Hi readers and friends,
I’m Susan Kelly, a novelist from Greensboro, NC. My 5th novel, BY ACCIDENT was published in May of this year by Pegasus Books. BY ACCIDENT is a year in the life of wife and mother Laura Lucas, whose son is killed in a car accident just weeks after his graduation from high school. Laura is paralyzed by the loss, and her grief threatens her marriage to contractor-husband Russ, and marginalizes her daughter Ebie. Then, Elliot Hatcher, a blue-collar, 29-year-old who works on a tree crew, moves into the rental house next door. Elliott, a Peter-Pan charmer, slowly brings Laura into the land of the living again: they go on a job with his crew, Laura invites Elliott for Thanksgiving, they smoke dope one afternoon. Until Laura knows she is crossing a line in the relationship: Is Elliott a replacement for her son, or an object of desire? Neither option is appropriate. Even Ebie has fallen in a kind of love with Elliott. BY ACCIDENT examines the ways in which husbands and wives betray each other and asks whether any kind of betrayal is ever justified. Before BY ACCIDENT ends, another brutal, random accident will redefine Laura’s life yet again. The novel got a great review in Publisher’s Weekly, and I’ve been touring with it for the last six weeks. Come fall, the bookclub appearances begin; my favorite venue. I write mainstream literary fiction, in the genre that makes my husband shudder: domestic realism. Dum-da-dum-dum. I’m fascinated by the familiar; addicted to the ordinary. I write about marriage, children, love, sibling relationships, inheritance issues, old loves, and in particular, women’s friendships and everything we hold each other accountable for in any kind of intimacy with another person. I’m also Type Quad A and very organized about my writing. Want to know more? Check out my website: Susanskelly.com (Don’t forget the middle s. Sigh, there are so many of us out there.)
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