Susan Stoderl was born in Denver, Colorado, and grew up in Southwestern Kansas. She studied musicology at the master’s level at Wichita State University, but left before finishing her thesis. She moved to Baltimore to earn her master’s in voice at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University. Susan spent over thirty years in New York City, working in opera as a soloist, chorister, music director, conductor, and composer. She has always felt pulled between writing and music, but writing has become her focus. She enjoys singing with her wonderful local church choir. Now, she writes middle-grade and historical fiction in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

Besides the Sophia of the Bright Red Sneakers series, Susan is working on Eleven Days Toward Death. This Corrie Chester/Roger Holloway historical mystery/ romance takes place in 1929 in a small Western Kansas town. She is currently in the research phase of Vol. 3 of the Sophia series, tentatively entitled Mission 3: Convergence Point. You can follow her blog at Scribbles & Thoughts | Susan Stoderl.