Faculty Spotlight: Susan Polonus Mucha

When people think of Augusta, they inevitably think of The Augusta National, so the setting was the perfect beginning for Susan Polonus Mucha’s book, Deadly Deception.

The fast-paced thriller is the first book that the instructor of English in the Department of Languages, Literature, and Communications has written. It is about a murder of mistaken identity, and a single clue from a long ago soccer tragedy leads Dr. Luis Echevarria and freelance reporter Elia Christie from Augusta to Lima, Peru, for a journey they’ll never forget.

The book has garnered national attention from many including three-time Masters champion and Grand Slam winner Gary Player, who says, “. . . [The book] gets you into Augusta National without the coveted badge and into Peru without the compulsory passport!”

Ms. Mucha took a creative writing class at Augusta State in 1989 and wrote a short story using some of the same characters she later used in her book. She obtained her master’s degree in writing popular fiction at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pa.

“To graduate, we had to have a publishable popular fiction novel completed,” says Ms. Mucha. “It had to be ready for publication and judged by three instructors in the program who were published authors themselves.”

Ms. Mucha says that once you get the book published, it’s all about the marketing. She learned from John Grisham that you have to sell out of the back end of your car. Essentially, it’s all just word-of-mouth.

She found her passion for writing when she began writing news releases for a Catholic diocesan newspaper, The Southern Cross, in 1984. “Seeing my byline lit a spark that is still burning,” she says.

The Akron, Ohio, native also wrote for The Augusta Chronicle, Augusta Magazine, among other publications. She was also editor of the magazine HealthScope.

Before she discovered her love of writing, Ms. Mucha attended St. Francis School of Nursing. It was while working in an emergency room that she met her husband, Dr. Edgardo Mucha, who was a medical resident there at the time.

“It was a Saturday. I had just graduated from nursing school and worked in the ER only three days. The head nurse called in sick, which meant I was in charge. I guess I looked lost, because this resident was there writing orders, and he took one look at me and said, ‘This girl needs someone to take care of her.’ That was in 1965. We were married in August of 1966,” she says.

The couple lived in New Orleans for two years before moving to Syracuse, N.Y. After some time there, they moved back to Pittsburgh, the place Ms. Mucha really calls home. While in Pittsburgh, she had three children. The Muchas then moved to Augusta and welcomed their fourth child.

“Over the years, I felt something was missing—a college degree,” she says. “Fortunately for me, ASU is five minutes from our home. So one day, with a brand new backpack, ‘with it’ jeans, and 1950s-style penny loafers, I dropped my children off at their school and entered my own.”

The 1996 ASU graduate earned a degree in English and Spanish, graduating with high honors.

Ms. Mucha is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and the Authors Club of Augusta. She also runs a mentoring program at Immaculate Conception School. She is an active member of St. Mary on the Hill Catholic Church and attends Holy Spirit Catholic Church on Johns Island, S.C., when she and her husband are on Kiawah Island.

Currently, Ms. Mucha is in the process of writing the sequel to Deadly Deception. Her inspiration for writing her first novel, and soon her second, is her father. “He always said he was going to write a book about his nine kids,” she says. “He died before he could write it, so I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to write a book.’ And I did.”

Who: Ms. Susan Mucha

Position: Instructor of English in the Department of Languages, Literature, and Communications

How long at ASU?: Since 2002

Family: Husband, Edgardo; two sons, Ted and Carlos; two daughters, Maria Elena and Suzy

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