BIO

Jean Sheldon

Albuquerque, New Mexico

I took my first stab at creating at age thirteen, while living on Chicago's Southwest Side. A neighbor tossed out a broken guitar, which I retrieved, repaired with duct tape, and began writing songs. I still play the guitar, though not the same one and I still find duct tape a most remarkable repair tool.

In 1969, I left Chicago to earn a degree in Graphic Arts from Southern Illinois University. Instead of jumping right into the profession when I returned home, I bought an unbroken guitar and performed in bars and clubs around the city for a few years. When that desire ran its course, I spent the next twenty-five years doing what graphic artists do.

As art director for Pathotox Publishers, producer of the ‘Journal of Irreproducible Results’ and the ‘Journal of Environmental Pathology’ along with other journals and monographs, I entered the world of publishing. The knowledge I garnered added fuel to my already too active imagination. I self-published a book of poems and drawings called ‘Jelly Side Down’*, a book on basic car repair called ‘Glove Box Guide to Keeping it on the Road’, and I co-authored a book with my cat Xena, called ‘The Way of the Cat: Teaching Humans to Be’**. I really did co-author the book, but Xena thought it best to have only a feline author listed.

During my years as a graphic artist, I began oil painting and working with pastels, both are fulfilling forms of art. You can see a few samples. One thing has remained clear to me throughout my life, creating is as much a part of me as breathing.

At the age of fifty-three, partly, no doubt, due to a mild mid-life crisis, and partly because of brain numbing politics, I started to write mysteries. I have completed three in the Chicago Police Detective Kerry Grant series, ‘Identity Murder,’ ‘Should Old Acquaintance be Dead’, and ‘A Chilling Goodbye’. I have also written four other standalone mysteries, which I will publish in the near future while I continue to write and learn my newest craft. I’ve been passionate about all my creative endeavors. It surprised and delighted me to find the weaving of stories the most satisfying passion of all.

Contact Details

Jean Sheldon

PO Box 3965

Albuquerque, NM 87190-3965
Website: www.jeansheldon.com

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*Click to read review

**Click to see Xena's book