About the Author

Shirley Balance Blackwell grew up as a "desert rat" in Arizona and New Mexico but became captivated by the mid-Atlantic seacoast during a career in Washington, D.C. devoted to national security issues. Because of her frequent poetic tributes to coworkers and send-ups (à la Gilbert and Sullivan) of office routines, she may be America's most prolific author of classified poetry. Blackwell returned to her beloved New Mexico for her last federal assignment, and is now enjoying retirement in a village south of Albuquerque with her husband, Louis, and two large rescue dogs, a black Labrador and a brown Vizsla (best guess).