About Us

For more about Susan, visit her website.

My dad was an Electrical Engineer and began my formal education at bedtime by reading me Pogo comic books. He sparked my fascination with history by explaining the political satire in Walt Kelly’s work.

       After graduating from the University of Akron with a BA in Education and an Ohio High  School teaching certificate in my dual major of history and math, I went into business instead. Although math teachers got jobs instantly, no school would guarantee me a history course.  Loving history ever since Pop read me Pogo, I would lose my mind if I couldn’t escape math for  a while each week by sharing the fascinating stories of the past. I saw those “old” people and  events as real because they are. The media usually portrayed history as something old and  tedious, and I wanted to teach it as if I were a storyteller sharing yesterday's news.

       But the coaches had the history courses sewed up. So I chased smokestacks for ten years, buying and selling used electrical equipment and other industrial machinery. After that, I programmed computers for four decades, mostly as a hired gun (contract programmer) for companies like Sherwin Williams, Office Max, Goodyear, and others you never heard of.

      Now, I’m a writer. My lifetime of reading will often show in what I write because it is impossible for me to share a story without packing it full of history.

       Present times are always built on history. But Diary of a Robot is not so much about the past, nor is it so much a tale of science fiction. Consider it a story of future history since it and its sequel are starting to happen. There is a tiny bit of math in it, too. Sorry.