Georgia author and entrepreneur Susan H. Hines shares how childhood imagination, complicated relationships, and a journey toward self-acceptance inspired her memoir, CRAZY Won’t Leave Me Alone, and a new chapter in her life.
By Miles J. Edwards | October 26, 2026
McDONOUGH, Ga. – Sometimes the most powerful stories come from those who spent much of their lives saying the least. Growing up in Miami, Florida, as the youngest of eight children in a traditional Caribbean household, Susan H. Hines learned early how to observe the world around her. Surrounded by larger-than-life personalities, she was the quiet one, often listening more than speaking. But beneath that reserved exterior lived an imagination that could transform an ordinary childhood afternoon into an extraordinary adventure.
Hines remembers climbing mango trees, riding bicycles, playing neighborhood sports, and constructing elaborate cardboard houses with her brothers using discarded appliance boxes. There were barefoot adventures, drinks from the garden hose, and the familiar childhood rule that everyone needed to be home when the streetlights came on. It was a childhood that helped shape her creativity, discipline, and resilience. Yet the little girl who could imagine entire worlds would spend years learning something equally important: that her own voice deserved to be heard.
Today, Hines is an author, entrepreneur, and independent publisher whose memoir, CRAZY Won’t Leave Me Alone: Dating, Doubt, and Discovering the Woman I Was Meant to Be, transforms her experiences with relationships, uncertainty, and personal reinvention into an invitation for readers to reconsider how they view themselves. Her journey from a soft-spoken child to a woman willing to share deeply personal experiences is not simply a story about publishing a book. It is a story about discovering that sometimes the person standing in the way of your next chapter is the person staring back at you in the mirror.
When CRAZY Comes Knocking
The title CRAZY Won’t Leave Me Alone may sound like the beginning of a comedy, and Hines certainly has a sense of humor about it today. But its origins came during a period when laughter was far from her mind. Approximately 15 years ago, overwhelmed by uncertainty, difficult decisions, and thoughts that seemed to spiral endlessly, Hines found herself venting to a family member. Frustrated by everything happening around her, she exclaimed, “CRAZY won’t leave me alone!” At the time, she remarked that she had enough experiences to fill a book, although the circumstances themselves were anything but amusing.
During that conversation, her family member offered four words that would stay with her: “This is only temporary.” Hines describes those words as a source of reassurance at a time when she was frightened by the future and struggling to make sense of her circumstances. Years later, she would recognize that the reassurance she received was connected to something much larger than a difficult period in her life. It was a reminder that even the most overwhelming experiences do not necessarily have to determine a person’s future.
“I was losing pieces of myself by allowing other people’s opinions to become my truth,” Hines told A.T.L. N.E.W.S. She describes a cycle of seeking outside validation, revisiting familiar questions, and hoping circumstances would somehow produce different answers. Eventually, she recognized that while she could not control other people’s actions or expectations, she could determine how much influence she allowed them to have over her decisions. That realization became the foundation of what she calls the CRAZY Method, a five-part approach encouraging readers to challenge the narrative, reclaim their power, accept themselves, zero in on what brings them joy, and remember that they choose what comes next.
For Hines, the acronym represents more than a catchy companion to her book’s unusual title. It reflects lessons she says she had already begun putting into practice before giving them a name. “CRAZY doesn’t get to decide what happens next. I do,” she explained, emphasizing that personal growth requires individuals to recognize their own agency rather than continuously surrendering it to outside circumstances.
The Woman Behind the Words
Although CRAZY Won’t Leave Me Alone is rooted in adult relationships and self-discovery, Hines’s relationship with storytelling began long before adulthood. As a little girl, she created plays and performed stories with imaginary friends. In middle school, she joined the yearbook staff and developed an appreciation for writing and photography. By high school, her creative interests had expanded into television production, music videos, and short films, offering her additional ways to express the imaginative ideas that had occupied her childhood.
Even when life eventually directed her toward the structured environment of corporate America, her storytelling instincts remained. Hines describes herself as someone who could recount an ordinary conversation with such detail that listeners could practically picture the weather, the clothing, and the expressions of everyone involved. “I was painting pictures with words long before I published a book,” she said, reflecting on how creativity remained part of her personality even during periods when writing was not her professional priority.
After college, Hines relocated to Georgia in 1993, envisioning herself building a successful professional career in Atlanta. Armed with a business student’s ambition, a briefcase, and a fascination with the corporate world, she imagined walking into a Peachtree Street high-rise and occupying an office overlooking the city. She eventually achieved that vision, developing a career in project management that would span 26 years and strengthen her ability to organize complex ideas, coordinate projects, and bring ambitious plans to completion.
Yet professional accomplishments did not necessarily settle the personal questions she carried into adulthood. Hines discovered that success in the workplace and confidence in one’s private life were not always the same thing. The skills that allowed her to manage complicated projects and deliver professional results did not automatically prevent her from questioning her worth or allowing the expectations of others to influence her decisions. In that contrast, she eventually found material for a different kind of project, one requiring less corporate planning and considerably more personal honesty.
Learning to Say Yes to Herself
A defining moment in Hines’s personal transformation came through another woman’s writing. While reading Shonda Rhimes’s Year of Yes, Hines connected with the television creator’s experiences as a successful introvert learning to embrace opportunities on her own terms. The message encouraged Hines to reconsider how often she talked herself out of experiences before giving herself permission to pursue them, particularly when uncertainty or self-doubt made remaining within familiar boundaries feel safer.
When an opportunity arose to travel to Dubai, Hines decided to respond differently. Rather than creating reasons to avoid the experience, she agreed to take the trip, marking what she describes as an important change in how she approached personal decisions. The journey represented more than a vacation; it became a symbol of her willingness to explore possibilities without allowing hesitation to determine the outcome. “Sometimes a new direction starts with one simple yes to yourself,” she reflected.
That evolving philosophy also influenced how Hines interpreted difficult relationships and emotionally exhausting situations. Instead of assuming responsibility for solving everyone else’s problems, she began examining the boundaries she had failed to establish in her own life. She acknowledges that some experiences were painful and that writing about them required vulnerability, but she was determined not to turn her memoir into an exposé about former relationships or the people involved.
Hines deliberately changed names, selected experiences based on her own recollections, and kept certain matters private. The objective was to examine the lessons she learned rather than publicly assign blame for the circumstances surrounding them. “Accountability isn’t accepting blame for another person’s behavior; it’s taking ownership of my choices,” she said, explaining that recognizing her own decisions became an essential part of moving forward.
Time also gave her the ability to find humor in memories that once carried considerable emotional weight. Hines now describes CRAZY as an unwanted tenant occupying valuable space in people’s minds, consuming something that cannot be replaced. “CRAZY is a thief: it steals the one thing we can’t make more of—time—and lives rent-free in our minds!” she explained. Her response was to declare it eviction time, choosing to replace those destructive thought patterns with creativity, reflection, affirmations, and opportunities to reconnect with nature. For Hines, humor does not erase painful experiences, but it can become evidence that those memories no longer have the same power over her life.
From Corporate Projects to Children’s Books
Interestingly, Hines did not begin her publishing journey with the deeply personal memoir that is now introducing readers to another side of her life. In 2022, she began developing the Buckley children’s books, designed to help beginning readers become more comfortable with sight words and early literacy. As the series reached classrooms and young readers, she began recognizing opportunities to expand her storytelling, particularly after older students expressed interest in chapter books.
Meanwhile, conversations with women in her personal and professional circles began revealing another possibility. Although the women often came from different backgrounds and did not know one another, Hines noticed similarities in their concerns, insecurities, and questions about relationships. Their experiences reminded her of situations she had encountered, decisions she had questioned, and personal lessons that had taken years to understand.
Rather than presenting herself as someone who had mastered every challenge, Hines wanted to create a resource that women could explore privately, without feeling judged or pressured to explain their reactions. “I wanted to share lessons in a tangible form women could revisit privately and reflect on without feeling judged,” she explained. Her memoir consequently developed into a personal account intended to encourage reflection rather than dictate how readers should approach their own relationships and decisions.
Hines says advance reader feedback has reinforced that purpose, with some women recognizing familiar circumstances and laughing while others reconsidered the ways they had minimized themselves to gain acceptance. She was particularly struck by the realization that even professionally accomplished women who appeared confident could quietly experience the same insecurities and doubts. For an author who spent much of her childhood reluctant to draw attention to herself, those responses have reinforced her belief that vulnerability can create meaningful connections between people whose lives may otherwise seem very different.
Building a Publishing Company on Her Own Terms
Hines’s creative transformation has also become an entrepreneurial undertaking. Rather than relying on the traditional publishing industry, she established TJP Publications, an independent publishing venture developed from her parent company, The Journey Pieces LLC. The parent company’s philosophy, “Create Peace Out of Pieces,” reflects its approach to bringing clarity and structure to complicated ideas through strategic project and program management consulting, while TJP Publications operates under the motto “Imagine. Explore. Live.”
The decision to pursue independent publishing allowed Hines to maintain creative ownership while building a platform for stories told in her own voice. However, she quickly discovered that producing a book requires considerably more than writing a manuscript. Despite her decades of project management experience, she found herself navigating the technical and commercial demands of an unfamiliar industry, including editing, manuscript formatting, cover design, print specifications, intellectual property considerations, distribution, and marketing.
“Independent publishing is extremely time-consuming and tedious,” she acknowledged. For Hines, the challenge has been balancing the creative freedom she values with the business responsibilities required to turn ideas into finished publications. Some days allow her to concentrate on storytelling, while others require attention to production schedules, promotional plans, and the administrative details involved in bringing a book to market.
Promoting herself publicly has presented its own challenges, particularly for someone who spent much of her life more comfortable working quietly than seeking attention. Nevertheless, she has begun developing an author platform, connecting with bookstores and community organizations, pursuing media opportunities, and planning events intended to introduce her work to new audiences. She recognizes that not every reader will connect with her books, but believes those who may benefit from her stories deserve an opportunity to discover them.
Her advice to aspiring writers who find themselves waiting for the perfect moment is straightforward: “If you want to write a book, start writing!” She encourages new authors to concentrate on getting their ideas onto paper rather than becoming overwhelmed by the prospect of producing a flawless manuscript. Editing, organization, and refinement can follow, but the creative process must begin somewhere. “You can’t edit a story you haven’t written,” she emphasized, reminding prospective writers that a lack of established publishing connections does not prevent them from beginning their work.
Finding a Home in Henry County
Although Miami shaped her childhood and Atlanta helped fulfill her corporate ambitions, Hines credits Henry County with offering the sense of community and creative freedom she values today. Local schools and libraries have supported her Buckley children’s books, creating opportunities for her to connect directly with young readers who sometimes recognize her as “Buckley’s mom.” One particularly meaningful encounter involved a student who told Hines that a Buckley reading had made her laugh during a difficult day, an experience that reinforced the author’s belief that even simple stories can make a lasting difference.
With her memoir entering the next stage of its journey, Hines is now preparing to bring readers together in McDonough for a celebration centered on conversation and community rather than simply selling and signing books. On Sunday, November 8, 2026, she plans to host an event at The Gallery at Hood Street featuring a moderated author discussion, audience questions, music, light refreshments, photographs, and opportunities for guests to connect with one another.
The celebration arrives shortly before her 55th birthday, giving the occasion additional personal meaning. Hines selected the gallery because of its warm atmosphere, historic character, and local artwork, believing the setting would encourage guests to relax and engage in genuine conversations. “I don’t want people merely to listen to me; I want to hear what resonated with them,” she explained, adding that the occasion represents an opportunity to celebrate personal growth at a stage of life when some people may assume their most significant transformations are already behind them.
For Hines, the gathering represents the beginning of a new chapter rather than the conclusion of a long personal journey. Her outlook is captured in a sentiment she hopes readers will embrace regardless of their age or circumstances: “Becoming doesn’t have an expiration date.”
And the CRAZY Continues
Readers who connect with Hines’s memoir can expect additional installments. CRAZY Won’t Leave Me Alone is planned as the first title in a trilogy, followed by CRAZY Is Working Overtime and CRAZY, Everybody Can’t Come. Her publishing plans also include a companion workbook and journal, continued development of the Buckley children’s books, and new stories intended for preteen readers. Through these projects, she hopes to create publications that serve as meaningful companions during different stages of people’s lives, offering humor, reflection, and encouragement to recognize their own potential.
But perhaps the most revealing part of her story is not found in her publishing ambitions or professional accomplishments. It emerges when she reflects on the little girl who once sat quietly at the corner of the family dining table, listening to her older siblings and wondering whether her voice had a place among theirs. Asked what she would tell that younger version of herself today, Hines returned to the importance of believing in one’s abilities. “You have what it takes. You just have to believe,” she said, explaining that she would remind her younger self that imagination is a gift, listening is a strength, and having a soft voice does not make a person’s ideas any less important.
“She doesn’t have to be the loudest person in the room to have something worth saying,” Hines reflected. It is a fitting observation for a woman whose earliest stories were performed for imaginary audiences and whose newest work is intended to reach readers navigating very real challenges. After years of developing her professional abilities, examining difficult experiences, and learning to trust her judgment, she has come to recognize that her voice does not have to compete with others to carry meaning.
In many ways, the most important transformation in Susan H. Hines’s journey may not be that she became a published author, established a publishing company, or discovered a new audience for her work. It may be that she finally recognized she had always possessed the imagination and storytelling instincts necessary to become one. And while CRAZY might occasionally come knocking again, she has learned that she does not have to answer the door.
About the Book and Author
Book: CRAZY Won’t Leave Me Alone: Dating, Doubt, and Discovering the Woman I Was Meant to Be
Author: Susan H. Hines
Publisher: TJP Publications LLC
Author website: https://susanhhines.com
Upcoming author celebration: November 8, 2026, at The Gallery at Hood Street, McDonough, Georgia. Readers should confirm attendance details and any registration requirements with the organizer.
This feature is based on written interview responses provided by Susan H. Hines to A.T.L. N.E.W.S.
