Hi, I’m Suze Harrison and I love making up stories and writing them down. I’m the author of the Akashic Archives, an epic fantasy series inspired by the legend of Avalon. If you like fated encounters, supernatural skills, and political treachery set in a world of medieval myth and magic, you’ll love it!
My Writing Journey
Like many writers, my journey has been a long and winding road – sometimes a smooth highway, and often a rocky uphill track. I’ve had many failed starts and travelled a lot of sidetracks but I am finally living the life of an independently-published author.
I started my first novel in 2000 and finished it in 2003 before submitting it to every literary agent in the world (or so it seemed). The result: a big fat scrapbook stuffed with rejection slips. Thoroughly discouraged, I returned to the world of 9 to 5 and tried to bury my dream of being a published novelist. But buried dreams have a way of resurfacing. As I worked my way through a variety of unsatisfying, stressful and downright boring jobs, my story ideas continued to weave their magic in my subconscious. A few even made it onto the page. Then one particularly desperate day in September 2017, as I sat in my cubicle at the small personal injury law firm where I worked from 2010 to 2022, wondering whether boredom really could kill me, I googled “how can I make a living as a writer”. Sitting atop the 850 million search results was a book by Joanna Penn, aptly titled “How to Make a Living With Your Writing”. A few clicks and it was in my iBooks library.
Less than 24 hours later I’d consumed every word of Joanna’s practical advice and discovered an entire world I hadn’t been aware even existed: the world of independent publishing.
Over the next few months I hoovered up every bit of information I could find on the pros and cons of indie publishing. By March 2018 I was ready to take the plunge and commit, once and for all, to my lifelong dream of being a published author. I wrote a prequel novella, plotted out a fantasy trilogy, and started the first draft of book one. It was another four years before I finally moulded the manuscript into something worth publishing, and on 30 June 2022 I said goodbye to my boring little job, and went to work for myself, my art, and my future.
My Working Journey
Rather than bore you with the details of every single thing I’ve done to earn a living, I’ll instead list all the jobs I’ve had:
bank officer, loans officer, Jazzercise instructor, retail sales and customer service, party plan sales, astrologer, holistic counsellor, gym membership sales, sales manager, fitness club general manager, advertising sales rep, debt collector, employment advisor, sales support co-ordinator, employment sales rep, paralegal, personal development course development and presenter.
In my entire working life, which now spans more than years, there are only two jobs I have loved (Jazzercise & astrology) and one I very much enjoyed (developing and delivering a personal development course). The rest have been nothing more than ways to pay the bills.
Now that I’m out of the rat race, I can only say this: if you have a dream, GO FOR IT! Don’t waste a second. As I said to my boss at the law firm the day I told him I was leaving, ‘if not now, when?’
Thanks for reading this far
I hope you stay with me on this journey, and if you’re embarking on a journey of transformation yourself, remember to be kind to yourself and stay authentic. Only you know what you want, and only you can take the steps needed to make the change happen.
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Read about what I’m working on right now here.
You can read the latest on my blog here.
And the photo of me on the front page, and the top of this post, is me and one of my two Bernese Mountain Dogs. This is Nymeria, named after Arya Stark’s dire wolf in Game of Thrones.
