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Juliet Blackwell
Pseudonym for Hailey Lind.
Juliet Blackwell (aka Julie Goodson-Lawes, aka Hailey Lind)
started out life in Palo Alto, California, borne of a Texan
mother and a Yankee father. The family soon moved to what
were, at the time, the sticks of Cupertino, an hour south of
San Francisco. Walking to and from kindergarten every day
she would indulge in her earliest larcenous activity:
stealing walnuts and apricots from surrounding orchards.
By the time she graduated middle school, the orchards were
disappearing and the valley at the southern tip of the San
Francisco Bay had become the cradle of the silicon
semi-conductor. A man named Steve Jobs was working in his
garage in Cupertino, just down the street. Juliet's father
advised his daughters to enter the lucrative and
soon-to-flourish field of computers.
"Bah" said Juliet, as she went on to major in Latin American
Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz (they
had, by far, the best parties of any department). Rather
than making scads of money in computers, she read, painted,
learned Spanish and a little French and Vietnamese, lived in
Spain and traveled through Europe, Mexico, and Central
America. She had a very good time.
Juliet pursued Masters Degrees in Anthropology and Social
Work at the State University of New York at Albany, where
she published several non-fiction articles on immigration as
well as one book-length translation. Fascinated with other
cultural systems, she studied the religions, folklore and
medical beliefs of peoples around the world, especially
Latin America. Juliet taught the anthropology of health and
health care at SUNY-Albany, and worked as an elementary
school social worker in upstate New York. She also did field
projects in Mexico and Cuba, studied in Spain, Italy, and
France, worked on a BBC production in the Philippines,
taught English as a second language in San Jose, and learned
how to faux finish walls in Princeton, New Jersey. After
having a son, moving back to California, and abandoning her
half-written dissertation in cultural anthropology, Juliet
started painting murals and portraits for a living. She has
run her own mural/faux finish design studio in Oakland,
across the bay from San Francisco, for more than a decade.
Finally, to round out her tour of lucrative careers, Juliet
turned to writing. Under the pseudonym of Hailey Lind,
Juliet penned the Art Lover's Mystery Series with her
sister Carolyn (www.haileylind.com), about an ex-art
forger trying to go straight by working as a muralist and
faux finisher in San Francisco. The first of these, Feint
of Art, was nominated for an Agatha Award; Shooting
Gallery and Brush with Death were both IMBA
bestsellers, and Arsenic and Old Paint will be
released in 2010.
Juliet's first Witchcraft Mystery, Secondhand
Spirits, about a witch who finally finds a place to fit
in when she opens a vintage clothes shop on Haight Street in
San Francisco, allowed Juliet to indulge yet another
interest—the world of witchcraft and the supernatural.
Ever since her favorite aunt taught her about reading cards
and tea leaves, Juliet has been fascinated with seers,
conjurers, and covens from many different cultures and
historic traditions. Halloween is by far her favorite holiday.
When not writing, painting, or haranguing her funny but
cynical teenaged son, Juliet spends a lot of time restoring
her historic Arts and Crafts house and gardening with Oscar
the cat, who ostensibly belongs to the neighbors but won't
leave her alone. He started hanging around when Juliet
started writing about witches...funny coincidence.
Juliet loves to hear from readers, and is available for
talks and presentations. Please email her at juliet@julietblackwell.net,
and don't forget to join the mailing list!
Books:
A Cast-Off Coven, June 2010
Secondhand Spirits, July 2009
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