Susan McCarthy's Novels Inspired by True Florida Events

Susan McCarthy, a noted author and USF College of Education graduate, entered USF in the fall of '69 as Susan Carol MacWithey of Apopka, Florida.  In '72 she married and graduated as Susan MacWithey Robinson with a dual major in English Literature and Speech Communications.  Prior to graduation, she received an invitation to have lunch with the Dean of the College of Education to commemorate her ranking at the top of her class!

Susan's intent was to pursue her original goal of teaching English and Speech Communications but, because she graduated off-term -- not the best time to find a teaching position -- she took a temporary job at a small advertising agency in Winter Park.  Soon after she was offered the agency's copywriter job and from there, she moved on to other copywriting positions in Orlando, Atlanta, San Francisco until she finally had her own marketing firm in San Diego.  Along the way she divorced and remarried and became Susan McCarthy.

In 1991 Ms. McCarthy received a package from her father containing a news article from the Orlando Sentinel about a series of shocking race crimes that occurred in Florida in 1951-52 (Records of an FBI investigation, a Grand Jury hearing, and KKK indictments had been sealed for 40 years.) Underneath the clipping was a startling eight-page letter from her Dad which began, "Everybody in town knew the local Klan was involved, but nobody was willing to do anything about it.  I want you to hear, from the horse's mouth, what I did and why."

Eventually, her father's account of his daring cooperation with the FBI became the basis of her first novel, Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands, published by Bantam Books in 2002.  The book received great reviews and several awards.  Seven out of Florida's top ten school districts have elected to incorporate the novel into their secondary curriculum!

Ms. McCarthy's second novel, True Fires, published earlier this year, was also inspired by true Florida events, circa 1954.  The book explores a Lake County community's very heated, very dramatic response to the implications of Brown vs. State Board of Education.  She is currently working on a third book set in 1962 Florida during the Cuban Missile Crisis.