About Me

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I am Susie Newman, author of three books; Eating Yellow Paint, Lost Souls Cafe and Diaries.  I’m an Ohioan whose unconventional writing path has been forged by dreams and perseverance. My desire for publication began as a young mom and dreamweaver, whispering stories to a bed full of children. Poetry and literature sparked my interest and aroused my soul. I yearned to be a writer. As a single parent I chose stability over daydreams. I attended night school and became a paralegal. By day I worked in criminal defense and wrote motions for judicial release and petitions for clemency. At night I wrote fictional stories. Finally in 2013, feeling worthy of my dreams, I published a collection of short stories titled Diaries. The book was openly embraced and warmly reviewed. The positive response inspired me to take one of my short stories and write its novel. In search for inspiration, I left law and took a job as a waitress. I wrote my thoughts in-between customers and shifts. What started out as chicken scratches on a waitress tablet is now the novel Lost Souls Café, released in 2017. With two books on the shelf, an indie artist was created. The only thing I knew to do was to write another: Eating Yellow Paint was published in 2021.

In 2010 a friend asked me to write and officiate her wedding ceremony. It was an honorable and special request. I wrote a personalized ceremony that encapsulated the couples' relationship. That wedding led me to start Simply I Do Ceremonies. For two years I performed and wrote only wedding ceremonies. When my best friend passed away, I wrote her  funeral. Shortly after that, a childhood friend contacted me to write the eulogy for  her mother’s memorial. After that emotional experience, I became a certified celebrant and added memorials to Simply I Do Ceremonies.   Weddings and funerals filled the void of wanting to write for a living. For me, nothing has been more enlightening than creating celebration of life services. Writing and delivering eulogies has been my purest form of storytelling, my biggest heart-work, and  influenced  my newest adventure, Soul Stories.

Soul Stories, A Legacy of Love was established by Kristin Clark and I. Writing eulogies and collecting memories from grieving loved ones led me to think about how people want to be remembered. While I was having this epiphany, my sister Kristin, a photographer, was capturing raw and honest moments through her lens. We decided we should unite our talents for storytelling by combining photographs and prose to create cherished books. I conduct interviews, record oral history and write the story. Kristin incorporates snapshots. The photographs, memories and narratives are bound into treasured keepsakes to pass on to loved ones.