Dr. Shirley Johnson

Shirley Johnson is the author of I Heart Ed Small and the newly published sequel Baby Small. She is also the author of the timely novel, The Music of Mary Frances. As a young girl she discovered the escape hatch that is reading and soon became fascinated with how a good yarn could take her someplace wonderful, and could actually alter her emotions. As the youngest child amongst several cousins in a large family she understood the importance of this talent of manipulation and the importance of...See more

Shirley Johnson is the author of I Heart Ed Small and the newly published sequel Baby Small. She is also the author of the timely novel, The Music of Mary Frances. As a young girl she discovered the escape hatch that is reading and soon became fascinated with how a good yarn could take her someplace wonderful, and could actually alter her emotions. As the youngest child amongst several cousins in a large family she understood the importance of this talent of manipulation and the importance of escape very well, and knew that she wanted to be a writer. Born and raised in Central IL where people are pragmatic, her parents encouraged her to first get a good education. And so she did. She majored in Political Science and minored in Russian at Western IL University and she went off to work in politics and international weapons sales. But the urge to write, to braid plots, and invent characters called to her and beckoned her. See less