Upcoming Appearances

• International Conference for The Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, March 13-16, 2024
• When Words Collide, Calgary, August 16-18, 2024
• World Fantasy Convention, Niagara Falls, New York, October 17-20, 2024

Interviews

December, 2023: Sally Wiener Grotta. Sally and Susan discuss the What if? Why not? How? of writing about addictions.

November, 2023: Heidi Eliason. Susan talks about her inspirations, joys and challenges of writing, and writing process.

November, 2019: Just Joshing with Joshua Pantallescaro. Susan talks about travel, ADHD, Mercury, writing, and inspiration in this wide-ranging conversation.

October, 2019: Worldshapers, with Ed Willett. Susan talks about her writing process.

March, 2016: Interview with Carl Slaughter at SF Signal. Susan Forest on SFWA, the SF community, editing novels, being critiqued, contracts and speculative fiction painting.

Readings and Conventions

Invite Susan to read aloud from her published or upcoming works, or to join your convention as a speaker or panelist.

Past Appearances:

• Literary Guest of Honor Appearances: Keycon, (Winnipeg, 2021, 2022)
• Calgary Young Writers’ Conference: guest author (student category) annually since 1990
• Schools: Vista Heights Elementary School, Kingsland Elementary School, Montgomery Junior High School, Dr. E. P. Scarlett High School,Chaparral Elementary School, William Reid School (French Immersion–I can do presentations to young students in fairly fluent French), Erin Woods School, and Dr. George Stanley School, in Calgary, Canada.
• Writers’ Conventions: World Science Fiction Convention (Denver, Montreal, Reno, Chicago, Spokane, Kansas City); World Fantasy Convention (Calgary, Columbus, San Diego, Toronto, Washington, DC, Saratoga Springs, Los Angeles, Salt Like/online, Montreal, Kansas City), Nebula Conference, (Pittsburgh, Los Angeles), When Words Collide (Calgary), ConVersion (Calgary), KeyCon (Winnipeg), SF Contario (Toronto), V-Con (Vancouver), Can*Con (Ottawa), Word on The Street (Lethbridge)
• Public Readings and book launches: Pacific Northwest Reading Series, Seattle and Portland, March, 2016; Friends of Merrill, Toronto, 2016, 2017; Chiaroscuro Reading Series, Toronto, 2019.
• Art Shows: Calgary Stampede Western Showcase; Calyx Distinctive Arts

Adult Education

Susan teaches regularly, both online and in person, for the Alexandra Writers’ Center Society. She is available to teach in either lecture or workshop-style classes. Topics can include:

• Basics of writing: structure of the short story or novel; character, setting, plot and theme
• Self-editing and revision for strong prose: language choice; point-of-view; voice; balancing action, description and internal monologue
• Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror: conventions and techniques
• Support for your writing: finding time; working with writers’ groups; working with editors
• Business of Writing: cover letters, organizing submissions, synopses, meeting agents and editors, pitching, contracts, taxes and self-promotion

School Visits

Inspire your students with the magic of story by inviting Susan Forest as a Guest Author to your school!

In addition to being an author and editor, Susan has 28 years’ experience as classroom teacher and will work with your staff to develop age-appropriate book talks or workshops on the topic of your choice. Some possibilities include:

• Book talks / lecture / discussion / Q&A
• Revision: how to add depth and detail, eliminate the irrelevant, and build action, setting and character in prose
• Using drama to deepen students’ experience of story, sensory detail, and structure, in preparation for writing
• Planning and storyboarding fiction
• Dialogue: interweaving action, description and thoughts to show setting and character while forwarding meaningful dialogue and furthering plot

The fee schedule for school visits is $200 per half-day; planning sessions with teachers are free.

Testimonials

From N. Wiseman, student of “Characters Who Propel Narrative” an Alexandra Writers’ Centre course: “I wanted to take the time to thank you for all the amazing writing information you provided when I participated in your writing course, “Characters Who Propel Narrative”, through AWCS. That course gave me what I needed to get across the finish line in writing my novel. I am excited to share that my novel, “Blinded No More” by Nancy A. Wiseman was published last month and is now available online.”

From R. Pearson, student of “Rockets to Runes” an Alexandra Writers’ Centre speculative fiction course: “Looking forward to our next class but very sad it will be the last one. This has been such a fulfilling experience. I am very grateful to you for helping me get started with writing. Honestly everything I had been looking to get out of this class was met or surpassed. I can’t thank you enough. I will definitely be looking for your name on future AWCS courses in the future!”

From M Jeanes, student of “Seduction” a mini-workshop at the Alexandra Writers’ Centre: “I wanted to say thanks for the great course you put on last night—I felt like it was tailor-made for the novel I’m just starting to think about. I know I’ll use the document you provided to help me continue fleshing out scenes and situations.”

From J. Dover, editing client: “Thank you so much for the inspiration you gave me today! I’m very excited and can’t wait to get started. I’m so grateful your input and your offer to review the next draft.”

From M. Veronese, teacher at Chaparral School in Calgary: “Thank you again for today and ALL of the sessions you planned and worked through with my class. The students are so motivated. You really have a talent inspiring young writers.”

From L Iverson, student of “A Novel Approach” the year-long novel-writing course at the Alexandra Writers’ Centre: “You have an amazing talent to see things clearer than I ever do. I can not even put words to it, but I appreciate it so much, especially when it’s my work your talking about. It’s like you bring a new lens and focus to things I have not yet learned how to see. It was because of you that I re-wrote a turning point chapter. I had Arie removing her gloves because I knew it needed to happen, but until you pointed out that finally her character was being pressed to change, I sincerely did not see it that way. It changed how I proceeded – great!”

From J. Thompson, student of “A Novel Idea,” the ten-week novel-writing course at the Alexandra Writers’ Center: “I really wanted to thank you for a fantastic ten weeks. I’ve learned so much and had a great time at every single class (even, to my surprise, when it was my turn to submit!), and I really appreciate all of the time and effort you put into making sure it was such a wonderful experience for all of us.”

From Anonymous, student of “Backstory Secrets,” a one-day workshop at the Alexandra Writers’ Centre: “The course was far exceeding my expectations. Extremely helpful. The best feature was the openness and conversation that specifically related to each manuscript. I will definitely be back to take part in future courses.”

From D. L. Wybert, student of “Editing 101”: “I thought you were masterful in fielding all the questions and comments at the talk on Saturday.”