Five Things You Didn’t Know About Author Susan M. Baganz

1.   I needed braces as a teenager but refused to give up playing the Eb Alto Saxophone to get them. About a year later, I ended up quitting band but never did get braces until I was an adult. Also had jaw surgery as part of that process. (I still have my sax and now three titanium plates in my upper jaw).

2.   I used to be the lead vocalist in a Christian Rock Band called Jonah’s Vacation based in the Milwaukee area. The guys kept trying to teach me how to burp. I even did a concert while nine months pregnant! 

3.   I’m the oldest of six children. My favorite summer memories are spending two weeks at my Grandparent’s dairy farm in Western Wisconsin, outside a little town called Hillsboro. Just them and me. And many games of Aggravation every evening at the kitchen table and my Grandpa’s ruddy cheeks and sparkling blue twinkling eyes as he would speak Czechoslovakian to me (and never interpret). My Grandma made the best homemade noodles and her kolaches were amazing. 

4.   I first started writing because of a dream where it thought God told me to do National Novel Writing Month (nanowrimo.org). I figured it wasn’t illegal, didn’t cost me anything, and I had nothing to lose . . . so I wrote my first novel, 104,000 words in 21 days. I kind of went a little overboard, but fell in love with writing. That was 2009 and I haven’t stopped. I have 11 manuscripts in various stages of editing and revision (and two are under contract).

5.   I applied to be an editor by telling my future employer: “I have no experience and I don’t know if I would be good at this but maybe this is my chance to find out.” Truth in advertising. Yeah. I got the job.

Renata tries to escape her past and runs straight into . . . love.

Renata Blake has moved to the Milwaukee area to leave behind a painful past as a victim of abuse. She discovers a family like she’s never had before, at Orchard Hill Church and is drawn to handsome Packer fanatic, Antonio. After all she’s suffered through, could she ever trust a man again?

Antonio DeLuca has a full life with his family, church and his job as chef and manager at DeLuca’s Cucina. Having been betrayed in love, he is afraid to trust a woman again. How would he fit her into his already full life anyway?

As circumstances draw them together and attempt to tear them apart, life becomes a combination of savory pesto and painful potholes as both Tony and Renata learn that with God’s help, and the support of a faith community, they can both learn to love again.

And maybe fight a few ninjas along the way. 

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Ms. Baganz's debut novel Pesto and Potholes is available now

Susan M. Baganz chases after three Hobbits and is a native of Wisconsin. She is an Acquisitions Editor with Prism Book Group specializing in bringing great romance novels and novellas to publication. Susan writes adventurous historical and contemporary romances with a biblical world-view.

She has been published in Splickety Magazine and in the I Choose You anthology with OakTara Press. Pesto and Potholes is her first contemporary romance novel in the Orchard Hill Series, the second, Salsa and Speedbumps will follow. She is represented by Mary Sue Seymour for her adventurous Regency Romances.

Susan speaks, teaches, and encourages others to follow God in being all He has created them to be. With her seminary degree in counseling psychology, a background in the field of mental health, and years serving in church ministry, she understands the complexities and pain of life as well as its craziness. She serves behind-the-scenes in various capacities at her church. Her favorite pastimes are lazy ones—snuggling with her dog while reading a good book, or sitting with a friend chatting over a cup of spiced chai latte.

Author Website Link: susanbaganz.com           

Author Blog Link: www.facebook.com/susanmbaganz

Author Facebook Link: www.facebook.com/susanmbaganz

Author Twitter: @susanbaganz

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