VIRGINIA HENDERSON OLIVER

Virginia Oliver is a retired English teacher, having taught English at McNeese State University, Lake Charles, Louisiana, from 1965 to 1982.  She also taught briefly at the University of Kansas and has taught French and English in secondary schools. 

Writing has always been of great interest to her.  While in elementary and junior high school in Wichita, Kansas, she began writing in collaboration with a friend.  Several of their plays were performed at that time under their direction. 

Holding degrees in French, history, and English, she has published articles in the Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin and Education for the 21st Century.  Her book Apocalypse of Green:  A Study of Emily Dickinson's Eschatology appeared in 1989.  Dejavu:  A Novel of Second Sight was her first mystery novel co-authored with Lois Lawrence under the pseudonym Virginia Lee.

She has five children and five grandchildren and lives with her husband March and their cat Alice in Sulphur, Louisiana, where she continues to indulge her passions for writing and travel.

LOIS ARMES LAWRENCE

Growing up in Louisville, Kentucky, Lois began at an early age writing journals, a family history, poetry, and mystery stories.  Overcoming the problem of dyslexia, she pursued a teaching career. A graduate of the University of Houston, she holds degrees in history, classical rhetoric, and English literature. 

A long-time fan of the Agatha Christie school of fiction, Lois uses experiences from Pasadena Little Theatre, free-lance journalism, and teaching to shape characters and to structure tight plots. Researching settings and historical events, she brings a Faulknerian "sense of place" to her novels. On the West Coast of Ireland, Lois and several friends enjoyed a month at Claddagh Cottage in the village of  Kilcolgan, which inspired the setting and many characters for the novel Quenchless Fire.

Co-author of the Aunt Louise mystery, Dejavu:  A Novel of Second Sight, Lois published "The Ballad of Ballinderreen" (An Doirin: Literary Journal, Galway, Ireland), and is working on a third Aunt Louise mystery with Virginia Oliver plus an historical novel based on the life of her grandmother.