Smithereens - Softcover

Seduction, betrayal, and murder in America's heartland are the lethally effective ingredients of this darkly compelling novel. From a writer called a "mesmerizing storyteller" by The New York Times Book Review, it's the tale of two teenaged girls, unlikely friends whose awakening sexuality will climax in a night of wild mayhem that leaves death and destruction in its aftermath.

Susan Taylor Chehak is a graduate of the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop and the author of several novels, including The Great Disappointment, Smithereens, The Story of Annie D., and Harmony. Her short stories have appeared in Folio, Coe Review, Guernica Magazine, and The Adirondack Review, among other places. Her most recent publication is a work of nonfiction, What Happened to Paula: The Anatomy of a True Crime. Susan's other ongoing projects include All The Lost Girls, a website devoted to exploring the lost girl archetype and the grip her story continues to have on our cultural imagination and In Hollow Hill, where she documents evidence for the existence of goblins in the 60 acres of undeveloped woodland at the edge of Nowhere, in Linwood, Iowa. Susan is also the driving force behind Foreverland Press, an e-book publisher (at www.foreverlandpress.com) devoted to bringing back the backlists of fine writers who might have otherwise been overlooked. Other of her online projects include WhatHappenedToPaula.com, a collaborative web-based investigation into the as yet unsolved murder of a former schoolmate; TheTruthAboutPaulaO.com, a blogged memoir of her ongoing 12-year investigation into the Paula Oberbroeckling murder case; and The Foreverland Chronicles at www.foreverland4ever.com, where she has been working to create detailed narrative record of Foreverland and its denizens. Susan has taught fiction writing in the low residency MFA program at Antioch University, Los Angeles, the UCLA Extension Writers' Program, the University of Southern California, and the Summer Writing Festival at the University of Iowa. She grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, spent many years in Los Angeles, lives occasionally in Toronto, and at present calls Colorado her home.