when STORM SEASON won the thriller category in the Book Excellence Awards.”

Susan’s Success

The Book Excellence Award is one of many notable achievements in Susan’s writing career. She has written more than 15 books spanning a wide array of genres. She has multiple Amazon bestsellers and more than six book awards.

Her short stories and poems have appeared in collections such as the Virginia Quarterly Review, and she placed in the Foster City International Writer’s Contest for poetry.

The reviews for Storm Season show just how incredible the psychological thriller is for readers. Many readers have praised Susan’s ability to capture an audience and leave people on the edge of their seat from start to finish. The portrayal of grief, revenge, and self-discovery are unmatched in Susan’s work.

Terry Persun, an award-winning author and Amazon bestselling novelist had the following to say about Storm Season.

“When the book starts out with the death of her daughter, you’d think things couldn’t get much worse for Meg—but they do. More deaths, manipulation, revenge, and redemption all play important roles in Susan Wingate’s fast-paced masterpiece STORM SEASON. Susan’s deftly controlled writing style has the reader feeling everything the character goes through—which is exhausting and wonderful.”

Susan has appeared on many digital shows and forums to share her experience, inspiration, writing essentials, and advice. Some of her appearances include the Author’s Forum, Author Magazine, and Sheila Bender’s Writing It Real. She also hosts a podcast called Dialogue: Between the Lines. On the podcast she speaks with well-known and emerging authors to explore the writing profession.

You can get in touch with Susan by visiting her website or following her social media channels. Her podcast is available on Blog Talk Radio.

To purchase her book, find Storm Season on Amazon.

Susan’s Advice

“I always tell people they should enter their books in awards and the Book Excellence Award specifically. Out of hundreds of entries, if their book wins an award, they’ll be able to sell more books because of it. Plus, the award is awesome for the way it markets book award winners.”