Smith returns to J-School with lessons of fulfillment
By Felicia Russell (MA '07)

Photo by Bill Drumm Susan Arnout Smith displays her latest book, "The Timer Game," during her visit to SJMC Career Day in March.

"Make your dream something you honor. And honor it by doing the work."

Susan Arnout Smith ('70) says a journalism professor's challenge nearly 40 years ago continues to fuel her efforts today.

When the late Professor William "Bill" McReynolds handed back the first assignment for his class, Smith was confused to see both an A and an F marked on the page. He told her the A was her grade relative to her classmates and that the F was her grade relative to her potential. "Language comes easily to you, and you're doing yourself a huge disservice if you take the first word and not the best word," he said. Since then, Smith said she has been working to find the best word and be true to her talents. As a student, she held down a reporting job with the Longmont Daily Times-Call, rushing from the courtroom to the classroom.

After working on the Alaska Pipeline to pay off debts, she landed a job as a TV news anchor in Anchorage where she spent her lunch breaks writing her first novel.

Then, she juggled parenting, wrote four TV movies and was a National Public Radio essayist. Most recently, Smith has focused on marketing her second novel, "The Timer Game," which hit bookstore shelves in January.

Like a good suspense thriller, Smith's marketing campaign drew audiences in with a healthy dose of foreshadowing. She wrote 22 short film clips, or "webisodes," for the book's Web site that gave readers a taste of the book even before it was available. "I love reading, and I also love the interactive feel to the 'Net, and I thought it would be great to introduce my characters from the novel in, well, a novel way," Smith wrote in an e-mail.

Her efforts seem to be working. She said she doesn't know how the book has done in the United States but that after three weeks in the United Kingdom, it had sold 16,000 copies. Smith has also had an early nibble for a movie deal.

"As long as you have your courage, and as long as you have the willingness to walk in and do what you have to do, you can move your career forward in amazing ways," she told students and alumni at the School's spring Career Day.

"A lot of times, what happens in life is that you have a lot of things crowding in … and it's so easy to put your dream off," Smith said. "Make your dream something you honor. And honor it by doing the work."

Smith said she spent 23 years writing, stewing over and rewriting "The Timer Game" before she saw it published. And while she had many chances to walk away, McReynolds' challenge to find the best word rang in her head, encouraging her to persevere, she said.