Shake Down Dead: A Jennifer Penny Mystery (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781479395736)

Diane likes to brag that she has had a library card since she was in Kindergarten. She was born in Aurora, Illinois in 1943. When she was fifteen years old, her family moved to Minneapolis. Since then she has considered both Illinois and Minnesota her home states. In 1977, Diane earned a B.A. in Social Work at Minnesota State University at Moorhead. After working in that field for eight years, Diane returned to graduate school at the University of Minnesota where she earned an MSW. She worked as a psychotherapist at a community mental health center and a clinical social worker at a psychiatric hospital. Diane has also managed a group home housing developmentally disabled adults. Moving away from the seriousness of social work, Diane worked for more than ten years managing a group of saleswomen, selling lingerie at home parties. Like many people, her dream was to someday write a novel. Currently she is semi-retired, works part-time at Kishwaukee College Library in Malta, IL and lives in Sycamore, IL. In 2007, Diane took a creative fiction writing course. One of her stories produced for that class won second prize and was published in the 2008 Kameilian Literary and Arts Magazine. Diane has three children and seven grandchildren. When not writing, she enjoys crocheting, visiting her friends in Minnesota and an occasional trip to Las Vegas. "Shake Down Dead" is her second novel in the Jennifer Penny Mystery series.