Susan Kelleher recalls beginning to write her first novel at age eight and has written numerous short stories and other novels since. She grew up in a rural setting near Elgin, Illinois. She was the assistant editor of her high school literary magazine and graduated from Iowa State University in 1970 with a BS in Sociology and minors in Psychology and Literature. Writing was her best subject, but she craved a more active life. She became very involved in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and decided to become a psychologist. She earned an MS in Counseling Psychology and an MBA in Management & Organizational Behavior from George Williams College. She returned to her first love in 1987 and earned an MFA in Creative Writing at Western Michigan University. She spent ten years in Jungian Analysis study and in 2000 completed training as a Reiki Master-Teacher, after which time she also trained for and received certification as a Hospice Volunteer.

The third book in the Spirit Dogs Trilogy portrays the dogs back on Earth and Ivan’s final manifestation as a hero. “These books have the potential to be a never-ending series,” says Kelleher, “as the dogs experience recurrent cycles of death and renewal.” She is also at work on Jolene, a post-Civil War story and Bertie and Pip, both novels with humans as central characters.

Her childhood menagerie of dogs, cats, horses, pet crows, and chickens, and her creation of the Snowdown line of Flat-Coated Retrievers, were a clear foreshadowing of her use of non-human characters to portray universal themes. She has been breeding, raising, and training Flat-Coats since 1982.

She branched out in 1993 and purchased an Australian Shepherd, Ivan, the protagonist in the Spirit Dogs stories, as a 5-month-old puppy in 1993. He transitioned to the spirit world in 2006 after a long and happy life.
Susan teaches English Composition and Literature at various colleges and universities, teaches Reiki, runs spiritual exploration groups, plays violin and viola with the community orchestra, and hikes, skis, and snowshoes in Wyoming and Colorado with Fiji and Pele the Flat-Coated Retrievers. She has one son, Alex, who is a pianist and physician at the University of Pittsburgh.