About Jean

I wrote my autobiography in the seventh grade. It was titled “From Pillar to Post,” a title suggested to me by my mother to describe our family’s nomadic lifestyle. I wrote the autobiography out of a strong sense that I had already experienced a full life at the tender age of 13. I also discovered that writing was fun, “hard fun,” as someone tagged it, and for the next several decades I penned numerous essays and poems triggered by a strong emotional reaction to something I had seen or experienced. As much as I enjoyed writing, I never expected to write a novel. Instead, I had a long career in higher education, serving as a dean of students at a community college in Maine, and as an adjunct instructor at the college level.

Gravesite of Billy Laird

When my husband Bill accepted a position as president of a small community college in downeast Maine, I became engaged in the economic challenges of the region and channeled my early love of the pen into grantwriting. Over the last several years, I worked as a grantwriter for the Passamaquoddy Tribe, rural communities, and non-profit organizations throughout Maine.

Then one day I heard the story of Billy Laird, a Civil War soldier from Berwick, Maine. My emotions inspired me once again. Instinctively I knew that his story deserved more than my traditional essay. A novel was in front of me, and I didn’t hesitate. Life is a circle, and here I am enjoying at last the passion that first consumed a young girl whose autobiography still sits on my desk.

Marcia and Dick Cylik, reenactors, 3rd Maine Regiment,
join me at an LLBean book signing to the delight of the customers!