Today we’d like to introduce you to Susan Cope.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I’m from the foothills of the Berkshires in New England, but I’ve lived most of my life close to the Pacific Ocean. Many days here are sunny, but I love the foggy ones too. In Malibu, high surf battered my windows, another time hurled a house below into the waves. Once a fire charged down the canyon, stopped just short of my house, so close embers singed my hair. Now, for many years, Santa Monica, a degree less wild, has been my home. The seeds of What on Earth? were planted years ago when I worked in network news. At first hand, I experienced clear-cut forests, open mines, wildfires, blacktops so hot it melted the soles of my shoes, extreme weather events and a volcanic eruption. I’m one of few who survived a secondary but impressive eruption of Mount St. Helen from a helicopter tossed like a toy inside the crater.
Later, I realized that my survival was dependent on forces larger than a volcano: global climate change means all life is at risk. I despaired. What on Earth? was born from that despair. How could we let that happen in the first place, and how could we continue along a clear path of destruction? Could we change the story?
Urgent and terrifying as I found this threat, motherhood and a second career in the classroom delayed What on Earth? Through my daughter, I came to know the springing joy, the luminous intelligence of young life. At school, my students slipped me a backstage pass to the world of adolescents. Their spirit, their brilliance, gave me a sense of optimism. Also, a sense of how much we have to lose.
I’m a grandmother now, which only intensifies my deep sense that we are connected, we are in crisis, yet we can still wake from this nightmare, still save our earth, our threatened home. We can change our story.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Sitting down to write anything is always a challenge: for me: Distraction is my middle name.
Facing global climate change is overwhelming and can paralyze the soul.
Writing is only a third of the challenge. Getting a book published is a challenge of another sort.
Finally, and crucial, is finding readers—or luring readers –to What on Earth?
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My recent novel, for middle schoolers through adults, is What on Earth?–a picaresque fable with magical elements in which the worlds within snow globes become portals to other realities. There is an echo of The Wizard of Oz in which characters from the opening pages resurface in different roles, retaining only their essence. Thirteen-year-old Merry and her eleven-year-old brother Max are whisked to worlds of the future, each one a possible outcome, a consequence of our response to the climate crisis. On this quest, the siblings move from sworn enemies to valuable partners. Returned to our world, they are primed for action. Singlehandedly, they may not save the world but they will take the first step.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
For me, what matters is the health of our home, the earth. There is no safe haven, because we, as a species, have abused and ignored our planet. We have extinguished so much, so many already; it will take a radical awakening, even now, to slow us down, to allow the world to heal.
Pricing:
- $17.99, What on Earth?
Contact Info:
- Website: https://susancope.com/
- Instagram: susancopewrites
- Facebook: What on Earth?
Image Credits
Personal images, Maggie Smith Taplin Dog with What on Earth?
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