Romance writer Susan Meachen, whose death was announced over two years ago, sparked a scandal earlier this month when sherevealed that she’s alive. Now she and her husband are telling their side of the story.
In a series of interviews withThe New York Times, Meachen, 47, and her husband, Troy, spoke about her struggles with mental health as well as with the online community of self-published romance writers she was a part of, which came to a head in the fall of 2020.
“I debated on how to do this a million times and still not sure if it’s right or not,” read the message, according to theTimes. “There’s going to be tons of questions and a lot of people leaving the group I’d guess. But my family did what they thought was best for me and I can’t fault them for it.”
Meachen went on to share that she’s “in a good place now” and “hoping to write again.”
“Let the fun begin,” she wrote in conclusion.
Speaking with the newspaper, she said that it didn’t take long before “all hell broke loose.”
Meachen saw the “book world” as an “escape” when she first became a part of the community, according toThe New York Times. But over time, she said it became “an addiction” and that it could be “hard to differentiate between book world and the real world.”
“It wasn’t good for me,” she said.
Her husband told the newspaper that his wife, who is under treatment forbipolar disorder, could get “really brutal” responses to her work from fellow authors and would sometimes “talk like a character from a book, like she was the individual she was writing.”
“It got to the point where it was like, enough is enough,” he said.
Susan Meachen books.amazon (2)
Then, on Sept. 10, 2020, while Troy was away, their 22-year-old daughter found her mother semi conscious after having taken Xanax, the family toldtheTimes.
Afterwards, Troy told his daughter to announce Meachen’s death.
“I told them that she is dead to the indie world, the internet, because we had to stop her, period,” he told the newspaper. “Even to this day, I’ll take 100 percent of the blame, the accolades, whatever you want to call it.”
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Just weeks earlier, Meachen had posted alengthy messageabout a suicide attempt amid struggles with her career, according toInsiderandRolling Stone.
Since then, Meachen’sFacebook pagehas been used to promote her work and toshare posts about suicide prevention.
Her final book,Love to Last a Lifetime, was published in October 2020.
Meachen told theTimesthat the decision to come back was something she thought about for over a year. However, the post was immediately met with backlash.
The New York Timesreported that other writers have alleged her death was faked to sell books or solicit donations, and that Meachen has been reported to the F.B.I. cybercrimes unit as well as local authorities.
Meachen, who said she has not heard from the police since being questioned, maintained that while she didn’t do anything “legally” wrong, she is sorry for any fans she hurt.
“I’m sorry for their mourning, but from a legal standpoint, I did nothing wrong,” the author toldThe New York Times. “Morally, I might have done something wrong. But legally, there’s nothing wrong.”
source: people.com
