A romance author believed to have killed herself more two years ago has been accused of faking her own death in a bizarre plot that has angered fans.
Susan Meachen, a successful American writer from Tennessee, has now posted on social media that she is back and ready to write again after it was written on her Facebook page the news of her apparent suicide in October, 2020.
It was claimed at the time that her daughter logged into her Facebook account to post that she had died.
But now an updated post has revealed it was a hoax.
Meachen, who has written Chance Encounter and Losing Him and Finding You, wrote: “I debated on how to do this a million times and still not sure if it’s right or not.”
And she added: “I am in a good place now and I am hoping to write again. Let the fun begin.”
Meachen has written a series of romance novels and built-up an online following of fans and other writers, who had marked the anniversary of her death for the past two years.
Fundraisers and book auctions were also held in her honour.
But the sorrow has now turned to anger at the way she misled people.
After news broke of Meachen’s ‘resurrection’, author Samantha A Cole said: “I will never be able to completely wrap my brain around whatever she might have been thinking because people just don’t do this.”
Meachen’s former editor, Kasey Hill, told the BBC : “Honestly, after it all, it is so hard to determine what is true and what is a lie.”
One fan, reported the Daily Star, said: "After a deep dive of her socials it's clear she had $ issues. Authors had a prior Gofundme and brought in $1700 for her.
"After she 'died', there was an auction and proceeds went to family for her burial.
"Then the 'final' book was pumped up by them to help her fam - TLDR, YES scam."
And another posted: "I'm seriously wondering if the daughter's profile was real or if she created a whole-ass family online.
"Even if she has a daughter by that name, does anyone actually know that's her profile? This is so bats**t."
Oddly, it actually later emerged that the woman had been on TikTok the entire time - and posted content on a regular basis after her "death" to her tiny audience of around 45 followers.
Her last post was January, 2022 - around 14 months after she "died".
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