Terrie Curran

I have long been a fan of light mysteries, and one day, more than twenty years ago, I decided to try my hand at the genre. One manuscript was published in 1987 (pb '89) and another title was under contract as the publisher, Dodd Mead, was undergoing a leveraged buyout. Although I tried to get the second published elsewhere, my 'real' professional life took most of my energy. However, now that I am happily retired, I have revised these novels and I have published them as Kindle ebooks--which was easier to do than I thought (though the covers were challenging!)

My novels have nothing wretched or gory--just some light sleuthing fun. All employ an older academic couple whose slightly screwy logic and eminent good sense carry the day. The one, All Booked Up, takes place in a research library where valuable books are missing and cheap editions of a single work keep showing up on the shelves. The second, Rotten EGGs, has the same professorial couple who mentor a Learning in Retirement group of feisty and outspoken curmudgeons. And in the third, Battle of the Books, the issue of 'essential knowledge' for a core curriculum leads to destructive and deadly arguments which the Killingsleys attempt to sort out.

In my other lives, I earned a doctorate in English from the University of Wisconsin (1973) and became a professor of Medieval Literature at Providence College for 32 years. Then and now I am thankful that bits of my academic life live on and find humorous outlet in my novels. But as I looked toward retirement and my bucket list, I decided at 59 to take up figure skating. When my husband and I retired to Vermont in 2005, I began coaching figure skating with the local club while continuing taking lessons in freestyle, figures and dance. However, my best and happiest life components are my husband and my wonderful Briards who take me for long walks every day over hills, through forests, and on dirt roads. I've groomed, fed, hugged, bathed, done agility, and loved each pup in our three successive braces of Briards and am best recognized locally only when two big hairy dogs are with me.