Susan Williams Beckhorn: Hello, my name is Susan Williams. That's pretty easy to say. Susan is an old Hebrew name, meaning lily and William is German for protector. I think protecting living things in our environment is very important, so I like my name now, but when I was a kid I didn't like it since Williams was near the end of the alphabet. I usually receive my report card last. The suspense was horrible. I fixed that problem by marrying a man named Fred Beckhorn, but luckily I don't get report cards anymore. Some of my books are under my married name, Beckhorn. Fred's family thinks that it used to be Buckhorn and had been translated from Chippewa. The pointed part of a blacksmith's anvil is called a beck horn and there is a mountain in the Adirondacks with that name.

My husband and I named our daughters Fern and Spring. They have never had anyone in their classes with those names. Although Spring did have a friend named Autumn at Montessori School. I named two of the characters in my book Windrider Fern and Spring. So in a way I feel like I have four children with those names.