The Long...Life.....It's been a meandering, interesting journey that began in Manitowoc, WI, a town on the shores of Lake Michigan. Father built ships, my mother stayed home, and my sisters, brother and I lived an easy small-town life. After high school, I moved to St. Louis (college); then Bloomington, IN (graduate school); and several other places along the way. Jobs included working in WQED public television (with Mr. Rogers and his neighborhood); teaching Latin, creative writing, and philosophy. A checkered past, of sorts. After marrying a nice Jewish man whom I met in graduate school (my mother always said she had named me Sarah for a reason), a job brought us to a small town (Prairie Village), attached to a big city (Kansas City) where we raised our three now-adult children. And it was here that my writing life took root. The seeds to writing a novel—-or rather 'finishing' a novel—were planted in a sandbox in a park, not far from our Prairie Village home. It was there I met another newcomer to the area, Adrienne Staff, a woman who would become a life-long friend. While our children played together in the sand that day, I learned that not only was Adrienne as hungry for friendship as I was, but both of us loved to read and write and had drawers filled with unfinished novels. In no time at all we decided that perhaps the key to finishing a novel (at least, in our case) was to write a book together. A match made in heaven--a nice Jewish girl from New York and an ex-nun--certainly a pair with diverse experiences to spare! We'd hold one another to the task and we would complete a book and rid ourselves of the awful unfinished novel curse. And so we did. Soon after finishing our first book, we found our wonderful agent, Andrea Cirillo, and went on to publish a dozen or more novels together. Years later, after Adrienne had moved away, friendship again played a huge role in my publishing life—this time in the person of Nancy Pickard (The Scent of Rain and Lightning author), who invited me to help her with a mystery she was working on. Nancy turned a blind eye to the fact that I had never written a mystery—and together we sat and drank coffee and talked and wrote and rewrote, examined red herrings and twists and turns, and talked some more. And we finished the mystery. Imagine that. I had written my first mystery...with the help of an accomplished, award winning author. Certainly someone, somewhere was smiling on me. After that, I was hooked! Now not only had I always loved to read mysteries, now I loved to write them, too. How fortunate I was to have learned from a pro—and then to have lucked into my first mystery series, The Queen Bees Quilters mysteries. Three mysteries later, my life took another turn: my first grandchild! And along with baby Luke was born a new mystery series, The Seaside Knitters mysteries. (Grandchildren....knitting....it was meant to be.) Luke's parents live in a charming seaside town on Cape Ann, just north of Boston. A perfect place for a mystery series. And a perfect place for the series' author to settle once the down-sizing bug called to them. It's a remarkable place in which to research plots, check out life on the dock, eat lobster—and to watch Luke, his sister Ruby, and his brother Dax grow and thrive. And where we now happily call a small condo our home. More grandchildren followed (living now in Decatur, GA). Atti, Julian, and Sebastian. Now six amazing little people fill our lives and hearts and keep me writing mysteries. We are blessed. |
and Short of it.
Sally Goldenbaum is the author of more than three dozen novels, most recently the USA TODAY best selling Seaside Knitters Society Mystery Series, including the Thorpe Menn nomiated How to Knit a Murder. The series is set in the fictional town of Sea Harbor, MA. She also write the Queen Bees Quilting Mystery Series.
Sally was born in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, raised her family in Prairie Village, Kansas, and now lives in Gloucester MA with her husband, Don. In addition to writing mysteries, Sally has taught philosophy, Latin, and creative writing, edited bioethics and veterinary healthcare journals, and worked in public television at WQED-Pittsburgh. |
