In her 40-year career Suzanne has published award-winning short fiction, music, corporate and institutional public relations content, and more than 300 newspaper and magazine articles. She authored her first book, Birth of a Boom: Lives & Legacies of Saskatchewan Entrepreneurs, in 2009, and followed up in 2015 with her first corporate storybook, Through the Rear View Mirror: The ASL Story. This book won a Bronze Medal in the 2016 PubWest Book Design Awards in the History/Biography genre. (Another book previously won a Gold Medal in the Photo/Illustrated genre.) Her third title was another corporate storybook in 2019, Warriors for Wheat, for the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association. She is nearing completion of her fourth book, a five-generation family history called By Sea, By Land: The Hewsons Look Back.
She has also edited more than a dozen books by other authors. She currently writes corporate and family histories, does developmental editing, and has her own blog/book project, The Pink Notebook Project. She writes other posts, under the FreshVoice and Morning Pages monikers.
Suzanne started Indie Ink Publishing in 2010, and it quickly developed a niche in publishing high quality non-fiction books that help their authors build or augment their professional or personal brands. It is also becoming known for its innovative experimentation with social media marketing strategies; creative exploration of new book forms and a keen interest in exporting Saskatchewan book product to the rest of Canada and the U.S. In 2016, she phased out Indie Ink and started FreshVoice, a discovery-based consulting and training service for writers.
Suzanne was Director of Public Relations for both McMaster University and the University of Saskatchewan, working for both institutions for a total of 17 years. She was owner of the communications firm Paschall Arts for 15 years, where she was trainer/consultant in areas of strategic communications management for corporate, institutional and public sector clients across North America.
Prior to moving to Canada, she worked in advertising (Benton & Bowles) and PR and licensed merchandising in the book trade (Andrews & McMeel/Universal Press Syndicate) in New York City, and was also a daily newspaper journalist & editor in Kansas (Salina Journal) and a magazine freelancer.
She holds a Masters Degree in Continuing Education (Workplace Learning specialty) from the University of Calgary and a Bachelor of Science in Journalism & Mass Communication from Kansas State University.
Suzanne is also an award winning published songwriter and jazz singer, and original music from her two albums has been used in film, television, stage and Internet radio drama. Her swing band, Jump Me Martha, was a regular on the Saskatoon music scene for more than a decade.
She is currently working on several script projects, a novel and a collection of short stories and music. She lives and works in Scottsdale, Arizona with her partner and two unbelievably cute Cavapoochons, sisters Hannah & Lily.