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Susan DeFreitas

Susan DeFreitas’s Followers (75)

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Susan DeFreitas

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Influences
Barbara Kingsolver, Lydia Millett, Ed Abbey, Richard Powers

Member Since
November 2011


Susan DeFreitas is the author of the novel Hot Season (Harvard Square Editions), which won the 2017 Gold IPPY Award for Best Fiction of the West-Mountain region. Her fiction, nonfiction, and poetry has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, and in 2014 she was a finalist for a Best of the Net award. She holds an MFA from Pacific University and currently serves as collaborative editor with Indigo Editing and a book coach with Author Accelerator.

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Susan DeFreitas Great questions! Honestly, it was probably the sense that I had lived through such amazing stories that I had to share them, but I really only tell "t…moreGreat questions! Honestly, it was probably the sense that I had lived through such amazing stories that I had to share them, but I really only tell "tall tales"--which is to say, much of what I wrote about in Hot Season is true.(less)
Susan DeFreitas I'll admit, it's not really an issue for me, as I've found ways to turn off my inner editor. (You know, that voice inside your head that says, "This i…moreI'll admit, it's not really an issue for me, as I've found ways to turn off my inner editor. (You know, that voice inside your head that says, "This is crap! What are you doing? Where is this going? Who cares?") (less)
Average rating: 4.08 · 226 ratings · 67 reviews · 4 distinct worksSimilar authors
Hot Season

3.97 avg rating — 118 ratings4 editions
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Dispatches from Anarres: Ta...

3.99 avg rating — 81 ratings — published 2021 — 2 editions
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Milkfist #1

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4.78 avg rating — 23 ratings
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Pyrophitic

it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2014 — 2 editions
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* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

How to Structure Your Scenes

Often writers of fiction get no instruction whatsoever on how to construct a scene. And personally, I think that’s ridiculous, because scenes are the places where we as readers most feel like we’re living the story. What would the Harry Potter books be without all that dialogue? What would The Hunger Games be like if Suzanne Collins had relied on ... Read More

The post How to Structure Your Scenes

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Published on February 10, 2025 12:52

Susan’s Recent Updates

Susan DeFreitas wrote a new blog post

The power of a vision

Back in 2020, on a literal mountain top, a vision came to me in the form of three words: Workshops Against Empire. I was standing on a mountain top be Read more of this blog post »
More of Susan's books…
“Some things are like that—they strike you as repugnant for instinctive reasons, probably having to do with your culture and the way you were raised. The French word “gauche” comes to mind, but I preferred the Hebrew word “treyf.” Literally, it means not kosher, but I also use it to describe things like cars, bars, strip clubs, guns, dogs, rock-n-roll, and football games. Things that are treyf, you avoid, not because you hate them per se, but because in avoiding them you keep yourself from becoming like the people you hate.”
Aaron Cometbus, Cometbus

Tom Robbins
“Just because you're naked doesn't mean you're sexy. Just because you're cynical doesn't mean you're cool.”
Tom Robbins

Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
“Why don't you take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut? Why don't you take a flying fuck at the mooooooooooooon?”
Kurt Vonnegut, Slapstick, or Lonesome No More!

Emily St. John Mandel
“Survival is insufficient.”
Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven

Emily St. John Mandel
“A fragment for my friend--
If your soul left this earth I would follow and find you
Silent, my starship suspended in night”
Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven

25x33 Eco-fiction — 189 members — last activity Jan 20, 2026 01:40PM
Ecofiction, eco-fiction, green fiction--call it what you will, I believe it's an up-and-coming genre. Looking for those who agree to share the books y ...more
64477 Pacific U MFA — 77 members — last activity Jun 23, 2013 03:37AM
A place for faculty, students, and alumni to post their own books as well as books they've read. The purpose is to help fellow and future students fil ...more
138403 Binders Ink — 248 members — last activity Dec 28, 2014 11:43PM
BFOWW for the win.
179584 Our Shared Shelf — 222952 members — last activity Feb 27, 2026 02:51AM
OUR SHARED SHELF IS CURRENTLY DORMANT AND NOT MANAGED BY EMMA AND HER TEAM. Dear Readers, As part of my work with UN Women, I have started reading ...more
25x33 Sci-fi Women — 1682 members — last activity Jun 13, 2022 03:06PM
A discussion of women in literary science fiction.
31062 Jorge Luis Borges — 120 members — last activity Jun 30, 2012 07:07AM
Borges, of all the authors, does not yet have a group on Goodreads. What? He does. Now.
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