L.D. Barnes
With Lori Raider Day, Clare Donahue and Sara Paretsky
…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 co-edited and contributed to their literary magazine, the BAC Street Journal.
She writes literary feature stories and reviews for the NewCity News. With reviews in print and online, gangsters, historical fiction, chic lit and Chicago history are available for the following books:
It's Not What You Thought It Would Be
Binga: The Rise and Fall of Chicago’s First Black Banker
Her poem ‘Good Night Jazz’ was published in the 2019 Lit issue of the South Side Weekly
Her short mystery What A Little Cinnamon Can Do is performed as a podcast at Mysteryrat’s Maze website.
Using her longtime love of music, she told jazz stories in blog form for Rick O'Dell's Smooth Jazz Chicago website in 2014/2015 and is blogging currently for the Chicago Writer’s Association
Using the form of poetry developed by Truth Thomas called the Skinny poem, she has been published on the website 'The Skinny Poetry Journal'.
She also was published in PopMatters 50th Anniversary Star Trek Edition at 'Where Have All the Starships Gone' in the webzine.
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 mysteries set in the late 1970's called the Chicago Street Murders, with the aid of her husband Frank, a retired Chicago Patrolman.
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.
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.