Sheila Lowe

Although Sheila was born in England and spent her first fourteen years there, there's no trace of an accent any longer. She told a charming story of how she left England right before The Beatles made it big. Like most of the star-struck Americans, she was stuck on the wrong side of the Atlantic. Her earliest stories written when she was a teenager have her married to Ringo. This confession provoked an animated audience response of "I liked [fill in a Beatle name] best" from the mostly female audience.

In both her nonfiction and fiction writing, handwriting analysis plays center stage. As a matter of fact, Sheila was in town to speak at the National Association of Document Examiners Conference, and that led her to Murder by the Book, even though her new mystery book, Last Writes, starring forensic handwriting analyst Claudia Rose, won't be out until June.

Although she claims she lacks the discipline to write according to a schedule, sometimes not starting her writing until late in the day, she has certainly been prolific: four books in her series and a couple of nonfiction books on handwriting analysis, including "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Handwriting Analysis," not that she thinks any of her readers are idiots, she's quick to say.