About Jess
Hello! If you’re looking for an official bio, please take a look at the media page.
But if you’re looking to get to know me a bit better, come and sit a spell. Get comfortable. I’ll take a moment while you do, and pretend we’re sitting on my back porch in my glider, with tall glasses of sweet tea.
Time for a story…

A long line of story-tellers and a big love of reading

It may also well be that story-telling is just in my blood. My childhood was, to put it nicely, fraught, and I found refuge in reading anything and everything I could. My dad (a WWII vet who had Purple Heart plates on both of his convertibles—there’s a hint about where I get my feisty spirit!) always loved to tell the tale of how, when I was a kid, he’d put boxes of books I’d checked out from the library in the passenger seat of his pick up truck, stopping off to return them on his way downtown to his machine shop in the industrial side of Dayton, Ohio.
As a kid, I read all of the time. I loved Laura Ingalls Wilder. Louisa May Alcott. Jules Verne. Charles Dickens. John Steinbeck. Madeline L’Engle. Fairy tales. Mystery novels. Anything vaguely Arthurian. For a while, in junior high, all I read was Harriet The Spy, at least 13 or more times in a row. I wanted to BE Harriet in junior high… and even in high school. And some days, even now!
From “The Fireman” to “Just an Old Ballad” to “The Widows” (and a few stops in-between)
In any case, a love of stories and writing took deep root early on. In high school, I wrote a musical based on the ballads I’d learned, “Just an Old Ballad,” and with the help of a patient and kind teacher, produced and directed it. I also cast in the lead role a young man who would become my husband. We’re still happily married, all these years later.
My love of writing has taken me on a long, sometimes circuitous journey, with short pieces and novels published under my given name, as well as stints in technical and marketing communications.




Appalachian roots and ballads
But I’m digressing. It seems I’d rather talk with you about my characters and my story than about me, but that’s not why you joined me on this virtual porch.
Family, friends and cats
So, I’ll just add this much, as we’re getting to know one another. My actual porch is in southwestern Ohio, where I reside with my high school sweetheart (the star of the one and only musical I’ve ever written, and of my life) and husband for thirty-plus years. (Seems like a nice start!) We have two adult daughters, one serving in the U.S. military and the other a teaching naturalist in the western U.S. We’re proud of both of them for being strong, independent, mission-driven young women.
We also have two cats—Mycroft, who came to live with us when our daughter went into the military, and Luna. Mycroft is named for Sherlock’s brother, and Luna is named after J.K. Rowling’s Luna Lovegood. They are ridiculously spoiled—they have a toy box in our library, a water fountain instead of a water bowl, and a cat run built into my husband’s home office!
But don’t forget the pie! And music!
My greatest passions are family, friends, and writing, but I also love reading, hiking… and baking pies. I also love music—barbershop music, because my husband’s artistic passion is singing it—but particularly blues, bluegrass, folk music and anything by Johnny Cash.
Well, I think I’ve talked your ear off for long enough. Come on over to my social media and let’s get to know each other better!



