Sharon Dean grew up in Chelmsford Massachusetts where she and her two siblings rode bikes, read books, and visited the historical sites made famous by the Pilgrims, the Revolutionaries, and the many famous writers of New England’s nineteenth century. From Massachusetts, it was a small leap to the University of New Hampshire and a degree in English. Armed with a Ph.D. and facing a declining job market, Sharon spent several years laboring on the adjunct teaching circuit before she began a full-time career at Rivier University in Nashua, New Hampshire.
Four academic books later, Sharon has become professor emerita and has moved to Ashland, Oregon. Embracing a change she never anticipated, Sharon is learning to bike and hike and garden in the Siskiyous instead of the Whites. She has sworn off books that require footnotes and has reinvented herself as a writer of mystery novels.
Mine sort of fit. Tour de Trace covers the four hundred miles of Mississippi’s Natchez Trace as its protagonist, English professor Susan Warner, celebrates her retirement on a bicycle trip with her daughter. Susan fits another characteristic of cozies–she’s a highly educated amateur sleuth.
It was a pleasure interviewing fellow author Sharon Dean on my radio show last Friday. Sharon is the author of the Susan Warner mysteries and a member of my writing group. She grew up in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. From Massachusetts, it was a small leap to the University of New Hampshire and a degree in English. When her husband was assigned to Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire, she seized the opportunity to enter graduate school at UNH.