Susan Chapman Melanson

Susan (Chapman) Melanson is a Baby Boomer, who grew up in a home full of interactive discussion, love of books and intellectual curiosity. They used to joke that the rafters of their big Victorian home was held up by books. And, in a way, it was! She is a graduate of Miss Alice Teed's English class at Wellesley High School, Colby Junior College in NH and Hiram College in Ohio. During her college years she worked in the hospitality industry, enjoying the people and places it introduced her to and, unbeknownst to her at the time, providing wonderful anecdotes for future literary projects. She worked on her first novel, "Wentworth By The Sea, 1969" for 15 years before deciding to self-publish the book in 2000. Since then she has added a wide range of genre to her offerings. She traveled to Nepal. She wrote about it. She had breast cancer. She wrote about it. She fell in love with Northfield School for Girls and, especially, the Northfield Chateau. And she wrote about them both. She created a maple syrup cookbook and tried every single recipe before including it. She collected song words from her camp days and from family Christmases. The resulting collections have been published. She documented the lives of her very interesting grandparents, and she published a children's book that she illustrated. Ms. Melanson receives emails or notes on a regular basis from people who have been touched by something in her writing. She says that every time someone new picks up one of her books, they bring new eyes to the experience for no other reason than they will view it from their own personal historical perspective. And every one will be different.