Guest blog: The story behind Egyptian Heart by Kathryn Meyer Griffith

Author Kathryn Meyer Griffith shares with us the back-story of Egyptian Heart an some other tidbits.

Over to you Kathryn :-D

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Let me start with this: I have always loved ancient Egyptian stories since I was a child. I remember I wrote one of my first school papers at around eleven years old in pencil on the ancient Egyptians after dragging home an armful of musty smelling books from the library. I don’t recall exactly why I loved this particular time period and the people that lived in it but it might have had something to do with the movies The Ten Commandments (I was raised a Catholic), the horror mummy movies of the 1960’s and the early TV shows on Nefertiti and Cleopatra. I just had this affinity for the period.

It was February 1994 (I noted it on the outside of the manila folder where I keep a running book history on each novel) when I began Egyptian Heart. Originally I called it The Cursed Scarab. Later, I retitled it Egyptian Heart because I wanted it to more reflect the romance tale it had become.

I still had my agent, Lori Perkins, who’d sold four earlier novels for me to Zebra Books (Vampire Blood, 1991; The Last Vampire, 1992; Witches, 1993 and The Calling, 1994…after I’d sold my first three novels on my own to Leisure Books: Evil Stalks the Night, 1984: The Heart of the Rose, 1985; Blood Forge,1989) and she’d told me about a new romantic horror line that Silhouette was starting called the Shadows Line. They wanted to tap into the darker romantic paranormal market. Lori said they wanted the kind of story I wrote but with more romance. It was Silhouette after all.  I’d been labeled as a horror writer from the get go, though all my novels blended genres; usually I wrote a romantic horror mixture with dashes of adventure, suspense and sometimes threw in a little history or mystery as well…but in those days the big publishers felt the need (and I think they still do) to squeeze a writer into one narrow slot. So I was a horror writer.

But by 1994 I’d lost my sweet editor at Zebra and a new one took her place...and over the next year he didn’t like anything I wrote for him and later that year Zebra unceremoniously dropped me and my latest book (Predator, a story about a dinosaur in Crater Lake…which never came out but still lingers like some weird ghost book in every computer on the global Internet) only six weeks away from going to the bookstore shelves. I’d begged the new editor not to call it Predator, bad title since there was a popular movie out of that name and it was nothing about a dinosaur, and the cover was awful, an empty boat on a lake…what!!! Having that book – my first ever – dumped like that was a crushing experience, let me tell you. I had a stack of finished, printed covers and had already done my final edits! I got to keep my advance but the book was officially dead. The new editor-that-didn’t-like-my-writing explained: “No one wants to read a book about a dinosaur.” And six months later Jurassic Park came out! The book is still sitting in a drawer somewhere and perhaps one day I’ll resurrect and finish it as well).

At that point, my agent wanted me to branch out so I wrote two manuscripts for the Silhouette Shadows Line or tried to.  Egyptian Heart and Shadow Road (a romantic suspense about a woman truck driver driving a dangerous wintry route with a murderer on her tail, and a hitchhiker in her cab that she feels she’s falling in love with…and fears, at times, he’s the killer; which later I retitled and sold as Winter’s Journey). To make a long story short, Silhouette Shadows turned both down. Seems I had too much horror in them; not enough sex. I didn’t follow the formula. Sheesh. I’ve never liked depending too much on sex in any of my books or writing a book too predictable. The originality of the novel and the characters make the story for me.

After that my agent dropped me. Ah, the life of a writer.

So, then life (as it has many times in my 39 year writing career), family and job problems, and my other novels (I was into murder mysteries for years and sold two to Avalon Books), got in the way and Egyptian Heart and Shadow Road went into drawer hibernation until, oh, about 2004, when I rediscovered them, dug them out, rewrote them and began trying to sell them again. Sometimes, I’ve found, a book left alone in a dark cubbyhole ages like good wine. (Or sometimes it just turns to vinegar.)

Fast forward three years to 2007 and a new e-book (e-books still being considered a risky new-fangled craze at that time!) publisher called The Wild Rose Press contracted both and eventually a third called The Ice Bridge, a ghostly romantic murder mystery set on Mackinac Island, and published them. Good publisher. They treated me well. But in 2010 when I contracted my two newest novels, Before the End: A Time of Demons and The Woman in Crimson (both romantic horror) my new publisher, Kim Richards Gilchrist at Damnation Books wanted to bring out all my old out-of-print novels again (going back to those early Leisure Books from the 1980’s) in print – and e-books for the first time ever.  Seven old paperbacks. I’d rewrite them all, get new covers and they’d all live again. I was thrilled. And grateful. It would take a lot of work on both our parts but when we were done ALL my old novels would be in print again and in electronic form out in the world. I jumped right in.

Then when my two year contract (I was lucky, e-books still being new, it was only for two years; now most e-book publishers contract for five years or longer) ran out with The Wild Rose Press. I happily switched Egyptian Heart, Winter’s Journey, The Ice Bridge and a novella Don’t Look Back, Agnes to Eternal Press (Damnation Books sister company). Kim Richards, and her husband William, had just brought Realms of Fantasy Magazine into the fold, as well.

So. Egyptian Heart has had a very long history. Simply put, it’s a time travel paranormal romance set in the ancient times of Nefertiti and her heretic Pharaoh Akhenaton.  It’s more romance than history, though I did a lot of research in 1994… originally for my 1994 Zebra horror paperback The Calling. I thought: why waste all this hard worked for research on just one novel? So I also used it for Egyptian Heart and an erotic short story, The Nameless One, one that Zebra had placed in their 1994 horror anthology Dark Seductions and now it’s available from Damnation Books.

The new cover for Egyptian Heart by Dawne Dominique is amazingly beautiful and Kim Richards herself was my editor. Thank you both.

So from a child’s love of ancient Egypt to the finished book, it’s been a long journey and goes to show all you writer’s out there that, yes, persistence does sometimes win out.  And a good book never dies. It just ages like wine in a dark drawer.

I hope you’ll give Egyptian Heart a look and a read. The best way to describe it is through its blurb and so here it is:  

Maggie Owen is a beautiful, spirited Egyptologist, but lonely. Even being in Egypt on a grant from the college she teaches at to search for an undiscovered necropolis she’s certain lies below the sands beyond the pyramids of Gizah doesn’t give her the happiness she’d hoped it would.

There’s always been and is something missing. Love.

Then her workmen uncover Ramose Nakh-Min’s ancient tomb and an amulet from his sarcophagus hurls her back to 1340 B.C – where she falls hopelessly in love with the man she was destined to be with, noble Ramose, who faithfully serves the heretic Pharaoh Akhenaton and his queen Nefertiti.

She’s fallen into perilous times with civil war threatening Egypt. She’s been mistaken for one of Ramose’s runaway slaves and with her light hair, jinn green eyes and fair skin she doesn’t fit in. Some say she’s magical and evil. Ramose’s favorite, Makere, tries to kill her.

The people, angry the Pharaoh has set his Queen aside and forced them to worship one god are rising up against him.

Maggie’s caught dangerously in the middle.

In the end, desperately in love, will she find a way to stay alive and with Ramose in ancient Egypt–and to make a difference in his world and history?

Because Maggie has finally found love. ***

                           

And thank you for having me on your blog! Kathryn Meyer Griffith

Eternal Press buy link: http://www.eternalpress.biz/book.php?isbn=9781615724437

 You Tube Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cogCNYKzPqc 

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A word about Kathryn Meyer Griffith, August 2011...

Since childhood I’ve always been an artist and worked as a graphic designer in the corporate world and for newspapers for twenty-three years before I quit to write full time. I began writing novels at 21 and have had fourteen (nine romantic horror, one historical romance and two mysteries) previous novels published from Zebra Books, Leisure Books, Avalon Books, The Wild Rose Press, Damnation Books and Eternal Press.

I’ve been married to Russell for thirty-three years; have a son, James, and two grandchildren, Joshua and Caitlyn, and I live in a small quaint town in Illinois called Columbia, which is right across the JB Bridge from St. Louis, Mo. We have two quirky cats, Sasha and Cleo, and the four of us live happily in an old house in the heart of town. Though I’ve been an artist, and a folk singer in my youth with my brother Jim, writing has always been my greatest passion, my butterfly stage, and I’ll probably write stories until the day I die.

       

Novels and short stories from Kathryn Meyer Griffith:

Evil Stalks the Night (Leisure, 1984; Damnation Books, July 2012)

The Heart of the Rose (Leisure, 1985; Eternal Press Author’s Revised Edition out Nov.7, 2010)

Blood Forge (Leisure, 1989; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out February 2012)

Vampire Blood (Zebra, 1991; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out July 2011)

The Last Vampire (Zebra, 1992; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out October 2010)

Witches (Zebra, 1993; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out April 2011)

The Nameless One (short story in 1993 Zebra Anthology Dark Seductions;

  Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out February 2011)

The Calling (Zebra, 1994; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out October 2011)

Scraps of Paper (Avalon Books Murder Mystery, 2003)

All Things Slip Away (Avalon Books Murder Mystery, 2006)

Egyptian Heart (The Wild Rose Press, 2007; Author’s Revised Edition out again from Eternal Press in August 2011)

Winter’s Journey (The Wild Rose Press, 2008; Author’s Revised Edition out again from Eternal Press in September 2011)

The Ice Bridge (The Wild Rose Press, 2008; Author’s Revised Edition out again from Eternal Press in November 2011)

Don’t Look Back, Agnes novella and bonus short story: In This House (2008; ghostly romantic short story out again from Eternal Press in January 2012)

BEFORE THE END: A Time of Demons (Out from Damnation Books June 2010)

The Woman in Crimson (Out from Damnation Books September 2010)

Her Websites:

http://www.myspace.com/kathrynmeyergriffith (to see all my book trailers with original music by my singer/songwriter brother JS Meyer)

http:// www.bebo.com/kathrynmeyerG
http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1019954486

http://www.authorsden.com/kathrynmeyergriffith

http://www.jacketflap.com/K.Griffith

http://www.shoutlife.com/kathrynmeyergriffith

http://www.goodreads.com/profile/kathrynmeyergriffith

http://romancewriterandreader.ning.com/profile/KathrynMeyerGriffith

http://romancebookjunction.ning.com/profile/kathrynmeyergriffith

E-mail me at rdgriff@htc.net  I love to hear from my readers.

Guest Blog: Author Kathryn Meyer Griffith and the story behind...

Author Kathryn Meyer Griffith is here today to share the back story behind Don't Look Back, Agnes and In This house. Both were released (In This House is a bonus read) on January 7th. 

What a wonderful way to start the year!

 Floor is all yours, Kathryn.

*****

The older I get, the more I like to reminisce and write about what I’m going through at any particular time. I guess it’s an age thing. So many of my stories and novels come about because of what I’m actually experiencing in my real life at the time. Not all, but some.

But my novella, Don't Look Back, Agnes is definitely one such story.  

At the end of 1998 my beloved father, the very heart (along with my mother’s mother, Grandmother Fehrt, who was also much loved) of my large family, passed away after a short but heartbreaking battle with lung cancer. He’d been a cigarette smoker his whole life so it wasn’t a complete shock that it ended up killing him. Yet the suddenness and the swiftness of his departure devastated my six siblings, my mother, grandmother, and me. It was a very dark time for us.

To complicate the matter, my brothers and sisters, myself included, were in our forties and working hard at our lives, our families and jobs, but my grandmother and mother were left living alone together and neither one drove; so both needed constant care and attention. My grandmother was in her eighties and my mother in her late sixties; though my grandmother was fairly healthy (she was spunky lady, with a zest for life, who’d emigrated from Austria as a child) my mother was already in a wheelchair, crippled from bad ankle surgeries, debilitating osteoarthritis and a host of heart related problems.
The first thing the family had to do was move them into town, nearer to some of us, and out of the country where they’d been living in the new sprawling house my father had built them just the year before. It was too hard caring for them way out there and the house was too big, too expensive. Boy, that was fun. They had so much stuff, so many memories to dispose of and cry over. We settled them in a small ranch house in town and life went on.  Or tried to.

Now, I loved my mother and grandmother dearly but taking care of them was often difficult. Each needed concentrated care, love, endless visits to the doctor, prescriptions fulfilled and, as time went on, housekeeping and grocery shopping help–and finally, someone to do their bills, my mother becoming too disoriented and sick to any longer do any of those chores. For a long time, years, my grandmother stepped up, even at her age, and became my mother’s constant nurse and helper. Their two Social Security checks combined were just enough for them to live on. It was a thin line they had to tread and we tried to help them every step of the way.

So, with love, sometimes desperation, and some bickering every so often between us siblings as to who would do what when, we took care of them and their whole household, their house. There were many late night runs to hospital emergency rooms, or long stays, and rehab centers for my mother, who steadily over the next nine years grew worse. By the end of 2005 it seemed we were always at the hospital with mom or grandma. My mom had her heart troubles, high blood pressure and medication problems, and my grandmother broke her hip. One thing after another. It was exhausting at times. Who’d ever think two sick old ladies could need so much care?

Then my grandmother got really ill and was rushed to the hospital. She needed emergency surgery and afterwards was in intensive care for a month…never recovered…then sadly joined our grandfather in the next life. We were all so broken hearted.

That left our mother, all alone, without enough money to live on (her Social Security meager; no savings), and unable to care for herself or her three cats. Born an only child, she was a demanding sort of woman, almost childlike in her unending need for attention and devotion. She was terrified of going to a nursing home so the family did what we could to keep her in her own home as long as possible. My brother got her a reverse mortgage on her house and we all chipped in financially whenever and however we could. We fought the good fight but there came a day where mom got so sick, was rushed to the hospital so often, needed so much constant supervision, that my siblings and I had to admit defeat…mom had to go into a nursing home or one of us had to move in with her, which wasn’t feasible. We were married with families.

So a nursing home it was. We picked out a newly opened one in town, the nicest we could find, and the next time mom got sick we moved her into it for her recovery. Then told her the truth. The house was up for sale and the cats had been placed in new homes. I even took one, Patches (the cat in the story), because it was old and no one wanted her. My husband and I already had two cats but it was something I had to do…for mom.  She really loved that cat as she’d really loved her home. But poor Patches, probably pining for her mistress and her old life, only lasted five months. I lied to my mother for months afterwards, afraid to tell her that the old cat had died (mom had always said that when Patches died, she’d die) and it broke my heart when I finally had to tell her. Mom had come to our house for a family Thanksgiving and I couldn’t hide the fact that Patches was no longer there. Oh, that was hard. Telling her.

If anyone has ever put a parent or relative into a nursing home, they know the heartbreak it causes all around. My mother was inconsolable and my guilt was awful. But, as sick as mom had become, with so many prescriptions each day, hospital visits, and how most days she couldn’t even get out of bed or get to the bathroom, clean or feed herself…we had no choice. She stayed in that nursing home – although it was a bright cheery place with kind people running it – until she died two years later. The hardest two years of my life. I visited her often, shopped for her and kept her company. Decorated her room so it looked like a home. Brought her special lunches and little gifts. Fancy quilts and stuffed cats. It still broke my heart.

I began writing the novella, Don’t Look Back, Agnes, while she was there. A ghost story centered around a young woman who’s forced by grim circumstances into returning to her haunted, and deadly, childhood home because her mother is ill in a nursing home and needs her. Looking back now, I can see it was also my way of dealing with the nursing home guilt…of wishing for a different ending to mom’s life than what had occurred. Writing the story was my therapy. I cried all my sorrow out into those words and prayed to be forgiven for putting my mother into such a place.

Even In This House, the bonus short story included because it’s also a ghostly tale, deals with old age and the passing of all a person (or a couple in this instance) ever knew or loved as time and their lives slip away, as it must always do.  At the same time I was writing the Agnes story I read an article in the newspaper about this old man who was the last resident of a neighborhood that had been systematically bought out and emptied by an iron smelter plant. He was the last one living there in the last house. He spoke of his loneliness since his wife had died; about her. Their past. It sparked the idea for In This House. Both stories deal with responsibility, sacrifice and…love. Love for a mate, for an aging parent, children, and a way of life or the loss of one’s independence that we all in the end have to relinquish in one way or another. Life’s sorrows faced with a brave smile to cover the tears.   

I hope the two stories help anyone going through what I was going through in those difficult years. If they do, then the words have done their job.

****

About Kathryn Meyer Griffith

A writer for 40 years I’ve had 14 novels and 8 short stories published with Zebra Books, Leisure Books, Avalon Books, the Wild Rose Press, damnation Books and Eternal Press since 1984. And my romantic end-of-the-world horror novel THE LAST VAMPIRE-Revised Author's Edition is a 2012 EPIC EBOOK AWARDS FINALIST NOMINEE.

My books (most out again from Damnation Books and Eternal Press): Evil Stalks the Night, The Heart of the Rose, Blood Forge, Vampire Blood, The Last Vampire, Witches, The Nameless One short story, The Calling, Scraps of Paper, All Things Slip Away, Egyptian Heart, Winter's Journey, The Ice Bridge, Don't Look Back, Agnes novella, In This House short story, BEFORE THE END: A Time of Demons, The Woman in Crimson, The Guide to Writing Paranormal Fiction: Volume 1 (I did the Introduction) ***

Author Interview: Kathryn Meyer Griffith

Kathryn Meyer Griffith is a fellow author from Damnation Books. She’s also a wife, a mother, and a grandmother who worked in the corporate world for twenty-three years as a graphic designer and have been writing now for about thirty-nine years; the last ten years full time.

• As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?

From about nine years old I wanted to be an artist. I wanted to grow up and be rich and famous for it. I started drawing objects, mainly horses and cats, and could reproduce almost anything in realistic detail. As one child of seven in a big, poor family that was my way of standing out. It also impressed the nuns to no end at my catholic grade school that I could exactly copy a holy card. Ha, ha.

• When and why did you begin writing?

At twenty one or so I was home, married and bored, after my son was born, and I read this historical romance that was sooo bad…and thought: I could write one better than this! And so, on my old typewriter, using lots of white-out because I’d never learned to type, I tried to write one. Twelve years later, after I’d grow up a lot (got divorced, went out in the world to work and got remarried) I went back to it and it sold as my second published novel THE HEART OF THE ROSE in 1985….which, by the way, is one of seven of my old Leisure and Zebra paperbacks being revised and rewritten by me and rereleased by Damnation Books and Eternal Press – and in e-books for the first time – in the next twenty months. I just finished rewriting it and was horrified, ironically, to see how bad it was. Well, 39 years ago, I thought, I sure didn’t know much! POV was all over the place and there were way too many adjectives and exclamation marks. I’m so glad I got to rewrite it.

• When did you first consider yourself a writer?

Strangely, not until I’d had seven novels published. It was 1994. But truthfully, it’s only been recently that I could call myself a real writer and not feel like a fraud or pretentious…with all the books (14 now) and short stories (7) and a long history of rejections, experiences and years of writing and being published behind me I finally feel like I’m a true writer. I’ve lived the life and paid dearly for it in many ways. I quit a good job many years ago to write; never have made a lot of money, but I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished over the thirty-nine years and that I never gave up no matter what. At least someday when I’m real old I won’t wish I’d gone after my dream, because I did and though not famous or wealthy, at least, I tried. I did what made me happy.

• If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?

Stephen King. I know every horror writer probably says that but for me it’s true. Not just because he writes horror but because his writing spans genres. He can write about anything. I admire his courage to do that. Like me, he’s not just a horror writer.

• What book are you reading now?

Neferiti by Michelle Moran. At the moment. I’ve also been rereading all of Noel Hynd’s books (who’s also with Damnation Books now). He was one of my contemporaries at Zebra in the early 1990’s and I love his stuff. He’s really good. But I always have to have a book to read. Late at night when my husband is sleeping. It’s my relaxation.

• What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I like to write with the TV on low, never music, in my recliner with my laptop in my lap; a cup of my homemade chocolate coffee and a donut or chocolate to eat.

• How many books have you written?

14 novels and 7 short stories. Would be more but I’m in the long tedious process of rewriting seven of my old Zebra and Leisure paperbacks going back 26 years. This, I figure, might take up to a year or more and then I’ll probably start a new book. Right now I’m trying not to let an idea for a new novel take me over, not until I have those seven done.

• What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?

That sometimes a character (her/his goals and problems, outlook on life with a past that made him/her that way) or characters just take over and the plot forms around them as the book grows. The books take me where they want to go sometimes and I don’t know where it’s coming from. The endings are sometimes a surprise, too.

• What do you think makes a good story?

If the reader ends up caring, really caring, for the characters I’ve created. If, during the book, the reader gets carried away to the world I’ve made and, at the end, he or she smiles or cries. Feels something. Then I’ve done my job.

• How has your environment/upbringing colored your writing?

Of course, I grew up poor in a large family, three brothers and three sisters, mom and dad. I was very close to my grandmother (my mother’s mother); she was a real storyteller. There was no money but there was love. I realized at an early age that to be noticed and to be someone in the world I needed to shine in some way. So I started drawing, making good grades and singing. I started singing with my brother, Jim; though I stopped when I got married and branched off into art and writing. So there’s a lot of my childhood, good and bad, in all my books. People not having much but overcoming adversity is a common theme.

• What genre are you most comfortable writing?

Horror. I’ve written paranormal romance, historical and time travel romance, murder mysteries…but the creepy always seems to slip in somewhere, somehow. Ghosts, vampires, possessed guns. I can’t stop it. Ha, ha.

• How do you develop your plots and characters? Do you use any set formula?

I start with a character or two or three and the plot develops through them. No formulas. No outlines. I just sit down and start writing and the book takes over. I usually have an idea where the plot is going and some kind of ending…but it often changes before I get there.

• What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?

Technically speaking? Computers. If I had to still write my books on a typewriter I wouldn’t be writing any more, that’s for sure. Dictionary and thesaurus (never let the computer do the grammar or spell check for you because it doesn’t always do it right). Emotional tools? A thick skin. Self-motivation. Self-discipline. Perseverance. Belief in one self. A sense of imagination. Determination to learn the craft. A writing career is a life-long marathon, not a sprint.

• What was your first introduction to horror literature, the one that made you choose that genre to write?

When I was in grade school, through the Weekly Reader – remember those? – I ordered a book of ghostly short stories and I was hooked. A story in school called The Lottery. Then came Stephen King and Dean Koontz. Ahhhh.

• The perception of the horror writer is that he/she is just a little bit weirder than most. Do you find yourself — and other horror writers — to be more idiosyncratic than the average person?

Not really. I think all writers are a little strange. Mainly because we live in our own little worlds and spend so much time alone controlling our characters in make-believe. Can’t do that in real life. But horror writers are seen as stranger because we often deal with the supernatural and people perceive that as bizarre in itself. Most people don’t believe in ghosts, werewolves and vampires – but think that if you write about them, you believe. I published Witches in 1993 and people actually thought I was a witch! Got lots of threatening calls and mail from it, too. Sheesh. I’m no witch.

• What are your current projects?  

Well, I just had my 13th novel, an apocalyptic horror saga, BEFORE THE END: A Time of Demons released from Damnation Books, and on Sept. 7, my 14th book, a vampire novel, THE WOMAN IN CRIMSON will be released from Eternal Press. Then I’m rewriting those seven old Leisure and Zebra books from 1984-1994 (Evil Stalks the Night, The Heart of the Rose, Blood Forge, Vampire Blood, The Last Vampire, Witches and The Calling), which will be rereleased with new covers (the ones I’ve gotten so far from DB and EP are fantastic!), in e-books for the first time and in paperbacks, between now and July 2010 from DB and EP. That’s keeping me real busy right now.

• Is there anything additional you would like to share with your readers?

Well, you can go to any of my websites to see all my book covers, excerpts from my newest books, and see/listen to my self-made book trailers with music soundtracks by my singer/songwriter brother JS Meyer (www.jsmeyermusic.com). Look me up! Also, you can e-mail me anytime at rdgriff@htc.net if you’d like to talk to me. I love feedback.

• http:// www.myspace.com/kathrynmeyergriffith  *See all my new covers and self-made book trailers; some with my singer/songwriter brother Jim Meyer’s original songs!
• http://www.bebo.com/kathrynmeyerG
• http://www.authorsden.com/kathrynmeyergriffith
• http://kathrynmeyergriffith.intuitwebsites.com/
• http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=1019954486

 And…thank you so much Su for having me on your lovely blog today. Warmly, author Kathryn Meyer Griffith

You’re welcome, Kathryn, it’s nice to have you.

Su