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Canadian born Suzan St Maur (a.k.a. "Suze") was transported to the UK when a child and despite resultant cultural challenges managed to graduate from British high school, but with no talent for anything other than writing - so her career options were fairly clear cut. Afterwards she attended and graduated from the then-famous Watford Art School advertising writing course and worked in London ad agencies as a copywriter for a few years, before deciding she was far too bolshie to be an employee and so became a freelancer.
While comfortably paying her mortgage and bills, her freelance writing work took off into the areas of business theatre and corporate video, in which disciplines she became the Grandma Moses of corporate script and speechwriting for many years. Suze also developed useful skills as a conference and video producer, largely in emergencies caused by the actual practitioners' bunking off through illness, drunkenness, excessive use of recreational substances, etc. (It's amazing how fast you can learn to do a job if the person who should be doing it is in la-la-land and you have a 20-crew video shoot or 7-figure-budget convention about to begin.)
These days Suze still takes on commissioned text, speechwriting, scriptwriting plus author coaching and editing, in addition to running her other business interests and of course, writing books. She is even about to embark upon fiction, with two novels in negotiation with a UK publisher who finally - phew - appreciates her acerbic sense of humour. Her humour is also reflected in her blog, "The Suze Report," where she picks up on the more ridiculous things she trips over online and in the offline media.
Being a "jobbing writer" has meant that Suze can research and write about pretty well anything, and this is reflected in the somewhat eclectic mix of her numerous published (and a few soon-to-be published) titles:
*The Jewellery Book (with Norbert Streep) (Magnum)
*The Home Safety Book (Jill Norman Books)
*The A to Z of Video and AV Jargon (Routledge)
*Writing Words That Sell (with John Butman) (Management Books 2000)
*Writing Your Own Scripts and Speeches (McGraw Hill)
*The Horse Lover's Joke Book (Kenilworth Press)
*Powerwriting: the hidden skills you need to transform your business writing (Prentice Hall Business)
*Canine Capers: over 350 jokes to make your tail wag (Kenilworth Press)
*The Food Lover's Joke Book (ItsCooking.com)
*Get Yourself Published (LeanMarketing Press)
*The MAMBA way to make your words sell (LeanMarketing Press)
*The Easy Way To Be Brilliant At Business Writing (LeanMarketing Press)
*Wedding Speeches For Women (How To Books)
*The Country Lover's Joke Book (Merlin Unwin Books)
*The A to Z of Wedding Worries (How To Books)
*How To Get Married In Green (How To Books)
*Planning A Winter Wedding (How To Books)
*How To Write Winning Nonfiction (Publishing Academy, 2010)
*The A to Z of Wedding Wisdom (How To Books 2010)
*How To Have Fun For F-All (Bookshaker 2010)
*The Pony Clubber's Joke Book (Kenilworth Press, due 2011)
*Successful Business Writing In English (Publishing Academy, due 2011)
On a less cheerful note, Suze has had cancer twice and is undergoing regular treatment for it. Wishing to lighten the load, a few years ago she started the blog "Cancer Comic Strip" which has become a popular stopping-off point for cancer patients, their carers, families and friends to relax and share a few laughs.
Suze lives in a village near the new city of Milton Keynes in central southern England with her student/musician son plus numerous dogs, cats, a fox under the shed and a badger that visits whenever it manages to squeeze under the fence. When she isn't writing Suze is cooking, gardening, dog-walking, tending her orchids, or planning her next trip "home" to Canada, while sipping a glass of decent Chablis.
