Born in Spokane, WA, during World War II, Jill grew up in Knoxville, TN. A decade after graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Virginia’s College of William and Mary with a BA in Psychology, she was fulfilling the roles of wife and mother in Reston, VA, when she realized she was aching to go back to school. Unsure of what, exactly, she wanted to study, she discovered that the masters program in Library Science at the University of Maryland would give her credit for courses taken in other departments. Having enrolled, she thoroughly enjoyed a graduate psychology course in comparative neuroanatomy as well as her first ever class in creative writing. Armed with an  MLS degree, Jill soon moved to Baltimore, where she became Head of the Reference Department in John Hopkins University’s Eisenhower Library.  While continuing to work full time, she completed an MFA in Fiction from Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, NC. Decades later,  Jill attended one of John Dufresne’s novel workshops at the Taos Summer Writers Conference. Returning for Dufresne’s subsequent workshops was a life-changer.  Having published two novels,  Jill recently moved to Vermont to be near her son and his family.  Vermont is where her third novel, Gemma Sommerset, was published in 2025.

With Knoxville known as the Gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains and Swannanoa located in the midst of the Blue Ridge, Jill was thrilled to realize that the Appalachian Trail passes through Vermont.  So where was her author photo for Gemma Sommerset taken? On the AT, of course, with Jill wishing she could hike all the way to Tennessee.

Above photo taken by Hope Williamson at Baltimore’s Cylburn Arboretum. 

ESSAYS/ARTICLES/INTERVIEWS:

Book Q&A with Deborah Kalb, posted on September 6, 2025. Read it HERE.

Lexington News-Gazette article, “Lexington Setting in New Novel,” posted on August 20, 2025. Read it HERE.

On her publication date (July 1, 2025) for Gemma Sommerset, Jill’s essay, “The Third Novel,” was published on the Women Writers, Women’s Books website.  Read it HERE

Jill’s essay, “Interracial Friendship in Fiction,” was posted on Women Writers, Women’s Books (booksbywomen.org) on April 7, 2021 (and originally on Cathy Zane’s blog on January 15, 2021). Read it HERE. 

“Friendship, race and growing up segregated in Knoxville,” a review article in KnoxTNToday (August 27, 2020), discusses Beginning with Cannonballs and how Jill came to write it. Read this insightful article by Betty Bean HERE.

An interview with Jill by the Southern Literary Review was posted on August 20, 2020. You can read it  HERE.

Beginning with Cannonballs was featured on Snowflakes in a Blizzard on June 23, 2020. Read it HERE.

To read Jill’s interview on Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb posted on May 26, 2020, please click HERE.

To read “Five Books by Women Writers I’ve Read More than Once and Why,” posted by Jill on Women Writers, Women’s Books on May 26, 2020, please click HERE.

“A Friend from Chile,” published December 8, 2017, in Chapter 16, explains why one of the plot threads in True Stories at the Smoky View involves the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Read Jill’s essay HERE.

In “A Mix of Black and White,” published on October 9, 2017, in JMWW Journal, Jill discusses some of the books she read while writing Beginning with Cannonballs. Read her essay HERE.

You may read Karen McCoy’s June 2, 2017, interview with Jill on The Writer Librarian Blogspot by clicking HERE.

“Two Kinds of Advice,” Jill’s April 21, 2017, post on The Women on Writing Blog is available HERE.

In an April 10, 2017, post on The Next Best Book Blog, Jill describes where she writes. See it HERE.

To read the August 30, 2016, post about True Stories at the Smoky View on Snowflakes in a Blizzard, please click HERE.

In a post on The Quivering Pen on April 18, 2016, Jill describes her long and winding road to publication. To read the post please click HERE.

To read Jill’s surprisingly antagonistic Self-Interview, posted on The Nervous Breakdown on April 12, 2016, please click HERE.