Sierra Writers

Shirley has been writing and telling tales ever since her two younger sisters were old enough to listen.  Her first book, Reddy, the Dog, never made it out of the mahogany theme binder she submitted to her third grade teacher.  But it did have ten chapters.

Known for her way with words, she always seemed to get writing assignments attached to whatever work she did. She emerged from U.C.S.F. as an RN and joined her husband on the Navajo Indian Reservation where she acted as midwife, pharmacist, mortician, and educator –teaching western medicine in exchange for glimpses into Navajo healing.

Shirley taught childbirth education and thirteen years later, sex education to a generation of children in Sierra Nevada foothill schools. She has written regular articles for several newspapers and submitted mountains of grants and endless reports to funders while Executive Director of a rural non-profit.

She and her husband live on the Camptonville homestead they built in 1978, where they enjoy growing vegetables, fruits, wine grapes, herbs, and worms, walking in the woods with grandchildren, and dancing in the kitchen.

Now retired, Shirley is currently learning to play the cello and writing a novel inspired by women in her family’s gold rush history –past, present and future.  She enjoys the inspiration of writing classes, workshops, critique groups and Sierra Writers.