L. D. Barnes is a life long Chicagoan, proud of her beginnings on the West Side. She attended Roosevelt University and the Art Institute of Chicago before spending her work life at several cultural, medical, political, broadcasting and corporate institutions. Starting her writing with IT training guides, disaster recovery manuals and other technical pieces, she expanded into Star Trek fan fiction, short stories and following in her father's footsteps, the occasional poem. She joined the Beverly Art's Center Writers Group, where she edited and contributed to their literary magazine, the BAC Street Journal.
The latest literary venture is review for the NewCity News. With reviews in print and online, gansters and Chicago history are available for the following books:
The Art of Resistance - https://lit.newcity.com/2020/03/05/witnessing-history-a-review-of-justus-rosenbergs-the-art-of-resistance-my-four-years-in-the-french-underground/
The Kosher Capones - https://lit.newcity.com/2019/11/19/chronicling-chicago-gangsters-a-review-of-the-kosher-capones-by-joe-kraus/?fbclid=IwAR3aZ10uuCC-CWow27TLp7ZInqxltXi8DTCxgqkdYMRUizauLQeIgIQSrOM
Binga: The Rise and Fall of Chicago’s First Black Banker — https://lit.newcity.com/2019/11/11/the-king-of-the-black-belt-a-review-of-don-hayners-binga-the-rise-and-fall-of-chicagos-first-black-banker/
Published in the 2019 Lit issue of the South Side Weekly - https://southsideweekly.com/good-night-jazz-lit-issue/?fbclid=IwAR36Mvxk-8sjOeC0CxwtHHtmbM7maEeMwq7hgPpQ1YcMAqqX5JLAjacg-6E
Using her longtime love of music, she told jazz stories in blog form for Rick O'Dell's Smooth Jazz Chicago website in 2014 and 2015.
Using the form of poetry developed by Truth Thomas called the Skinny poem, she has been published on the website 'The Skinny Poetry Journal'.
https://theskinnypoetryjournal.wordpress.com/2016/06/22/heels-by-l-d-barnes/
One of her poems, Recipe, is included in Revising the Psalm: Work Celebrating the Writing of Gwendolyn Brooks, which Curbside Splendor published in honor of Gwendolyn Brooks 100th Birthday. Copies of this anthology of over ninety authors, poets and artists is available from http://www.curbsidesplendor.com/books/revise-the-psalm-work-celebrating-the-writing-of-gwendolyn-brooks or Amazon for $24.95.
You can order a copy from the book tab at Curbside Splendor Press
With Lori Rader-Day, Clare O'Donohue and Sara Peretsky.
In the above photo, she is celebrating coming in second in the Mystery Writers of America Midwest Chapter's Flash Fiction Contest at the 2015 Printer's Row Lit Fest. The highlight of that summer. What a joy that was! She's not eligible to compete this year because she joined the organization.
She also was published in PopMatters 50th Anniversary Star Trek Edition at
'Where Have All the Starships Gone' in the webzine http://www.popmatters.com/feature/star-trek-where-have-all-the-starships-gone/
Her story entitled "My Mount Greenwood Home" was included in the 2016 Home edition of the Tallgrass Writers Guild Anthology from Outrider Press.
Currently, she is working on a police procedural murder mystery trilogy set in the late 1970's with the aid of her husband Frank, a retired Chicago Patrolman.
The first book, The 107th Street Murder is set in Beverly, Oak Lawn and Morgan Park is on the shelves of Bookies - Chicago and Bookies - Homewood, Centuries & Sleuths in Forest Park, 57th Street Books and Anderson Books in LaGrange.
Available from Novelbarnpress.com and amazon.