O'Malley, Suzanne 1951–

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O'Malley, Suzanne 1951–

(Suzanne Marie O'Malley)

PERSONAL: Born April 8, 1951, in Cedar Rapids, IA; daughter of Donald Leo (in business) and Irma B. (Waechter) O'Malley; married Daniel Greenburg (a writer), June 28, 1980. Education: University of Texas, B.A. (with honors), 1973. Religion: Roman Catholic.

ADDRESSES: Home—New York, NY; Houston, TX. Agent—Morton L. Janklow, 445 Park Ave., New York, NY 10022-8628.

CAREER: Writer and editor. Dorf/Muller Jordan Herrick Public Relations, New York, NY, account supervisor, 1973–75; Esquire, New York, NY, editorial assistant, 1975, assistant editor, 1976, associate editor, 1977, senior editor, 1977–78, author of column "Dining Out," 1978–80; freelance writer, 1978–; Houston City Magazine, Houston, TX, book editor, 1979–80; D Magazine, Dallas, TX, book editor, 1980; New York Magazine, New York, NY, contributing editor, 1994–96; Inside.com, editor at large, 2000–01; National Broadcasting Company (NBC), New York, NY, freelance producer and on-air news consultant; Microsoft National Broadcasting Company (MSNBC), Secaucus, NJ, freelance producer and on-air news consultant. Has appeared on television news shows, including Today Show, NBC; The Early Show, Columbia Broadcasting System; Catherine Crier Show, Court Television; Deborah Norville Tonight, MSNBC; American Morning with Paula Zahn, Fox News; Cable News Network (CNN)-Television Live Today. Has appeared on radio news shows, including The Diane Rehm Show, National Public Radio.

MEMBER: Writers Guild of America, Dramatists Guild, Screen Actors Guild, Phi Beta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS: Edgar Allan Poe Award nomination, Mystery Writers of America, 2005, for "Are You There Alone?": The Unspeakable Crime of Andrea Yates.

WRITINGS:

(With husband, Dan Greenburg) How to Avoid Love and Marriage (humor), illustrated by Dan Greenburg, Freundlich Books (New York, NY), 1983.

Private School (screenplay), Universal, 1983.

"Are You There Alone?": The Unspeakable Crime of Andrea Yates (nonfiction), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2004.

Also author of scripts for television series, including Law & Order, NBC, Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit, NBC, and New York Undercover. Contributor of articles and reviews to magazines and newspapers, including New York Times Magazine, New York Times Book Review, New York Magazine, People, Esquire, Harper's Bazaar, Child, Redbook, Playboy, Oui, Ms., Cosmopolitan, Texas Monthly, O, the Orpah Magazine, Salon.com, and Glamour.

SIDELIGHTS: A respected magazine editor and journalist, Suzanne O'Malley covered the trial of Texas mother Andrea Yates for several periodicals and for the television show, Dateline. Mentally ill and suffer-ing from severe postpartum depression, Yates murdered her five children by drowning them in the family bathtub in June of 2001. O'Malley had access to Yates and her husband, Rusty, during the trial and after her conviction. Yates herself wrote the author a number of letters, which was one of many sources O'Malley used in her book about Yates, her crime, the consequences, and the legal system, "Are You There Alone?": The Unspeakable Crime of Andrea Yates. O'Malley's work contributed to a new trial being called for Yates. The testimony of a prosecution expert witness, Patrick Dietz, was called into doubt because he claimed that the television series Law & Order, for which he consulted, had aired an episode about a crime and trial similar to Yates's. No such episode was ever done by the show, a fact O'Malley brought to light. Reviewing the book for Trial, defense lawyer Elizabeth Kelley found that O'Malley put aside her journalistic objectivity and became personally involved in the story, empathizing with Yates. Kelley did not find this approach problematic in "Are You There Alone?", commenting that the book "shows the stark reality of what can happen to a mentally ill person who commits a crime and for whom everything—from diagnosis to conviction—goes wrong."

O'Malley has also worked in other mediums. She and her husband, Dan Greenburg, created and performed a comedy routine based on the material in their book How to Avoid Love and Marriage. O'Malley has also written, directed, produced, and starred in what she calls "two extremely low-budget videotapes": a remake of The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes and All-New You Bet Your Life Starring Ayatollah Khomeini.

O'Malley once told CA: "In 1973 I set out from Texas to make my fortune as a writer and/or editor in New York City. Prior to that time, my entire experience of New York consisted of two plane changes at Kennedy Airport and one four-day vacation I won in a contest. My ambition was to become associate editor of Esquire—an ambition that I met and exceeded in the ensuing four years. If I had known then how hard it was going to be, I'm not sure I would have gotten very far. The more important thing for me as a writer is to remember how safe it feels to criticize and, by comparison, how much more courage it takes to create.

"I was prompted to write How to Avoid Love and Marriage when my then-boyfriend and I were breaking off our romance—for the fiftieth (or so) time. We were in a schmaltzy Italian restaurant with red-checkered tablecloths and were crying softly into our wine glasses when Dan said something piteously self-serving like, 'I just hope you find somebody who can make you as happy as you deserve to be.' I looked at Dan, and we both burst out laughing. We cancelled the split-up and decided instead to write How to Avoid Love and Marriage. Three years later we even got married.

"The book, of course, hopes to accomplish exactly the reverse of the title—bringing couples closer together through the disarming device of humor. I wanted to give people a chance to laugh at their neurotic behavior and to feel better about themselves by recognizing that all couples—including the authors—share similar problems and challenges."