As usual, we have a couple readers from within the immediate neighborhood. And you don’t get more immediate than L.D. Barnes.

L.D. Barnes is a lifelong 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 and other technical pieces, she expanded into Star Trek fan fiction, short stories and following in her father’s footsteps, the occasional poem.

Using her longtime love of music, she told jazz stories in blog form for Rick O’Dell’s Smooth Jazz Chicago website in 2014 and 2015.

Her poetry has been published on The Skinny Poetry Journal website which uses a poetry form developed by Truth Thomas called the Skinny poem. One of her poems, “Recipe,” is included in Revising the Psalm: Work Celebrating the Writing of Gwendolyn Brooks, which Curbside Splendor recently released in honor of Gwendolyn Brooks’s 100th Birthday.

In 2015, she placed second in the Mystery Writers of America Midwest Chapter’s Flash Fiction Contest at the 2015 Printer’s Row Lit Fest, which was judged by Sara Paretski, Clair Donahue and Lori Raider Day, local mystery writers.

Her story entitled “My Mount Greenwood Home” is included in the 2016 edition of the Tallgrass Writers Guild Anthology from Outrider Press. You will see her byline in The Villager from time to time – on different subjects from neighborhood events to pet care.

She divides her time between three writing groups, the Longwood Writers Guild, For Love of Writing (FLOW) and the Mystery Writers of America.

Currently, she is working on a police procedural murder mystery trilogy set in the late 1970’s with the aid of her husband Frank, a retired Chicago Patrolman. The first book, The 107th Street Murder is set in Beverly, Oak Lawn and Morgan Park. The second book, The Canyon Clinic Murders is set on the near west side and the third book, The Fine Art of Murder is set in the museums of downtown and the near south side.

For her appearance at The Frunchroom, she’ll read an excerpt from The 107th Street Murder.

A resident of Beverly Woods, she’s a mere stone’s throw away from our venue at 11532 S Western Ave. which shares that neighborhood’s name. She’ll see you there at 730pm on Thursday, January 19th.

Click here to RSVP on Facebook for a reminder about the event.