Writing is my vocation and the only job that has ever mattered. As a writer, I can do what I want, pursue any interest, try something new each time. That’s important, because I crave variety and abhor routine. For example:
- In school, I got degrees in wildly different fields (computer science, film production, geology).
- I’ve had so many jobs. (Babysitter, duck caretaker. Switchboard operator, warehouse clerk, bank lackey, secretary, substitute teacher, bookkeeper, bureaucrat. Motion picture story analyst, low-budget TV producer. Scientific research internship director. Earthquake consultant. Professor. Disaster scientist.)
- I move a lot.
- I always have many animals around (currently 4 cats).
- This blog’s header alternates dozens of images.
- It figures that my kids would be boy-girl twins with only a birthdate in common.
Before getting snared by my two series, I never wrote the same kind of book twice. In 1992, in hardcover, Bantam-Doubleday-Dell published my psychological thriller that involves split brain research, animal rights and a love quadrangle, Was It A Rat I Saw. Somehow 20 years and several careers elapsed, during which I only wrote the novella C.R.I.M.E. Science, in which an offbeat group of scientists and techies solve crimes. In 2012 I realized how much I missed writing and resumed with the literary fiction Scar Jewelry, a multi-generational coming-of-age tale about a family with secrets. I’m in the research stages of an occult historical drama.
Nowadays I feel considerable urgency to write. I’m in the final books of my speculative detective series, FRAMES (Nica of Los Angeles, Nica of the New Yorks, Boredom Fighter), featuring a self-taught detective who pursues cases across multiple dimensions. I’ve just finished the 9-novella young-adult series DDsE, the diary of a 16-year-old girl who faces love, paranormal dangers, and adventures with a feral cat, a jokester lizard, and various people who are not human.
I’ve also started writing short stories and will soon be publishing the first volume, Debut, A Prose LP. Then, much to my surprise, every once in a while I sit down to do something else and a poem happens.
I live in southern California where I enjoy live music, attempting to draw, reading, walking, wandering spiritual paths, beaches, mountains, dream tending, family, and friends. If I had all the money in the world I would have an abode in each of its great cities then still mostly stay at home.
Required Writing 
Sue you always did have a vivid imagination……I recall youthful tales of adventures with rock stars…….
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Thanks, um, Lillith. The one you recall was my first novel, HEADLINERS, about rock fans who follow a tour around the country (to see the opening act). Someday I’ll get around to making that digital so I can publish it.
Don’t recall anyone by your name in my past so suspect this is a pseudonym?
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Me again….
So here is your official welcome to my wee blog.
Hello newest Spikey! I know, a bit corny, eh, but that’s the term that has come to stick for those folk who are part of the clan known to be followers of Uncle Spike 🙂
Thank you… I really appreciate that as I for one, know how many interesting and entertaining blogs are out there.
My aim is to deliver an eclectic offering of posts, from my ‘point n shoot’ attempts at basic photography, to the sharing of my travel adventures over the decades, as well as day to day happenings here on the farm. Oh, plus a few observations on life as I see it, thrown in for good measure.
My promise to you is not to be overbearing, just a couple of posts a day, maybe 3 at weekends if I have something special to share. But if you are at a loose end one day, maybe you’ll enjoy trawling through some of my older stuff too. I have added plenty of categories to help in said digging process.
Thanks again and hope you have a great day…
UNCLE SPIKE
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I love getting a welcome post! A first. Very classy.
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We all follow a certain number of folk, but we have our limits, so if someone is bothered to look at my stuff, a hearty welcome is certainly in order imho.
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Dear Ms. Perry,
I recently received a UC Santa Cruz alumni magazine because I have had two daughters graduate UCSC (1999 and 2012). There was a section in the magazine where notable alumni were quoted. I noted a “Sue Perry” graduating class of 1975 and am wondering if it is the the very same Sue Perry that attended M. A. P. High School in Sunnyvale between 1967 and 1970.
If so, are you the one and very same Sue Perry that was sitting with Karyn B on a small patch of grass in front of the S*** Motel at the edge of the El Camino Real circa 1967-68, in the very middle of a very beautiful summer day while a song by the Byrds was playing on the radio? This one little scene has stuck in my memory for all of this time (half of a century?!?!).
I know, too terribly weird to be true, but I simply had to ask.
My sincere apologies if I am mistaken.
Rick M
M.A.P. High School 1970
Hi Rick, and thank you for sharing your poignant amazing memory. Yes, same person. I sent you an email at the address you provided. It may have landed in a spam folder. — Sue
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As mad a background as me… 🙂
Nice blog
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Just checked out (and opted to follow) your blog – I see what you mean about your background! Although I think the Turkish fruit farming has me beat.
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hehe, still pretty darned varied though – like that
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You are my kind of gal! I’m currently reimagining another iteration of me, not sure where I’ll land or what I’ll look like when I do. I loved your list of “roles” which do not define who you are, it gives me comfort that I am not alone.
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Thanks! I’m glad you figured out that you were linked to a defunct blog. I did wonder why a person with a single blog post was doing “201”.
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Sue, many thanks for the follow. I am thrilled when real writers follow my little tales! Best!
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Looking forward to your blog.
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And btw, I think a “real writer” is in the eye of the beholder. So maybe practice calling yourself that in front of a mirror?
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You go, Sue! I love that you are deep into a “fantasy detective series” — and that you are the mother of boy/girl twins. BTW, my son goes to school in Claremont Graduate University!
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Thanks for the ‘go’! Do you get to see your son very often? I dread the possible day when my two might move far away. And if they moved in opposite directions I couldn’t even be a nuisance and tag along.
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I actually see him more now. His first two years as a grad student were hard, we rarely saw him. But he’s spending summer here, he got a summer job very close to us — so happy! (I m here to tell you there is light at the end of the “Empty Nest” tunnel!)
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Good all around! The empty nest is a curious thing. I am mostly used to it now but I wasn’t prepared for how often I had to re-live and re-learn it, each time they left again after spending some time at home.
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