Susan’s writing has been published in the following publications.
SHORT STORIES, MEMOIR/CREATIVE NON-FICTION & POETRY:
‘Shattered Facades’, microlit piece in Play, the anthology from the 2023 NWF/Joanne Burns Microlit Award. Purchase here.
‘He Never Did Like Snakes’, flash fiction in Three Can Keep a Secret, Night Parrot Press anthology, 2022. Purchase here or from these retailers.
‘The Sword Dance’, a short non-fiction piece in Exisle Publishing’s Love and Loss book, 2020. Purchase here.
‘Lost on the Rua DQ Instituto Industrial’, poetry, in Broken: In My View 2019, a compilation of the winning short stories, poems and photography from the ‘In my View’ competition. Conducted by the West Australian Photographic Federation, 2019.
‘Sweet and Sour’, a short fiction piece in Peregrine XXXIII journal, 2019. Purchase from Amazon.
‘Black on Black’, a creative non-fiction piece in Westerly: New Creative, an online journal published by The Westerly Centre, University of Western Australia, 2016. You can download this edition for free here.
‘The Room They No Longer Enter’, a short fiction piece placed second in the 2016 Scribes ‘Short Takes’ Prose Competition. Published on the Scribes Writers website, 2016.
‘The Long Goodbye’, a short story in the anthology Other Voices: a collection of short stories. Published by the Advanced Writers Group at Peter Cowan Writers Centre Inc, 2012. The anthology is available in e-book format from the following e-tailers:
Amazon Australia Amazon Kindle Google books Everand and Kobo.
‘The Hyenas’ and ‘Escaping the Silence’, short stories published in Interpretive Ink, an anthology by the Edith Cowan University Community Writing Class, 2007.
MICRO FICTION – morsels you can sample over a tea or coffee:
‘They Came in Search of Riches, Kalgoorlie, 1895’, longlisted in the WritingWA Love to Read Local Flashscapes Competition, 2024.
‘They Came in Search of Riches, Kalgoorlie, 1895’
Her baby daughter’s grave was now one of many dug in Kalgoorlie’s parched red earth. Typhoid, they said, rampant among the prospectors’ tents with water scarce and sanitation absent. Hanni refused to cry. Another child sacrificed to her husband’s folly, abandoning Schleswig-Holstein for one goldrush after another in this bewildering land. She thought of four-year-old Carl, lost to fever in Cooktown. Hanni clutched the wishbone brooch made of Palmer River gold; an extravagance they could ill afford meant to summon luck. Luck, she knew, was like gold, an elusive promise they would chase and never grasp. She yearned for home.
‘But Now I See’, flash fiction, entered in the WritingWA Love to Read Local ‘Flashcapes’ Competition, 2023.
‘But Now I See’
Bagpipes invade the daybreak quiet luring her across the road to Whitfords Nodes. Wintry open-mouthed waves assault the shore. Rotting seaweed, an overpowering stench.
Amazing Grace emanates from a windswept sand dune peppered with scrabbly coastal heath. Fiona ignores the fencing, dugite warnings. Feet dig in for the steep ascent. Muscles burning. Breath, laboured. The musical conversation ends as she reaches the summit. Eyes frantically search. A flash of tartan disappears. She collapses on the sand, weeping.
Every year, her father plays her mother’s farewell song. He never stays to confront a daughter’s accusations, to acknowledge his own guilt.

Photo by MART PRODUCTION via Pexels
‘Life Lessons 2022: Onion Peeling for Grandmothers’, flash fiction, entered in the WritingWA Love to Read Local Flash Fiction Competition, 2022.
‘Life Lessons 2022: Onion Peeling for Grandmothers’
Alena loathes onion peeling. Removing the outer layers to reach the inner core, ready for chopping. The pungent aroma brings forth tears and bitter memories.
She’d been preparing Ukrainian borscht, granddaughter Natalyia in the next room playing with the Babushka dolls. Wooden grandmothers lined up in a row. Natalyia cradled the smallest one in her palm, singing a lullaby.
There was no warning. The explosion threw Alena against the wall. She struggled to her feet. The living room was gone, Natalyia buried in the rubble. When Alena prised open the child’s fingers, the baby Babushka was crushed in her hand.

Photo by Christopher Conde via Pexels
‘The Visit’, a micro fiction piece written to three prompts with a word limit of up to 50 words. Selected as a monthly winner in the KSP Quarantine Quill competition. Published in the KSP Monthly e-newsletter, May 2020.
The Visit
Always there to welcome her home. Memories of frosty nights cocooned in her dressing-gown, sipping warm milk by the fireplace. Pet gecko, a comforting presence on her hand. After her mother died, she found it on the quilt, withered and unmoving. The grief was too much to bear.
Anticipation, a micro fiction piece written to three prompts with a word limit of up to 50 words. Selected as a monthly winner in the KSP Quarantine Quill competition. Published in the KSP Monthly e-newsletter, June 2020.
Anticipation
Butter sugar lemon juice
mixed over boiling water
eggs added
stirred till thickened
left to cool
anticipation for
lemon tarts and
cupcakes
curtains part intruder enters
bludgeons rival
thud of body slumping
attacker savours mouthfuls
delicious lemon curd
pockets tatty paper
Granny’s famed recipe
anticipates reclaiming
‘Best in Show’
PLAY READINGS/PERFORMANCES:
Susan’s plays have either been performed or had a ‘cold reading’.
- Play reading for Mobiles, a ten-minute play inspired by the Peter Cowan short story ‘Mobiles’ at Joondalup Library, 9 August 2015.
- Allie’s Amazing Adventures, a children’s musical theatre script performed by Rise Performing Arts School.
- Plenoch’s Puzzle, a children’s musical theatre script performed by Hepburn Heights School of Performing Arts.