An Interview with Shelley Suzanne
Shelley Suzanne is a native East Texan who raised her hand for her debut book, I Didn’t Raise My Hand For This. She spent many years teaching elementary school math and science and the idea for her book started out as a blog called The Party Never Ends. She currently lives in the high deserts of New Mexico with her husband and three dogs with rock star names.
What inspired you to start writing this book?
Around twenty years ago, I started a blog called The Party Never Ends. Yeah, remember when people had blogs? I would write in detail about mundane daily things that I was doing. It turned out that all of these ‘things’ were things that irritated me and I didn’t know why I was having to do them. So, my blog was an avenue to get my frustration out. It was my free therapy. People would say they loved reading the funny stories and that I should write a book. I guess I took that little piece of advice and stuck it away inside me for twenty years.
I always knew that I would someday write a book, but ‘doing’ and ‘saying’ are two different things. Finally, when I turned forty-nine years old, I made a decision to finish the book by the time I was fifty. I did it and it feels amazing!
Tell us the story of your book’s current title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?
I Didn’t Raise My Hand For This was a no-brainer. It was a line in my first draft, and it just stuck. I love the title. It has so much meaning.
If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?
This is a fun one! Since a lot of my book is about my childhood stories from the early 1980s, I would definitely have eighties music. But I have to start with Robert Palmer’s Simply Irresistible. This is a song mentioned in one of my chapters. I would also have to have Olivia Newton John’s Physical since it is also mentioned in my book. The other songs would be: Every Breath You Take by The Police, Girls Just Want to Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper, Beat It, Thriller, and Billie Jean by Michael Jackson, and What A Feeling, the Flashdance song by Irene Cara. I know I’m forgetting some more. Yep, my soundtrack would defiantly take you back to the 1980s!
What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?
The most interesting job I have had was working at a gas station in East Texas when I was eighteen years old. I needed a summer job and apparently this was all I could find. This job and I had a love/hate relationship. But I learned so many useful life skills as a gas station check-out girl, like knowing the difference between hard pack and soft pack Marlboro Lite cigarettes. I don’t think I would have survived this long in life without knowing that difference.
Where is your favorite place to write?
Right now, my favorite place to write is at a desk in one of the guest rooms in my home in New Mexico. I sit at my desk with my laptop and desktop computer. My three dogs eventually find their way in there and nap while I write. It’s quite peaceful.
Not too long ago, I tried to get fancy and bought a new desk chair. It was so cute, with a bright yellow sunflower on the seat. It made me smile! But, one day, my husband had to sit on it, and my beautiful chair collapsed. He ‘said’ he almost died. I think he just said that because he was glad it broke because he secretly hated that yellow sunflower chair.
What advice would you give your past self at the start of your writing journey?
When I finally committed to writing my book, it was hard. As I wrote, I would constantly be thinking that people wouldn’t like what I was writing. But I knew I couldn’t think that way because it just got in the way of my writing. So, any advice I would give my past self would be, “Don’t worry about what other people will think. Write from your heart. If it comes from your heart, then everything will be OK.”
What’s one thing you hope sticks with readers after they finish your book?
I hope my book gives readers the power to feel that they are finally entitled to become their true authentic self. To say who they really are. Even if they’ve lived their whole life raising their hand for people, situations, and expected rituals, I’m hoping they’ll join me, that they’ll reflect on their own life stories, and soon have the freedom and power to say, “I didn’t raise my hand for this!”
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