About Susan B. Iris

I learned how to read at a very young age (by age 6) and I have been a devoted reader since then. I was amazed at that young age, how words could come together and form characters, worlds and plots (I was reading Little Golden Books, Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes and Beatrix Potter books and a few years later, Roald Dahl and Beverly Cleary). During the same time, I became aware of music how it tended to turn on my imagination to create my own characters, worlds and plots. My father was an avid music aficionado, although he would listen to a lot of band-orchestra music every week, it was the occasional classical song that would resonate with me – in particular Tchaikovsky’s War of 1812. This is one of my favourite classical songs today.
Throughout grade school, I absolutely loved writing short stories, poems, notes, and have been journal writing since I was 13. After writing a short story when I was nine years old, my teacher read it and told me that I should be an author when I grow up. From then on, this became an ultimate goal to achieve, something for me to work on, study, practice and attain.
I was also fully immersed in music (it was the mid 1980s) and was very dedicated to watching music videos (Toronto Rocks with John Majhor, Video Hits with Samantha Taylor) and listened daily to the radio, religiously.
Every writer’s journey is different and even though mine has been long as being on my own since my early twenties, I had to ensure I had a career during the day to pay the bills. During those days, I would fill my evenings by taking courses and studying the writing craft in many forms (fiction, literature and screenplays). I would practice writing in the evenings and weekends including taking vacations to attend a local writers’ conference or stay home to write for many hours, and reach the writing goals I had set out to achieve.
When I am not writing, I do a lot of reading (including research for the current or next book I am working on) and listening to music. I hardly watch any TV but I do enjoy films, mostly international or classical films, and I love theatre/musicals.