Susan L. Metzger, whose pen name for the Spirit Dogs Trilogy is Susan Kelleher, began writing her first novel at age eight and is now at work on her seventh book. Two of these have received positive Kirkus Reviews and two have won literary awards.
She grew up in rural Illinois about 40 miles from Chicago. She was the assistant editor of her high school literary magazine and graduated from Iowa State University with a BS in Sociology with minors in Psychology and Literature. Writing was her best subject, but she craved a more helpful career and decided to become a psychologist. She earned an MS in Counseling Psychology and an MBA in Management & Organizational Behavior only to return to her true talent and earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Western Michigan University. She studied Jungian Psychology for ten years, became a Reiki Master-Teacher, a certified Hospice Volunteer, and is currently doing couples therapy with a Level-3 Certificate from The Gottman Institute while continuing to write fiction, judge writing contests, and is a copy editor for Words By a Pro in Las Vegas, NV.
She is an avid road cyclist, plays viola in a number of orchestras and chamber groups, and is proud of her son, Alex, who is a radiologist and musician.