Susan Mattern is a Southern California-based speaker and the author of Poverty, Chastity & Disobedience: My six years in a Catholic convent and Out of the Lion’s Den, her memoir about a mountain lion attack on her 5-year-old daughter, Laura Small, in an Orange County park in 1986.
POVERTY, CHASTITY & DISOBEDIENCE
My six years in a Catholic convent
Susan Mattern had no problem with most of the vows when she entered the convent. Poverty was easy. She didn’t have any possessions, joining the convent directly from high school. Chastity was no big deal since she hadn’t ever met a boy she liked. But obedience? That was a problem, especially when the rules made no sense. READ MORE >>
OUT OF THE LION’S DEN
A little girl’s mountain lion attack, a mother’s search for answers.
“Out of the Lion’s Den” is the true story of five-year-old Laura Small’s attack in an Orange County, California park.
But it’s not only the story of Laura’s long recovery from brain injuries.
Her parents soon realized that the attack wasn’t just the result of a lone mountain lion. Early morning anonymous phone calls, erasures on police reports, and a California moratorium on killing lions, led a persistent investigator and a brilliant lawyer all the way to a trial against Orange County for negligence. READ MORE >>
“Poverty, Chastity, and Disobedience by Sue Mattern is insightful, delightful and revelatory. Each chapter is a story of Mattern’s experiences in religious life in the late 1960’s, a time of incredible change in the Roman Catholic Church.”
“The depicted daily life of a religious postulant is sometimes shocking, and you find yourself rooting for the author and her partner-in-crime Pam to find a way to break out of their monotony and exert some individuality.”
SUSAN’S BLOG
Malaguena by Ernesto Lecuona
Sunday drive into Cotonou
Travel to Africa Series: Part 3 Turkish Airlines had one suitcase delivered! I hoped it was mine. So that Sunday we drove into Cotonou, the capital, where Nzamujo says Mass every few weeks in English. I was thrilled to hear him since I had never had the chance...
Spanish Dance by Enrique Granados
Arrival in Songhai
Travel to Africa Series: Part 2 When I arrived at Songhai at midnight, I realized something else. Although we had gotten three suitcases at the airport, one of which I thought was mine, as I opened it up and started to empty the perfume and cologne and grape...
No, I’m not going on a safari!
Travel to Africa Series: Part 1 “No, I’m not going on a safari!” was my answer to the inevitable question when I mentioned my Africa trip to my friends. “What are you going to do there?” “I’m going with my friend to see his agricultural center in West Africa.”...