Award winning author, Susan K. Field has released her debut novel, Eleanor's Song. A coming of age. A thriller. Above all, a story of redemption and hope.
A car crash in 1927 finds three-month-old Eleanor Owens wailing on the floorboard of a Ford Model T. Amid the menacing torrents of rain, her mother lies dead along a Washington highway, as the vehicle that caused the accident speeds away, and leaves Eleanor orphaned.
Placed in the care of her stern and poverty-stricken grandmother, Eleanor endures the challenge of growing up in small rural towns, yearning for her mother and another life. By age seventeen, Eleanor devises a plan. She intends to join the US Army Nurse Corps. Get an education. And climb out of poverty.
But her brilliant plan crumbles.
In her despair, she impulsively makes a series of calamitous decisions and becomes entrapped in terror, abuse, and homelessness.
Inspired by true events and set amid the backdrop of the Great Depression, World War II, and the western migration, Eleanor Owens learns lessons about the ties that make a family strong, how to endure, and about her own resolve.
"The release of Eleanor's Song is bittersweet for me," says Field. "While the book is fiction, it is inspired by pieces of my mother's life. In September, I wanted to give her a finished book, but she passed in early July of 2023 at the age of ninety-five before I had a chance to. My mother knew I was writing this novel. I interviewed her extensively over the years. Thus, this is dedicated to her and the women who have survived, and the women who haven't. May their stories endure."
Susan K. Field is an author of stories celebrating women. Before she started writing fiction full-time, Susan worked in organizational communications, championing the voices of those who could not advocate for themselves: homeless and abused animals, children with special needs, and victims of domestic violence. Based on these experiences, she felt called to write Eleanor's Song, her debut novel.
Susan holds a master's degree in writing. Her nonfiction, poetry, articles, and essays have appeared in literary journals, anthologies, commercial magazines, trade journals, and blogs. An excerpt from Eleanor's Song, entitled, A Shadow of a Decision, won a Kay Snow Writing Award, Short Story category in 2021.
