Susan Shipe Calfee holds a copy of the book she co-authored with her mother in her home writing office. Photos of her mother are displayed on either side of her. Photo by Maggie FitzRoy<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nSusan Shipe Calfee is an accomplished writer, author, and poet who hails from a family of writers. When her 96-year-old mother lay dying and asked Susan to finish a novel that she had been working on for years, Susan readily agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Susan\u2019s mother, Bess Paterson Shipe, had completed 22 chapters of a sweeping historical mystery suspense about a young woman who inherits a house off the Maryland Shore. She had written many short stories, but this was her only novel, which she began writing in the 1960s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, seven years after saying goodbye to her mother, Susan has fulfilled her mother\u2019s dream. After adding 17 chapters, including an ending she knows her mother would love, she published the book, \u201cThe Forces of Bay House\u201d by Bess Paterson Shipe and Susan Shipe Calfee, now available on Amazon.com and at the Ponte Vedra Beach Library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWriting the book was her life\u2019s literary dream,\u201d says Susan, who is also a singer, musician, and the author of a local children\u2019s book called \u201cSt. Augustine A to Z: A Young Reader\u2019s Guide to America\u2019s Oldest City.\u201d\u201cLittle did I know my mother\u2019s dream would also become mine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Q: How difficult was it to finish your mother\u2019s book?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A: It was quite a stretch to go from a children\u2019s alphabet book to a full-blown suspense novel of 465 pages. My mother lived with me the last two years of her life and arrived with 14 notebooks filled with versions of the novel. Her mother had lived to 101 and she always assumed she\u2019d have time to finish it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Q: How were you able to finish it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A: I was studying the craft of fiction at the time with \u201cShantyboat\u201d by Lynn Skapyak Harlin, who taught The Shantyboat Writers Workshops from a houseboat on pontoons moored on the Trout River, across from the Jacksonville Zoo. I studied with Lynn for 12 years and Lynn had read my mother\u2019s book and encouraged her to polish and finish it. Since my mother and I were extremely close, I was able to finish her book in her voice. It was like two hands on the same pen. I joke that I\u2019m not a ghost writer \u2014 I\u2019m the ghost\u2019s writer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Q: When did you start singing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A: I\u2019ve always been a singer, since I was five. Cherub Choir. Madrigals. High school musicals. Glee club. The University of Maryland Chorus, where I went to college. Then in my twenties I was hired by Busch Gardens in Tampa to become one of 17 members of The Busch Garden Singers, the first human entertainment group at the park. We put on costumed, choreographed, 30-minute shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Q: What was it like performing at Busch Gardens?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A: We did 42 shows a week, six days a week, seven shows a day\u2014outside, with a live orchestra, after the baby elephant act and the sea lion act. I also rode on a camel and an elephant while singing with a handheld mike\u2014but not simultaneously, I never achieved that. They asked me: \u2018Susan, can you ride an elephant?\u2019 and I said, \u2018I guess.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Q: Where do you sing now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A: I sing with The Heritage Singers of Jacksonville. I also sang with the Jacksonville Symphony for 15 years and as a volunteer for a nonprofit called Body and Soul, the Art of Healing, founded by the Jacksonville Symphony\u2019s principal tuba James Jenkins. Body and Soul brings entertainment to hospital patients\u2019 bedsides. I loved going to the hospital. I did several shifts a week for about 12 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Q: How long have you lived in Ponte Vedra Beach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A: Since 1991, when I moved here with my family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Q: When did you write \u201cSt. Augustine, A to Z?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A: In 2013. It continues to be sold in many stores in St. Augustine as well as online. I also give talks in local schools using the book to encourage a love of reading in children and to teach them about the city. My mother and sister wrote a children\u2019s book about Charleston, South Carolina and I decided to write one about St. Augustine. I was really into rhyme, writing poetry, and I chose the most kid-friendly places for the alphabet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Maggie FitzRoy Susan Shipe Calfee is an accomplished writer, author, and poet who hails from a family of writers. When her 96-year-old mother lay dying and asked Susan to finish a novel that she had been working on for years, Susan readily agreed. Susan\u2019s mother, Bess Paterson Shipe, had completed 22 chapters of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11951,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[10],"class_list":{"0":"post-11950","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ponte-vedra","8":"tag-get-to-know"},"yoast_head":"\n
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