Please help me welcome today’s guest, Susie Black…
Please tell us a little about yourself, where are you from? Where do you live now? Family? Pets?
SUSIE: I grew up in the same LA suburb as the protagonist in The Case of the Croaked Coach. Now I call the California desert home. I’ve been married to the same man for 44 years who still makes me laugh every day. We have one adult son who is a linguistic psychologist and lives in Europe. No pets now. Losing them was just too painful.
Where did you get the idea for The Case of the Croaked Coach?
SUSIE: Like the protagonist, I was a high school newspaper investigative reporter. Since I am a cozy mystery author, I naturally said, “What if I had solved mysteries in high school?” Since I couldn’t rewrite history, writing a story with that premise was the next best thing.
Why did you choose this genre Is it something you’ve written in before?
SUSIE: I chose to write in the cozy mystery genre because I love solving puzzles. To date, I have published 6 cozy mysteries and number 7 will be released in May of this year.
Was there anything unusual, any anecdote about this book, the characters, title, process, etc, you’d like to share?
SUSIE: Writing a murder mystery with a high school student as the amateur sleuth presented several plot challenges that had to be overcome to make the story believable. How would or could she approach adult suspects to question them? Would they answer her questions or blow her off? Would her parents approve of her sleuthing? Would she tell them what she was doing or lie? Would a high school kid know how to investigate and not get herself killed in the process? To mitigate these challenges, I created two adult characters who guided her. Bart, the protagonist’s uncle and a defense attorney who takes the teenage suspect’s case, and a female licensed private investigator hired by Bart who is tasked with coming up with the questions for the teen sleuth to ask suspects and devising ways to ask them and not appear to be sleuthing. And if a suspect is the one to focus on, then the PI would take over questioning that person.
What is the most difficult thing about writing a book?
SUSIE: I am a champ when it comes to a great beginning and a blockbuster ending, but the “mushy middle” of the plot always gives me heartburn. To avoid getting trapped in the mushy middle, I write the beginning and ending but allow the characters to direct the middle. However, they know if they screw it up, I take over, and there is a chance one of them will either be written out of the story or killed off. So, they are motivated to do a great job and they absolutely, positively CANNOT change the ending.
What was the most difficult thing about this one in particular?
SUSIE: The scene where Hannah discovered her classmate holding the bloody murder weapon over the victim was harder to write than any other. While the series is based on my experience as a high school newspaper investigative reporter, I thankfully had never made such a gruesome discovery as Hannah did. So, I decided to take a risk and have her respond exactly as her wise-cracking, irreverent personality would dictate.
Are there any tricks, habits, or superstitions you have when creating a story?
SUSIE: Some writers plot their stories while driving, some while in the shower. I plot all mine while walking a 5-mile regimen during the day. I am a night owl, so the writing itself comes after dark. I always have a cup of strong, black coffee on my writing desk next to the computer and only drink out of my lucky mug that my Nana gave me when I first got into the swimwear industry. The mug says: “Things could be worse…we could be trying on swimsuits.” When I am finished with a writing session, at the end of the paragraph or chapter I stopped at, I write myself an instruction for what is to come next at that spot in the manuscript.
Do you collect anything?
SUSIE: Since I was a teenager, I have been an avid stamp collector. I have incorporated this hobby into the protagonist’s persona in The Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series. I learned valuable storytelling techniques that I used in my mysteries from the wonderful stamp dealer from my youth who had a story about every stamp I purchased from him.
What’s the main thing that you could get rid of in your life that would give you more writing time?
SUSIE: My cell phone, the internet, and all social media.
What’s your favorite book of all time and why?
SUSIE: The Diary of Anne Frank. This book spoke to me as no other book ever has. Anne Frank was a teenager living in mortal danger who still had dreams, plans, and desires that any kid her age would. Her positive outlook on life despite her circumstances changed the way I looked at life, my values, and what was important to me. She would have been amazed at the impact she had on so many people like me.
What’s your favorite childhood book?
SUSIE: My favorite childhood books were the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries. I credit these two series with introducing me to puzzle-solving which eventually led to my writing cozy mysteries.
What actors would you like in the main roles if your book were made into a movie?
SUSIE:
Hannah White: Sadie Sink
MM: Jenna Ortega
Jodine: Emma Myers
Diane: Millie Bobby Brown
Cindy: McKenzie Foy
Toby: Maddie Ziegler
Donna: Kyla Kenedy
Terry: Anna Kendrick
Nana: Sally Field
Coach Bixby: Paul Rudd
Uncle B: Edward Norton
H.S: Milla Jovovich
Billy: Aaron Paul
Coach Bender: William Levy
Would you rather have a bad review or no review?
SUSIE: I would rather have a bad review than no review. As a sales exec, I learned that you can’t always please everyone. I also learned how to take rejection and that I would learn more from my failures than I would from my successes. I try to learn something from the criticism and turn a negative review into a positive by improving my writing by not making the same mistake in another manuscript.
What is your favorite quote?
SUSIE: I have two: “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” “God put our heads on facing forward for a reason.”
What do you want your tombstone to say?
SUSIE: The End.
What is the toughest criticism given to you as an author?
SUSIE: “If you can say it in five words she says it in twenty.”
What has been the best compliment?
SUSIE: “I stayed up all night reading your book. I simply could not go to sleep and not know what happened next.”
Your favorite…
Movie: Some Like It Hot
Music: Oldies rock ‘n roll: The Beach Boys, The Beatles, and Elvis.
Place you’ve visited: a tie between Cancun, Mexico, and Tahiti.
Place you’d like to visit: Alaska
TV show from childhood: Captain Kangaroo
TV show from Adulthood: a tie between MASH and All in the Family
Food: Pizza
Sports Team: LA Dodgers
Which do you prefer: Board games/card games or television? Board games.
Fourth down…you’re dead
Blurb:
There wasn’t an honest bone in Buzz Bixby’s body. The Encino High School’s head football coach was an equal-opportunity scoundrel. Bixby cheated and lied his way to the top and screwed anyone and everyone in his wake. So, the question wasn’t who wanted the bastard dead. The question was, who didn’t? Student reporter Hannah White’s interview with the coach is a nonstarter when she discovers varsity football hero Dean Snyder standing over Bixby’s battered corpse holding a bloody trophy. Despite how guilty Dean looks, Hannah is convinced he’s innocent. When Snyder is arrested for Bixby’s murder, the wise-cracking, irreverent amateur sleuth jumps into action to flesh out the real killer. But the trail has more twists and turns than a slinky, and nothing turns out how Hannah thinks it will as she tangles with a clever killer hellbent on revenge.
Excerpt:
For Donna’s sake, I wanted to believe him. But Dean’s story had more holes than a dozen glazed donuts. I framed my hands like a movie director. “So, maybe this happened? You met with him. You pleaded, but Bixby still refused your request. You got angry. You never meant for it to happen, but things went out of control.” I pointed to the trophy. “You grabbed the trophy off the shelf behind the Coach’s desk and in a fit of rage, you hit him with it on the back of his head.”
Dean yelped, “No! I never got the chance to talk to him. I walked into the office and found him slumped over the desk with the back of his head bashed in.”
“How long have you been here?”
“Ten minutes. Maybe less. I-I’m not sure.”
“Besides the trophy, you move anything else?”
He shook his head.
“Where was the trophy?”
Dean pointed to the carpet under the coach’s desk. “On the floor next to the coach’s desk. I tripped over it when I stood next to him.”
“What on Earth ever made you pick it up?”
Dean shrugged.
“So, other than pick up the trophy for some idiotic reason, did you do anything else?”
He made a sour face.
I peppered him with questions. “Call 911? Did you try to help him or check his pulse? Perform CPR? Anything?”
Dean hung his head. “No.”
My jaw dropped. “What the heck is the matter with you?”
He bunched his shoulders.
“If you’d at least called 911 he had a chance of being saved.”
He pointed the trophy at the corpse. “Is he dead?”
It’s not as though I’m an expert on the subject. The only dead body I’ve ever seen in person was Cindy Butler’s Grandma Ethel’s at the old lady’s funeral last June.
Dean bent over to examine the coach’s crumpled body. “I’ve never been around a dead body before. How do you tell?”
Good gravy. The back of the guy’s head is smashed in like roadkill. How much more proof do you need?
I rolled my eyes. “Well, since he hasn’t so much as twitched since I got here, I’d say it’s a safe bet the next game Bixby coaches is gonna be played in the stadium located at the Great Beyond.”
I used my shirt sleeve to pick up the phone receiver.
Dean gulped. “Who are you calling?”
Is this guy for real?
“Donofrio’s Pizzeria. Dead bodies give me the munchies.” I smacked his forehead with the heel of my hand. “For crying out loud, Dean! Who do you think I’m calling? The police!” I tsked, “Something anyone with a brain does the minute Bixby’s body is discovered.”
Dean whined as cranky as a toddler who needed a nap. “Why? No one knows we’re here. Can’t we just leave and let somebody else call the cops?”
I gritted my teeth. “Because it is against the law to leave the scene of a crime.”
Buy link(s):
Amazon E-pub: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DXDDK3MJ/ref=sr_1_5?crid=2NWD3P7G13BV3&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.TBMZYdaDu4zX3BG22VQckeie82mLtzeVAI
Amazon Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Case-Croaked-Coach-Susie-Black/dp/B0DXG8VYN2/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib
Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/the-case-of-the-croaked-coach-by-susie-black
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?query=The+Case+of+the+Croaked+Coach&fclanguages=en
Google Play for Books: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Susie_Black_The_Case_of_the_Croaked_Coach?id=v1xHEQAAQBAJ
iBooks: The Case of the Croaked Coach by Susie Black on Apple Books
A Bit About the Author: Susie Black’s biography
Named Best US Author of the Year by N. N. Lights Book Heaven, multi-award-winning cozy mystery author Susie Black was born in the Big Apple but now calls sunny Southern California home. She has published seven books in four years and book eight is slated for release in May 2025. She reads, writes, and speaks Spanish, albeit with an accent that sounds like Mildred from Michigan went on a Mexican vacation and is trying to fit in with the locals. Since life without pizza and ice cream as her core food groups wouldn’t be worth living, she’s a dedicated walker to keep her girlish figure. A voracious reader, she’s also an avid stamp collector. Susie lives with a highly intelligent man and is the mother of one incredibly brainy but smart-aleck adult son who inexplicably blames his sarcasm on an inherited genetic defect.
Susie Black Social Media Links:
Blue Sky: https://www.hollysusiewrites.bsky.social
Facebook: Susie Black, author of The Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series | Facebook
Facebook: https://facebook.com/TheHollySwimsuitMysterySeries
Instagram: Susie Black (@hollyswimsuit) • Instagram photos and videos
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/authorsusieblack-61941011
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hollysusie1_saved/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/@hollyswimsuit
Looking for more? Contact Susie at: Website: www.authorsusieblack.com E-mail: mysteries_@authorsusieblack.com
Author Alicia Dean 
What a wonderful interview! My favorite books growing up were also the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries. 🙂 Congratulations to Susie, and thank you, Alicia for hosting!
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Thank you, Jan. I am pleased you enjoyed the interview. Nice to know we share favorite childhood books. Susie.
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