Having received a library card before she began kindergarten (requiring her cursive signature), Andrea began her writing career at the age of five with a short story describing the seasons. Her next endeavor, at the age of nine, was a novella featuring Christine O’Leary. So began Andrea’s long love affair with the written word.
Singularly focused on a nursing career, Andrea continued to write for pleasure throughout high school and college. After earning a master’s degree to teach nursing, she was offered a position as a nurse editor with a major nursing publisher where she honed her writing skills through editing others’ works.
Intrigued by the intersect of medical ethics and the law, Andrea attended law school and, upon her admission to the Connecticut and New York bars, established a solo practice in estate planning, probate and elder law.
Andrea had long considered writing a mystery series based on some of her legal cases. The opportunity to do so came when her husband John’s Parkinson’s disease progressed to the point where he was unable to engage in his usual active lifestyle. They began their collaboration on the first book in the Gaby Quinn Mystery series, Woodson Falls: 16 Lakeview Terrace, in response to John’s longing to do something.
After leaving a long career in a “publish or perish” university setting, it was hard for Andrea not to view writing fiction as lying on paper. John helped her to push the uneasy feeling that was the seed for that first book into a believable plotline. It was Andrea’s long service as the chief elected official of a small town in Connecticut that provided the story’s sense of place.
Having caught the mystery bug, Andrea has continued the series with Woodson Falls: 9 Donovan’s Way and Woodson Falls: 2 Sunrise Trail. She has already embarked on a planned fourth book in the series and knows that her twenty-five years as a practicing attorney offers fodder for many other stories to explore.
Andrea is the author of three award-winning texts in the area of nursing education and staff development, as well as numerous articles in peer-reviewed nursing and education journals. She collects teddy bears and birdhouses, loves to garden and bake bread, and writes from Sherman, Connecticut.
To explore her books and learn more about Andrea’s writing process as well as the backgrounds of people and places in Woodson Falls, visit woodsonfalls.com.
Contact Andrea O’Connor
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