1--What is the title of your latest release?
A MAP TO PARADISE
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Set in Malibu in 1956, the lives of a blacklisted actress, a Displaced Person from Eastern Europe, and a widow caring for her agoraphobic brother-in-law converge to reveal what makes all of us long for our own bit of Paradise—that one place where we feel safe and at home—and what we’re willing do to get it back when it’s been taken from us.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
I knew the book would take place somewhere just outside Los Angeles because of the book’s emphasis on the Hollywood Red Scare and the blacklist. Idyllic Malibu was the perfect place for my devastated blacklisted actress to hide out in, my lonely maid to work in, and the caregiver—who is a widow with nothing— to fall in love with her hermit brother-in-law.
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
I have three protagonists in this book—Melanie the actress, Eva the war refugee from Eastern Europe, and June who lives with her agoraphobic brother-in-law. And I would enjoy all three of them as friends but not for the same reasons. Melanie has a good heart though she often speaks before she thinks. She’d be a friend who would always be brutally honest. Eva, who lost everything in the war, is a kind soul and deserves to have friends around who will stand by her, and June spends too much time alone. She needs some good friends!
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Melanie: Talented, pretty, loyal
Eva: Disillusioned, resigned, kind-hearted
June: Compassionate, underappreciated, smart
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I did not know how many Displaced Persons there were after WW2. A million displaced Eastern Europeans lived in crowded German DP camps for many years after the war’s end. Some had no home to return to, some didn’t want to go home to a country now under Soviet rule. I was also surprised by the intensity of the witch hunt to rout out Communist sympathizers in Hollywood in the 1940s and 50s. Guilt by association happened all the time, and the only way to clear your name was to name others. There were in fact a few Communist sympathizers in Tinsel Town but so many of the people on the studio blacklist were falsely accused and abandoned by the studios. Some of these couldn’t get acting roles or script jobs in Hollywood for years.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I edit as I go. I always read and edit yesterday’s chapter before starting the new one. But only yesterday’s chapter. If I kept going backward more and more every day, I would never write anything new.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
I adore salted caramels. There’s a certain kind we can get at our closest Costco, and I treat myself to one a day. But only one. Also, I can never say no to a doughnut.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
I love my office. I have a desk and comfy chair and a view of pine, maple, and alder trees outside my window. My research books are one side of me and my backlist is on a big shelf behind me, along with the writing craft books I’ve kept over the years. On the other side of me is usually my dog.
10--Who is an author you admire?
If I can only choose one, I will go with Ann Patchett. She can say so much in so small a space. Some of my favorites of hers are The Dutch House, Bel Canto, and State of Wonder. She writes books with emotional depth, that stay with you long after you’ve finished. They are book club books. You want to talk with someone after you’ve read one.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
Other than the Bible, I’d say Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible changed my life because it made me want to write a novel so badly, I just had to try it instead of putting it off year after year after year. I am so glad I did.
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
It was the end of summer in 2003. There aren’t any adequate words to describe that feeling. It was elation, it was relief, it was unbelief, it was fear, it was awe, it was gratitude, it was joy. It was all those things.
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
I will read any genre if the characters are richly drawn and the storyline is about them and not the plot they find themselves in. For me, it’s character first and then plot. Plot matters of course, but character matters more.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
Well, it’s still You’ve Got Mail. For a boatload of reasons. For the story, the cinematography, the crisscrossing of our loyalties between Kathleen and Joe, for the metaphors everywhere. For the kiss at the end.
15--What is your favorite season?
Winsprisumfall. I love them all. I really do.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
A doughnut and good coffee first of course, then a long, pretty walk, a trip to the bookstore, happy hour with my love and my dog, a cozy restaurant for dinner, and a meaningful movie when we get home, something that has Oscar written all over it.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
TV show: Severance Season 2 has started on Apple TV. It is so clever and wild and thought-provoking. Season 1 is a must to watch first. Book: I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger. He is brilliant. Podcast: I always enjoy What Should I Read Next with Anne Bogel, but I especially liked her interview a few months ago with Elif Shafak on the resilience of literature. It’s episode 455. Elif speaks so eloquently about the world of literature.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Italian almost always
19--What do you do when you have free time?
I love to travel and see new places, but staying home with a great book, a cuppa, and a cozy blanket is very okay, too.
20--What can readers expect from you next?
I am just starting on the novel that will follow A MAP TO PARADISE, in 2027, and it doesn’t have shape or a name yet but it’s about what we inherit from our parents, and I’m not talking about money or an estate. I’m talking about how we see life, how we treat people, how we make decisions, etc. It’s set in 1968 and 1969 so it’s also about those hard years of social unrest, and a man landing on the moon. It’s been a fun research ride so far!
1956, Malibu, California: Something is not right on Paradise Circle.
With her name on the Hollywood blacklist and her life on hold, starlet Melanie Cole has little choice in company. There is her next-door neighbor, Elwood, but the screenwriter’s agoraphobia allows for just short chats through open windows. He’s her sole confidante, though, as she and her housekeeper, Eva, an immigrant from war-torn Europe, rarely make conversation.
Then one early morning Melanie and Eva spot Elwood’s sister-in-law and caretaker, June, digging in his beloved rose garden. After that they don’t see Elwood at all anymore. Where could a man who never leaves the house possibly have gone?
As they try to find out if something has happened to him, unexpected secrets are revealed among all three women, leading to an alliance that seems the only way for any of them to hold on to what they can still call their own. But it’s a fragile pact and one little spark could send it all up in smoke…
Women's Fiction Historical | Women's Fiction Friendship [Berkley, On Sale: March 18, 2025, Hardcover / e-Book , ISBN: 9780593332863 / eISBN: 9780593332887]
Susan Meissner is a USA Today bestselling author with more than half a million books in print in 15 languages and a writing workshop leader with a background in community journalism. Her novels include The Last Year of the War (a LibraryReads top pick for March 2019), As Bright As Heaven, and Secrets of a Charmed Life, a Goodreads Best Historical Fiction finalist for 2015. She is also RITA finalist and Christy Award winner. When she's not working on a novel, she volunteers for Words Alive, a San Diego non-profit dedicated to helping at-risk youth foster a love for reading and writing.
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