Joan Coolidge

Joan (Stickelmaier) Coolidge grew up in the small town of Metamora Illinois. She attended and graduated from Bradley University in Peoria in 1975. She majored in Special Education graduating Phi Beta Kappa.

She accompanied her husband Cal on moves to North Dakota/Texas/Michigan and Virginia while raising two accomplished daughters Melinda and Sarah. She worked in the Fairfax County school system libraries and later at the Samuels Public Library in Front Royal Virginia.

In 2006 and 2007 she and her spouse Cal took a walk on the wild side casting away their careers and comfortable life to buy a small hotel on the island of Saint Croix, move there and run the establishment until reality set in. The Book "Seventeen Steps of Stone...Escaping Paradise" is she and Cal's first published writing and recounts the entire experience. The Good, the Bad and the Lucky.

Joan is now retired and lives in Lake Frederick Virginia with Cal and her loyal dog Max, an 85 lbs black Boxer. They travel a good deal, spending each February in Key West. She is an avid reader of fictional novels especially mysteries.