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WORK TITLE: A Short Time to Die
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://susanalicebickford.com/
CITY:
STATE: VT
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.kensingtonbooks.com/author.aspx/31803
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2017046483
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2017046483
HEADING: Bickford, Susan Alice
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053 _0 |a PS3602.I2825
100 1_ |a Bickford, Susan Alice
670 __ |a A short time to die, 2017: |b t.p. (Susan Alice Bickford) page 3 of cover (born in Boston, Masschusetts and grew up in Central New York; an executive at a leading technology company; A short time to die is her first novel)
PERSONAL
Born in Boston, MA.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, business executive, and technology consultant. Worked as an executive for a Silicon Valley technology company. Independent consultant in the technology field. Worked in computer graphics and animation.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Writer and novelist Susan Alice Bickford spent the early part of her career in the technology field in Silicon Valley, California. She worked in both computer graphics and animation, and she served as an executive with a technology company. She is currently an independent consultant in the tech industry, dividing her time between her home in Vermont and Silicon Valley.
She traces her interest in writing to a young age. “I caught the bug at about the age of ten, she told an interviewer on the Abbie Roads Website. “I was an avid reader but not much of a student as I saw no point to homework. When my fifth grade teacher assigned creative writing papers, I realized that was what I loved. However, I also loved art and science and other things. Initially I studied comparative literature in college but switched to fine arts,” she told Roads.
This early college experience was to have resulted in Bickford’s becoming a painter, she stated in an interview with Jaden Terrell on Big Thrill Online. “I started off as a painter but loved narrative.” Eventually, she drifted into high technology, and her artistic “aspirations were shelved for an exciting high tech career,” she told Terrell. However, the interest in writing didn’t disappear. “Fast forward, I took a break from my lean-in job and I started writing. I couldn’t stop, even after I went back to work,” she remarked to Terrell.
Bickford’s debut novel is A Short Time to Die, a thriller set in a rural community where people are quick to make judgments about others and secrets can be kept for generations. Protagonist Marly Shaw is a young woman whose connections to an extended rural family in central New York have been a nightmare for her. The Harris family, including her stepfather Del and his father Zeke, form a sort of “rural mafia” that controls the area around Charon Springs. Over the years, Marly has been mistreated and abused, and she has finally figured out a way to leave the area and escape the Harris family’s malignant influence.
Or so she thinks. As the novel opens, she is on the run from Del and Zeke, who are chasing her with lethal intent. Marly manages to escape them, and the two men end up at the bottom of a ravine, dead.
Years later, after Marly has taken up residence in California, human remains are found in Santa Cruz. The disarticulated skeletons are subjected to DNA testing, and the dead turn out to be Del Harris’s sister, Louise Rasmussen, and nephew, Troy Rasmussen. Detective Vanessa Alba and her partner, Jack Wong, take up the case. They head to central New York’s Finger Lakes region to investigate, trying to find out why two members of the criminal Harris family ended up dead so far away from home. At the same time, they will find out the family’s connections to Marly Shaw and the mishandled power, perverted honor, violence, intimidation, crime, and murder that were the Harris’s stock in trade.
In the novel, the “story starts strong, with a young woman fighting for her life against an opponent who should have been her protector. It’s one of the most intense openings I’ve read in quite a while, and the rest of the book didn’t disappoint,” commented Terrell. A Publishers Weekly reviewer also commented favorably on the book’s “gripping opening chapter.”
A reviewer on the website Auntie M. Writes called A Short Time to Die a “fascinating look at a diabolical family with an unlikely ending that develops” and a “strong debut with a unique cast of characters. Readers will be rooting for Marly from the first chapter.” Jennifer Wilson, writing on the website RT Book Reviews, called the novel an “intriguing tale of murder and corruption.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, December 19, 2016, review of A Short Time to Die, p. 100.
ONLINE
Abbie Roads, http://www.abbieroads.com/ (July 18, 2017), interview with Susan Alice Bickford.
Auntie M. Writes, https://www.auntiemwrites.com/ (February 1, 2017), review of A Short Time To Die.
Big Thrill Online, http://www.thebigthrill.org/ (January 31, 2017), Jaden Terrell, review of A Short Time to Die.
BookTrib, http://www.booktrib.com/ (July 5, 2017), Erika Lopez, “ThrillerFest Debut Author Susan Alice Bickford Holds Her Readers Captive in A Short Time to Die,” interview with Susan Alice Bickford.
Reading over 50, http://readingover50.com/ (January 16, 2017), review of A Short Time to Die.
RT Book Reviews, https://www.rtbookreviews.com/ (November 3, 2017), Jennifer Wilson, review of A Short Time to Die.
Susan Alice Bickford Website, http://www.susanalicebickford.com (November 3, 2017).*
Susan Alice Bickford was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in Central New York.
After she discovered computer graphics and animation her passion for technology pulled her to Silicon Valley, where she became an executive at a leading technology company.
She now works as an independent consultant, and continues to be fascinated by all things high tech. She splits her time between Silicon Valley and Vermont.
A Short Time to Die is her first novel.
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A Short Time to Die by Susan Alice Bickford
JANUARY 31, 2017 by ITW
0
By Jaden Terrell
Born in Boston, Susan Alice Bickford grew up in Central New York, then moved to Silicon Valley to live a high-tech life. Not the background one might expect from a novelist, but then, Susan Bickford is full of surprises.
Her debut novel, A SHORT TIME TO DIE, is rooted in a rural community and, unlike many suspense novels, it centers on the perspective of the victim looking out, rather than that of an outsider looking in. The story starts strong, with a young woman fighting for her life against an opponent who should have been her protector. It’s one of the most intense openings I’ve read in quite a while, and the rest of the book didn’t disappoint.
Asked how she managed to pull off such a powerful beginning, Susan says, “I wanted to grab the reader by the throat right away with the initial confrontation and built up layers of action around it. The final touch was to make the physical setting vivid on every page.”
She writes almost every day, usually in the evening, and warms up with “some mental pencil sharpening to get the juices flowing.” Sometimes that means critiquing a short story or outlining her scene points. Waiting for inspiration, though, is not on the menu. She says, “When my mind is full of junk, I set the timer and do free writing without stopping. This pops the nonsense off the stack and good ideas start bubbling up.”
Let’s see what Susan has to say about her book and her career.
Congratulations on your new book, Susan! And thank you for taking the time to talk to us. Why don’t we start with a little bit about how you came to be a mystery writer?
I started off as a painter but loved narrative. Those aspirations were shelved for an exciting high tech career. Fast forward, I took a break from my lean-in job and I started writing. I couldn’t stop, even after I went back to work.
I didn’t have a voice or genre but sensed my personal path was right around the corner. Eventually I was consumed by a story about a young woman who has to escape her family—or else. Although I had little formal understanding of mysteries or thrillers, I knew had found my sweet spot.
You’ve done computer graphics and animation, and worked as an executive for a high-tech company. Did your background in technology influence your novel?
Absolutely. When Marly’s past catches up to her, she needs to have a great deal to lose. In Silicon Valley she could build a highly successful career at a very young age.
I drew heavily on my experiences of Silicon Valley culture, but technology evolves very quickly. My original plot had Marly working on “apps” in 2000. Big “oops” moment—the iPhone didn’t come out until 2007!
A SHORT TIME TO DIE is he intersection of the stories of two women: Marly, a young woman whose story takes place in the early 2000s, and Vanessa, who is working on a current-day investigation. What made you decide to weave those two stories together, and how do you think that decision made it a stronger novel?
My goal was to make the reader more knowledgeable than the characters in the novel. Vanessa learns things that Marly will never know, and Marly knows things that Vanessa will never uncover. The two stories weave around each other, headed on a collision course, but only the reader knows the whole story.
What was the inspiration for the book?
When I was fourteen, two of my homeroom classmates were brutally murdered. The murderer was never caught. I always suspected this was because my classmates were from an underprivileged community. I became obsessed with creating a future for girls who escape, make their own mistakes, and build their own lives.
As a debut author, you must have faced some challenges when writing it. What were some of them?
You only get to be a virgin once. Without formal training as a writer, the things I didn’t know vastly outnumbered the things I did. I took it one step at a time and enjoyed the journey.
Critiques were a rude awakening, but as the story improved, I grew a thicker skin. Publishing was terra incognita. Fortunately, groups like Sisters in Crime were fabulous resources where I could ask advice and learn from experienced writers. Eventually my agent, Anne Hawkins, became my guide, and the team at Kensington is fantastic.
What about marketing? Some writers say that’s the hardest part of being an author.
I schedule time every week for my social media plan, focusing on the web site, blogs, blog tours, book launch, speaking events, conferences… The team at Kensington provides a big leg up.
Richard Bach famously said that the best way to know a writer is not to meet him but to read what he writes. What does this book reveal about you and your world view?
It was not part of the plan but my personal beliefs about human nature wrote themselves into the story. There is so much in us that is weak and evil—preying on those who are easy victims for example. At the same time, we have enormous capacity for redemption and love.
Marly and her stepfather, Del, are opposite sides of the same coin. Exposed to the same crushing evil, Del succumbs but Marly thrives. Her empathy draws her to others who will step in to help her.
Is there anything else you’d like to add? Maybe some advice for aspiring and pre-published writers?
Try to savor the luxury to craft your own story in your own way and on your own timetable. Meanwhile, find reliable, competent critique partners and people who have been through this before.
See you at ThrillerFest!
*****
Susan Alice Bickford was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in Central New York.
After she discovered computer graphics and animation her passion for technology pulled her to Silicon Valley, where she became an executive at a leading technology company.
She now works as an independent consultant, and continues to be fascinated by all things high tech. She splits her time between Silicon Valley and Vermont.
To learn more about Susan Alice Bickford, please visit her website.
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JUL 18, 2017ABBIEROADSAUTHOR ON THE COUCH 25
Today I’m conducting a session with…Susan Alice Bickford!
GIVEAWAY!
*Leave a comment for Susan and share this post to be eligible to win an e-copy of A Short Time to Die .
Feel free to use the handy dandy click-to-tweet links!
Enter to #win an e-copy of A Short Time to Die by @bixxib. #Giveaway CLICK TO TWEET
Me: Tell me about an experience that had a profound impact on your life.
Susan: At the end of my freshman year in high school, two classmates from my homeroom did not show up for the last day of school. The whispers were that they had left in their bathing suits to go swimming and “run off.”
They hadn’t run off. Two months later their bodies were found in a nearby field. But the whispers didn’t stop. They were from a disadvantaged community in our district. One girl had been pregnant that year. The other was mildly on the special needs spectrum. They had brought this on themselves. At least that was the message I heard. Their killer(s) were never officially identified.
We were friendly but not close friends. I sat next to them every day. The way their case was treated made me angry. The school bent over backward to mourn kids who died in car accidents—usually due to drinking—but did not even talk about these girls. I was convinced the police just didn’t care enough. This might not have been true, but I felt that at the time.
Decades later I sat down to write the beginning of A Short Time to Die, and I knew I had to make the story about a girl in high school who is faced with mortal danger and manages to escape. I knew she comes from a community that choses to look the other way.
My book is about my deep need to address the tragedy of my classmates deaths. @bixxib #AOTC… CLICK TO TWEET
Me: What personality trait of yours helps you most as an author?
Susan: Although I do not consider myself an impulsive person, as I look back I can see that I have been willing to make a number of disruptive changes. These may seem very abrupt but to me they are the result of many wheels turning into just the right configuration, making the way forward obvious—if sometimes a bit scary.
For example, at sixteen I decided to drop out of high school and apply to college. I visited a college I knew was perfect, they said I could get in for the coming year, and off I went. My parents were a bit shell shocked. I had a wonderful education and a fantastic time and that probably set the stage for future decisions.
Over the years, I transitioned from fine arts to computer arts to high tech in Silicon Valley, trusting that I could “figure it out” at each juncture.
When I took a break from my lean in career, I was overwhelmed by the need to write stories. Undaunted by lack of deep understanding of publishing or genre fiction, I embraced my new passion. I continued my high tech work and built my skills and wrote like crazy, which leads to another trait: I am willing to fail. Up to a point. I don’t expect instant success as long as I can see progress, plus that I am learning and having fun.
Me: What personality trait of yours hinders you most as an author?
Susan: I like variety and having choices. This not a bad thing, but it means that I am easily bored and may allow other tasks or opportunities pull my attention in different directions.
Sometimes that’s a different story than the one I’m working on, or other life issues. Compensating for this is a tricky balancing act. In careful measures, variety and change are stimulating. Indulging them can lead to stress because I know I have obligations that require attention.
Every trait / characteristic is neutral—neither good nor bad. It’s all about trying to keep the positive side of the coin facing up. To do that, course corrections are often required.
Me:What was your high point as a writer?
Susan: When I was looking for an agent, I talked to a number of smaller publishers and agents who told me that A Short Time to Die had to be the first in a series. I wrote it as a standalone and I found this very discouraging.
During my first phone conversation with my to-be agent, Anne Hawkins, I said that I assumed I would have to make this the first in a series. Anne said, “Oh this is clearly not a series. It’s a standalone.”
Anne was the first person who truly “got” my book and I was thrilled. I knew she would find a publisher.
Of course I was also thrilled when we landed at Kensington. Michaela Hamilton, my editor, got this too. But there is something special about the first time.
Me: What was your low point as a writer—a time when you questioned your path?
Susan: My second manuscript just didn’t cut it. It was good, but not gripping enough. As the author I was too close be certain, so I finished it, stepped back and thought meh. I was hoping my editor wouldn’t notice, but she agreed J
I was very discouraged at first. I took a deep virtual breath and acknowledged that this is my profession now and I owe it to myself to face up to shortcomings. I need to produce work that is the best that I can possibly produce. My editor worked through some suggestions with me and I’m off and running again.
I need to produce work that is the best that I can possibly produce. @bixxib #AOTC #AmWriting CLICK TO TWEET
Me: How did you know you wanted to be a writer?
Susan: I caught the bug at about the age of 10. I was an avid reader but not much of a student as I saw no point to homework. When my fifth grade teacher assigned creative writing papers, I realized that was what I loved.
However, I also loved art and science and other things. Initially I studied comparative literature in college but switched to Fine Arts. In the process I studied YA writing with Natalie Babbitt.
At some point, the kinds of stories I could tell visually became less interesting and I drifted back to narrative. That hovered for many years until I was finally compelled to write.
Me: Who is your book boyfriend? Why?
Susan: Oooh. Funny you should ask. I adore Carl Harris, the youngest Harris brother who in his late 60’s finally inherits leadership of the Harris clan of rural criminals after his oldest brother disappears (and turns up dead) along with his brother’s favorite son, the heir-apparent.
Carl has been so patient for so long—waiting for his opportunity. Now he wants to be a modern, enlightened crime boss. But he can’t help himself. He is like the scorpion in the classic fable who can’t help but sting the frog that carries him across the river, because it is in his nature.
Is Carl a good bad guy or a bad good guy? I’m not sure there is a valid distinction, but it was loads of fun writing him. Personally, I vote for bad good guy.
Carl and Marly, my main character, are opposite sides of the same coin, and face off regularly.
Both are smart, self aware, and trapped. Carl succumbs to the horrific pressures of vicious family behavior despite his desire to do better. The same pressures transform Marly from coal to diamonds. She struggles but embraces empathy and thrives.
Me: If you could be any character in any book for a day who would you be? Why?
Susan: I would choose Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone. I love the humor in her observations and the tempered humanity in her judgments. She is flawed, prickly, funny, and completely independent.
Me: Tell me about your thriller/suspense, A Short Time to Die.
Susan:
Walking home from a high school dance on a foggy autumn night in rural New York, Marly Shaw sees a flash of approaching headlights. A pickup truck stops and two men get out. One of them is the girl’s stepfather. She runs. They follow. Minutes later, gunshots are fired, two men are dead, and one terrified girl is running—for the rest of her life…
Thirteen years later, human bones are discovered in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. DNA tests reveal they belong to a mother and son from Central New York. Both have criminal records. Assault. Involuntary manslaughter. Maybe more. Santa Clara County Sheriff Detective Vanessa Alba wants to know how these backwater felons ended up so far from home.
Vanessa and her partner, Jack Wong, head to the icy terrain of the Finger Lakes to uncover the secrets of a powerful family whose crimes are too horrifying to comprehend. Whose grip over a frightened community is too strong to break. And whose twisted ideas of blood and honor are a never-ending nightmare for the one family member who thought she got away…
Me: Share with us a favorite paragraph or two from your newest release, A Short Time to Die.
Susan:
Elaine thrashed and smashed her feet together. Louise let go with a yelp. Another chunk of the cliff edge dropped away, leaving Louise’s legs dangling in the open air. She pawed at the bare dirt for a handhold as Marly continued to pull Elaine away.
Marly had seen Louise angry many times, but never fearful. Even now, Louise looked more furious than afraid. It occurred to Marly that, perhaps for Louise, those two emotions had always been the same.
Balanced on the soft, crumbling ledge, Louise was beyond help—her upper body among the living and her feet already tasting death. Marly watched, transfixed, as Louise swore, scratched, and scrabbled, grasping at twigs and rock, and slipped from view.
Still tethered to Elaine, Marly tilted her head back and yelled into the uncaring sky.
“Smarties win, Louise. See you in hell.”
What I love about this tidbit is that Marly Shaw finally understands the fundamental nature of Louise Harris, an arch-nemesis. Marly cannot resist the empathetic pull but it is too late. Even if she wanted too, it is much too late to save Louise and Marly knows it.
The notion that our bodies know things is also compelling to me. Louise’s feet know she is already dead, but her head and arms reach for life.
Buy Links:
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FACEBOOK | TWITTER | WEBSITE
Abbie Roads writes dark emotional novels featuring damaged characters, but always gives her hero and heroine a happy ending… after torturing them for three hundred pages. RACE THE DARKNESS and HUNT THE DAWN are available now! SAVING MERCY Book 1 in the Fatal Truth Series is available now.
RACE THE DARKNESS
HUNT THE DAWN
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25 comments to “Author on the Couch: Susan Alice Bickford”
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Cindy Morden - Jul 22, 2017 Reply
I love a good suspense story. Find them intriguing. I would love to win this book!
Susan Alice Bickford - Jul 22, 2017 Reply
Thanks Cindy. I will be announcing a winner today.
bn100 - Jul 20, 2017 Reply
sounds suspenseful
Susan Alice Bickford - Jul 22, 2017 Reply
BN100 – Thank you for the comment. I certainly tried to keep the suspense pumping!
Sharon St. George - Jul 20, 2017 Reply
I found your comments about series vs. standalone interesting. I expect there are many writers out there who can do both, but it does seem that series are easier to sell. You were lucky to find the agent and the publisher who respected your wishes.
Susan Alice Bickford - Jul 20, 2017 Reply
I think I must have a defective gene because I am not attracted by series and I’m not inspired to write them. Of course I do read series, but I gravitate to the ones where I can read them in any order. There have been many times I have opted not to read a book because it is #5, 6, 7 in a series and it seems I need to go back to #1 first. That said, there are some series I just love.
For my own work, I like tying a bow around the story. My characters have resolved their story arc. Their lives are now theirs to live. I tie the stories together by locating them in the same environment – currently a made up community in rural Central New York.
However, I realize that most readers love series. Since I do write commercial fiction, I am thinking of tackling a series in the future.
Pamela Beason - Jul 19, 2017 Reply
Wow, so interesting to learn all about you, Susan! I can’t wait to check out your books! I am a recently retired PI as well as an author, and I totally agree about wanting to do everything and getting bored (I write in 3 different series, for heavens sake) and wanting to be/meet/spend time with Kinsey Milhone. I met Sue Grafton at Left Coast Crime one year and told her she wrote the most realistic private investigator character in the field. She gave me a hug. I guess a little of her magic rubbed off, because my mysteries are selling well now.
Susan Alice Bickford - Jul 20, 2017 Reply
Thanks Pamela. We must have overlapped at LCC. Was that in Monterey? I will look for your books too. I’m working on book2 now. Not a series but set in the same Central NY locale.
Joy Giachino - Jul 19, 2017 Reply
This is new for me – your work . Looking forward to it. Browsed goodreads earlier . Thank you for the opportunity
Susan Alice Bickford - Jul 19, 2017 Reply
Hope you enjoy it! Thank you for taking a look.
Linda Moffitt - Jul 19, 2017 Reply
Looks like a great book. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Susan Alice Bickford - Jul 19, 2017 Reply
This was a fun blog and I’m glad it teased out some information you find interesting!
Sunnymay - Jul 18, 2017 Reply
This YA book looks like it was ripped from the headlines – a pageturner.
Susan Alice Bickford - Jul 19, 2017 Reply
It’s not technically YA but I think it could be a good cross-over. Interesting observation.
Virginia - Jul 18, 2017 Reply
Good interview!
Susan Alice Bickford - Jul 19, 2017 Reply
Thank you Virginia.
Dawn Roberto - Jul 18, 2017 Reply
What a great interview. Looking forward to checking this book out.
Susan Alice Bickford - Jul 19, 2017 Reply
Feel free to let me know what your feedback. I love to hear frank conversation.
Terry Trahan - Jul 18, 2017 Reply
Great interview. The book sounds like a great read!!
Allyson A - Jul 18, 2017 Reply
I find that fascinating that you dropped out of high school at sixteen and got accepted into college. I’ve never heard of anyone doing that, but it served you well.
I agree with you, that our bodies know things. My great aunt woke up when her son went to check on her, in the middle of the night. She smiled at him, and very calmly stated, that she was dying now. She passed shortly after making the statement.
A Short Time To Die sounds like an interesting read.
Susan Alice Bickford - Jul 19, 2017 Reply
Going to school “early” is more common that I knew at the time. Many private colleges do it. Even public schools often allow students to start taking courses early.
Yes, I find my body often knows many things that my brain doesn’t recognize.
Tracy Urschler - Jul 18, 2017 Reply
Great interview! I loved learning more about the author & reading the few paragraphs from A Short Time to Die & Love the Hand and Snow 🙂
Susan Alice Bickford - Jul 19, 2017 Reply
This was a fascinating interview. Tough questions but they really made me think.
Ashley Kendall - Jul 18, 2017 Reply
Loved reading the interview! A short time to die is just beautiful! Love the hand and snow 🙂
Susan Alice Bickford - Jul 19, 2017 Reply
I love that Kensington really got the genre down. My own taste would have been more subtle, but that’s why I need help 🙂
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ThrillerFest Debut Author Susan Alice Bickford Holds Her Readers Captive in ‘A Short Time to Die’
By Erika Lopez - July 5, 2017
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Thrillerfest 2017 Susan Alice Bickford A SHORT TIME TO DIE
Meet today’s #ThrillerFest 2017 debut author, Susan Alice Bickford, and her new novel of suspense, A Short Time to Die. Read on to find out who some of her favorite authors are, as well as how her main character would kick the bucket!
BookTrib: If you were on death row, what would be your last read? Why?
Susan Alice Bickford: Given that death row in my state (California) is indefinite, I would commit to read all the series and authors I love: Lee Child, Sue Grafton, Michael Connelly, Karin Slaughter (this list goes on and on). If my date with the executioner really did catch up to me, I’d re-read my own debut novel, A Short Time to Die, to remind myself of what fun it was to write.
BT: If you were going to kill off your protagonist what method would you use? Why?
SAB: Marly Shaw has this habit of killing off those who attack her, all hoisted on their own petards. I don’t dare touch her with anything bad because that would definitely come back to hit me. Marly would die at 95-ish after a day of swimming and dancing with her latest companion. After a happy conversation with her grandchildren, she would die in her sleep from a painless stroke.
BT: What is the all-time best thriller you have ever read? Why?
SAB: I would pick The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth. I was very young and it was the first real thriller I had ever read, which is probably why it has remained so vivid to me, even after all these years.
Head over to Amazon to buy a copy of A Short Time to Die now!
ABOUT THE BOOK
Susan Alice Bickford A SHORT TIME TO DIEWalking home on a foggy night, Marly Shaw stops in the glare of approaching headlights. Two men step out of a pickup truck. One of them is her stepfather. A sudden, desperate chase erupts in gunshots. Both men are left dead. And a terrified girl is on the run—for the rest of her life . . .
Thirteen years later, human bones discovered in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California are linked to a mother and son from Central New York. Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Detective Vanessa Alba and her partner, Jack Wong, dive into an investigation that lures them deep into the Finger Lakes. They find a community silenced by the brutal grip of a powerful family bound by a twisted sense of blood and honor, whose dark secrets still haunt the one family member who thought she got away…
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Susan Alice BickfordSusan Alice Bickford was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in Central New York. After she discovered computer graphics and animation her passion for technology pulled her to Silicon Valley, where she became an executive at a leading technology company. She now works as an independent consultant, and continues to be fascinated by all things high tech. She splits her time between Silicon Valley and Vermont. A Short Time to Die is her first novel.
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Erika Lopez grew up in Torrington, Connecticut, a sort-of big city in the middle of nowhere. She’s a Marist College graduate/writer and a lover of Thai food, sushi, flea markets and all things book-related. Erika can usually be found reading, catching up on the latest episodes of American Horror Story or Game of Thrones, or daydreaming about ways to travel back to Europe.
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Print Marked Items
A Short Time to Die
Publishers Weekly.
263.52 (Dec. 19, 2016): p100.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
A Short Time to Die
Susan Alice Bickford. Kensington, $15 trade paper (288p) ISBN 978-1-4967-0594-5
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
In the gripping opening chapter of Bickford's uneven debut, teen Marly Shaw is on the run in the woods
outside Charon Springs, N.Y., one fall night in 2000. Her stepfather, Del Harris, and his father, Zeke, are
chasing her with guns. Fortunately for Marly, the truck that Del and Zeke are driving winds up at the bottom
of a ravine. Both men are dead. Flash forward to 2013 and the discovery of two disarticulated skeletons in
Santa Clara, Calif. DNA testing identifies the bones as those of Louise Rasmussen and her son, Troy
Rasmussen, who were known as Louise Harris and Troy Harris in Charon Springs. Two Santa Clara County
detectives travel to the small town, where interviews with cops and surviving members of the Harris clan,
for generations a "sort of rural mafia," reveal details about their criminal activities, including killings.
Flashbacks chart Marly's friendship with Elaine Fardig, a high school student whom Louise and Troy
assaulted, and the girls' escape from Charon Springs, but the frequent narrative shifts reduce the story's
momentum. Agent: Anne Hawkins, John Hawkins & Associates. (Feb.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"A Short Time to Die." Publishers Weekly, 19 Dec. 2016, p. 100. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA475324283&it=r&asid=a5774a565cea4f630f8b804cf75302c2.
Accessed 18 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A475324283
AUNTIEMWRITES-MYSTERY AUTHOR M K GRAFF
Susan Alice Bickford: A Short Time to Die Wednesday, Feb 1 2017
complex mystery and debut and great read and mystery to die for auntiemwrites 12:41 am
shorttime-3d-1
Susan Alice Pickford’s debut crime thriller, A Short Time to Die, tells the story of two women who become linked in a most unlikely way.
Marly Shaw has the misfortune to be born into an extended family whose relations rule her rural area of Central New York with an iron and physical grip, dispensing their own brand of revenge or twisted justice in often lethal ways.
After years of abuse and a narrowly missed brush with her own death, Marly vows to find a way out of the town and that life. She becomes the protector of her young niece and nephew, and soon finds what she thinks may be a way to leave Charon Springs behind her.
Over a decade later, human remains found in California are traced to this same family, both with criminal records. Detective Vanessa Alba needs to know how these two felons died, and who is responsible. She and her partner head to the Finger Lakes region to conduct interviews with the remaining members of the Harris clan, determined to figure out why these two would have traveled all the way to California, out of their element, to be killed–and soon come to see that they were perhaps not so undeserving of their fate.
The brisk cold and rugged terrain are vividly described, as are the tough characters that are cut from a mold some could mistakenly take for extinct. Marly is an intelligent young woman with a honed set of instincts borne out of her desire to survive this pathological family she’s attached to by way of her mother.
The action alternates between the year 2000 when the Harris clan sets in motion the deeds that will culminate in the two deaths of 2013. This allows the reader to see how the situation developed, and how desperately Marly wanted to escape and save her sister’s children.
A fascinating look at a diabolical family with an unlikely ending that develops. A strong debut with a unique cast of characters. Readers will be rooting for Marly from the first chapter.
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5 GOLD: Phenomenal. In a class by itself.
4 1/2: TOP PICK. Fantastic. A keeper.
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A SHORT TIME TO DIE
Author(s): Susan Alice Bickford
Bickford’s debut is an intriguing tale of murder and corruption that spans more than 13 years. Riddled with twists and turns, A Short Time to Die features a family that is so evil the reader will likely be looking over their own shoulder. The resolution is highly satisfying, moreso because of Bickford’s phenomenal writing talent. An A-plus for this great book!
Marly Shaw is on her way home from the high-school Halloween dance, and like she is supposed to, she goes to the local bar to see if her stepfather is ready to take her home. When she learns that he has already left, she starts the long walk home. En route, she sees headlights. As two men emerge from the truck, she recognizes one as her stepfather. Gunshots ring out and Marly is now running for her life. With both men left for dead, Marly has no doubt that she needs to leave home and never come back. Thirteen years later, the bones of Marly’s stepfather’s sister and nephew are found in Santa Cruz, Calif. Coincidentally, Marly is living in California. Just what were they doing there? Two detectives are on the case to discover the truth. (KENSINGTON, Feb., 320 pp., $15.00)
Reviewed by:
Jennifer Wilson
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Review: A Short Time to Die by Susan Alice Bickford
JANUARY 16, 2017 / JCMONSON / 0 COMMENTS
The intertwined story of two women. Vanessa Alba is a detective with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s office in California. She and her partner are investigating the deaths of 2 bodies found in the local mountains. Their search leads them to Charon Springs in Central New York. The town is under the rule of the Harris crime family and their extended clan. It is while visiting Charon Springs to investigate that the detectives learn of the families activities, and of the life of Marley Shaw.
Marley’s story is told in flashbacks, from the year 2000 when she is attacked by her step father and his father, to 2013 when 2 bodies are found in California. Her story is very compelling. She lives a life in fear of her step father and his family. Not behaving as the family wishes results in beatings or worse. We follow Marley as she makes plans to leave Charon Springs and get away from the Harris family.
I thought this was a really interesting book, especially the story of Marley. She is a really strong character. This book is full of strong women. Some, like Marley and Vanessa, are good. Others are pure evil. But all are strong. I was rooting for Marley the whole way through, and even though I finished a couple of days ago, I still find myself thinking about her. I would definitely recommend this for fans of crime thrillers.
I received a free ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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