Jeanne Meeks

Outdoors woman, author, publisher, late bloomer, and cheerleader for women who try. Through her mystery fiction, Jeanne inspires women to do more than they thought they could. "A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water." -E.Roosevelt. Jeanne Meeks began backpacking in 2005 and hiked across the Grand Canyon where a tragedy prompted her to write "Rim to Rim." Another hiking trip landed her on Isle Royale and inspired a second backcountry mystery, "Wolf Pack." The ladies on her tennis team enjoyed her novels so much, they urged her to write the tennis team into the next mystery. "Gator Bait- A Tennis Team Mystery" and "Killer Serve - A tennis Team Mystery" are the happy result. Ms. Meeks' short story, Eternally Yours, was published in 2013 by HK Books in the UK in "The Other Side-An Anthology. "Rim To Rim" was nominated for Best First Novel at the Mystery Writers' 2014 Love is Murder convention in Chicago. It was also nominated for the Illinois Author's Project by the Librarian Association. Most recently, she involved her grandsons in the writing of a middle-grade novel, "Freaks, Inc." and loves writing from the perspective of an eleven-year-old boy. After twenty-eight years in business, Ms. Meeks and her husband sold their security surveillance company. Ms. Meeks was recognized by the Illinois governor as the Small-Business Person of the Year. She was the Tax Collector for her township and has been the President of the Chamber of Commerce, on the board of a local bank, and on Silver Cross Hospital's Community Trustee Board. Ms. Meeks now writes full-time and is Vice President of Gulf Coast Writers in Florida. She reads extensively and edits for other authors. When not writing, Jeanne hikes, bikes, kayaks, entertains the grandchildren, volunteers with the local historical society, and plays tennis (lots of tennis), pickleball, or golf. Married in 1969, she lives with her husband on Florida's gulf coast and in a suburb of Chicago.