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
Ed Harper
[Photo: Ed Harper next to his plane in World War II] I've been privileged to know many amazing and wonderful people in my life. One of them was my brother-in-law, Ed Harper. Ed died four years ago at age 93. He was the second-to-last survivor of the original Black...
Why I Blog
I started writing blogs so that I could tell people about my book, “Out of the Lion's Den." I created a Facebook author page, which is @susanmatternauthor and went on Instagram (as mattern.susan) for the same reason. My blogs have actually been so much fun to write...
Haggis and Neeps and Tatties
I have loved every moment of my visits to Scotland, and now that we have an adopted set of relatives there courtesy of my daughter-in-law's mother, it's even more special. Even though I'm Irish and German, I felt an immediate affinity for Scotland. The land is wild...
I Love My Shirt (with apologies to Donovan)
There are many ways to gain confidence. I've belonged to Toastmasters for years, and I've gradually gotten to be a better speaker just by getting up in front of people and conquering the fear of public speaking. Everyone in Toastmasters is like me – people who want to...
Shamrocks and Henna
I was a guest at a wonderful wedding recently. A long-time Pakistani friend, the bride, got married to a young man of Irish Catholic heritage. The wedding took place here in Orange County. What a delightful blend of cultures. The bride wore a traditional Pakistani...
RAIN: Southern California Style
Rain in California is very different than rain in other parts of the country. I know that from years of experience. When I was growing up in St. Louis, it was either raining or it wasn't. Let me explain. The weatherman- yes, it was always a man- might say," It's going...