Jackie Woolley is a book author, teacher, and memoirist who writes original, heartwarming stories, especially for women. She got her writing start as an award-winning writer for her high school newspaper. After receiving her Bachelor of Science degree in business and religious education, she worked as an educator in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and wrote feature stories about her experiences in a foreign land. She did graduate work at Portland State University, Kansas State University, and completed her Master of Arts in creative writing/literature at the University of Houston at Clear Lake, where she co-edited the university's literary publication, Bayousphere. She has taught English, writing, and business courses for a number of community colleges in Portland, Oregon and the Houston, Texas area. During twenty years, as co-owner of Professional Engineering Inspections, Inc., she split her time between Houston and a lake house on Lake Livingston where she completed a novel and a memoir, which are now published.
Jackie’s articles have been published in numerous national publications. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in college literary publications. Word Books published her nonfiction book, All The Things You Aren’t…Yet. For her master’s thesis, she wrote an early version of her novel manuscript, What Death Can Touch, University of Houston, Clear Lake. An earlier version of a fiction manuscript of The Sound of Windmills won semi-finalist in the prestigious William Faulkner Creative Writing Competition in 2002. For the next twenty years, she continued writing while she edited engineering reports on houses in the Houston area. Her story, “The Love of Her Life,” appeared in The Noble Generation, Vol. II, Stories of the American Experience, Barnes & Noble, Georgetown, Texas. She has written many articles for Story Circle Network’s publications. Her life story based on her memories of her childhood farm in Texas, “My Belonging Place,” appeared in the book, What Wildness is This, Women Write About The Southwest, University of Texas Press, Austin. Her novel, The Sound of Windmills, was published in April, 2011. Her memoir, Sex, Lies & Stories, Memoir of a Frustrated Writer, was published in September, 2011. She recently taught a Creative Writing course for Senior University in Georgetown, Texas.
She lives in Sun City, near Georgetown/Austin, Texas, with her husband, Robert W. Blackshear who is a Country Bluegrass Gospel song writer. His CD, Hill Country Gospel, can be found on his website. Email him to get his latest CD, Country Blue Grass Gospel.