Susan Gillard, anyone knows what happened with her?

[codixele]

Hi,
I love cozy mysteries and thus I've read all Susan Gillard ones.
In 2019 she published her last one called "Bourbon, bacon & murder" (Oceanside Cozy Mystery book #75), but then few days later it became unavailable on amazon and any other retailer. And there has been no news ever since. She also don't have an author webpage and she was shelf published for her last books I think, so no way to get information there, and on her Facebook page there's also no news. Some people there got that last novel but so far I haven't being able to find information, not even if she's dead...


Damn, I so want to read the last book of the series....

[Aglaea]

Wow, that sucks!

I hope all is well with her as well.
Maybe something Covid related occurred?

I tried looking at the copyright info on one of her books hoping to see an alternate name. It occurs at times, the author will use a pen name but the copyright will have their real name.

In this case, it just said:
Copyright 2017 by Guardian Publishing Group

Either Susan Gillard is not a real person but a pen name for 1 or more ppl that write the series and they write under some vague group name.
Or she is a real person, but for some reason does not personally retain copyrights to her own works. Or she put the copyright into this Guardian Publishing Group for some reason.

But if it was option 1, not sure why they wouldn't just have someone else finish the book/series if the main writer couldn't.

Also, I searched "Guardian Publishing Group" and basically nothing comes up, which is also a bit weird.

[SoBelJan]

I found the following on the 'Book Series In Order' website. It doesn't say what happened but maybe you could get in contact with this Karen Sullivan and ask.

Writing Career

One of the things that’s most impressive about Susan Gillard is how consistently good her books are throughout her career. Releasing a large quantity in a relatively short amount of time she’s never missed a bit, with her first book, ‘Strawberry Cream Murder,’ coming out back 2016. This mystery novel would also start the ‘Donut Hole Mystery’ series of novels too, with Heather as the lead character.

She’d also write alongside fellow mystery novelist Karen Sullivan, bringing out the ‘Cookie Lane Mystery’ series of novels. Then there would be the ‘Oceanside Cozy Mystery’ series of novels, which would also feature the character of Heather as the protagonist. There are several omnibus editions of her work too, bringing her ‘Donut Hole Mysteries’ together in a total of five collections released in 2017.

[codixele]

Yeah, and I looked the previous book as a hard copy in Amazon and it says "Independently published" so another dead end....

[codixele]

Yeah but the thing is, there's also no website for that author, or at least not one that I can find

[shortandplain]

Hi,
I love cozy mysteries and thus I've read all Susan Gillard ones.
In 2019 she published her last one called "Bourbon, bacon & murder" (Oceanside Cozy Mystery book #75), but then few days later it became unavailable on amazon and any other retailer. And there has been no news ever since. She also don't have an author webpage and she was shelf published for her last books I think, so no way to get information there, and on her Facebook page there's also no news. Some people there got that last novel but so far I haven't being able to find information, not even if she's dead...


Damn, I so want to read the last book of the series....

well if this is to whom you are asking about she has passed away
Susan Gillard-Feb,19, 2023

[Removed outside link - they are against the rules]



This was a Google search.

[Aglaea]

I tried to see if that info even matched the author and couldn't link anything solid.
It could be her or it could be someone else. We don't even known if Susan Gillard was her real name or a pen name.

The obituary mentions nothing of being an author as you'd expect. "Beloved cozy mystery author" or anything similar.
The memory wall makes no mention of it either.

The only thing solid about the author I saw was "She grew up in Kansas City, Missouri"
No pic, age, current location, etc.
This is all we are given -

Susan Gillard is a lover of all things mysterious. She grew up in Kansas City, Missouri where her love of murder mystery novels grew. Now she travels the country in search of the best baked goods and engaging with the locals who often become the inspiration for her wacky characters.

Personally. while the author may be dead, I wouldn't take this as 100% proof as there is little to link this woman to the author besides the name.

It's also possible it was a group of authors and for whatever reason just stopped writing under that name.

Edit; Also, this obituary is for -
This obituary is protected by copyright by Springdale Funeral Home. Proudly Serving the Community of Springdale. Springdale Funeral Home is located in the province of Newfoundland, Canada.

Which makes me think it's less likely to be her.