Few people know that Newport Beach is the home of a New York Times’ bestselling author who has 40 books to her credit.
Part of the reason for this unintentional secret is Suzanne Forster’s modesty regarding her first career. Secondly, most people know her better as the member of a three person leadership team who brought Banning Ranch to fruition after more than a decade of exceedingly hard work.
Who would guess that this modest person would have two such distinguished careers?
I first met Suzanne several years ago when I retired from teaching. Suzanne and another talented community leader, Dorothy Kraus, as well as President of Banning Ranch, Terry Welsh, impressed me so much with their knowledge, personalities and professionalism that I soon became involved in the Banning Ranch Project that was beginning to unfold.
Suzanne was involved in a myriad of activities, constantly speaking before large and small groups, spreading the word about the importance of this large parcel of land which would eventually become a nature area for the public.
There is so much that could be said about Suzanne’s work at BR that is largely unknown due to her modesty. It was a similar pattern that was to be followed by Suzanne regarding her professional writing career.
After knowing her for about five years, I finally learned that she had authored 40 books before her extensive work with the nonprofit! (Suzanne was involved in a serious accident which gave her lots of free time in which to pen her many novels.)
But it wasn’t until a few years later over coffee that she admitted that she had achieved the distinction of being a New York Times’ Bestselling Author! I was awed by her admission.
We talked briefly of the different elements that go into writing a novel: characterization, plot/story, imagery, structure. But Suzanne added that if you talked of such things in a writing class, the students’ eyes might begin to glass over.
Suzanne added that most readers are focused on the story, they don’t want to be pulled out of the dream.
Lynn Lorenz /. Newport Beach
