Author Biography | Interview | Books by this Author | Read-Alikes
Born and raised in northwestern Philadelphia -- Mt. Airy, Chestnut Hill, West Oak Lane and Germantown—Suzanne Gold went to the Philadelphia High School for Girls, a magnet high school for "academically talented young women" from all over the city. After a year at Albright College in Reading, PA, she got her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Clinical Psychology from Temple University. She spent the next two years in New York and Boston, finally settling in California. She has worked as a psychologist and therapist in a psychiatric hospital and halfway houses, in drug treatment, and private practice. She also teaches classes in surviving a dysfunctional family, and has taught meditation, human potential and junior high school.
Gold is an award-winning vocalist and songwriter and performed for ten years in nightclubs, and at corporate and private parties. As an activist, she co-founded women Helping All People, a self-help group for women in public housing, and the Earth Day Every Day Fund, with the Marin Community Foundation. Her artistic expressions include making collages and jewelry from recycled materials, and photography.
While reading Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg, Gold was taken by Goldberg's idea of writing in cafes-- she said the noise and bustle occupies the part of your brain that would normally be telling you your writing stinks and you'll never amount to anything. She invited a friend to join her, and they met monthly in different cafes. Choosing a theme of the day, they'd write and read to each other what they wrote. Gold found herself turning memories from her childhood into fiction, and after a few of those, her friend declared it the foundation for Gold's next book. Suzanne was surprised, because to her, the stories seemed like simple reminiscences. But she trusted her friend's literary taste, so she kept writing, fictionalizing as she went, and the result is Daddy's Girls.
Based on her experience as a therapist and member of a family with mental illness, Suzanne is currently working on a book called Surviving a Dysfunctional Family: Ten Ways to Make Peace With the Past and Create a New Future. She currently writes a weekly column for United Press International's Religion and Spirituality website, a blog for The San Francisco Chronicle, and is a minister in the Universal Life Church.
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What's your background?
I've been a psychologist, professional vocalist, activist, artisan and teacher before becoming a writer, but my most profound lessons have come from learning to cope with my dysfunctional family. I've worked in a state mental hospital, drug treatment center, halfway houses for psychiatric clients, and in private practice. I'm also an award-winning vocalist and songwriter, working in nightclubs, corporate and private parties. As an activist, I worked with environmental and community self-help groups. I've taught junior high school, human potential workshops, and esoteric and meditative techniques. My fiction has been published in Northern Journeys, a literary magazine of the Pacific Northwest, and I've written articles and music reviews for SF Weekly, done business editing, public relations, grant writing. I also co-authored and self-published "Being Yourself: Twenty-Four Ways to See the Light", a self-help book that promotes spiritual awareness and peace of mind. and written two mysteries, as yet unpublished, that got rave rejections from New York publishers. I live with my artist husband, Dan Cooper, near San Francisco.
How did you come to write "Daddy's Girls?"
While I was ...
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