SALLY JAMESON BOND

Sally Jameson Bond is an Iowa girl, born and bred. The daughter of a World War II and Korean War veteran father and an artistic mother who loved to write, she was always surrounded by her large and caring family and a bevy of close friends. Early on, Sally found music. It was inevitable, as both of her parents were talented musicians and singers. She learned to play the piano (sort of) in grade school, but after two years of hand positions and fingerings, she switched to trombone which she played off and on—mostly on—for over fifty years.

 

Sally met her husband Joe at the University of Iowa when they sat next to each other in band. Three years later, they married and moved to Virginia. Joe’s academic endeavors led them back to Iowa, and then to Texas, Oklahoma, and California. What they wanted more than anything, though, was to call Virginia home once again. So, eventually, they made it happen, settling in the Roanoke Valley between the beautiful Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains. They’re still there, and they still love it.

 

About the time she started carrying her trombone to Pickwick Elementary School for band rehearsals, Sally discovered Carolyn Keene’s Nancy Drew Mysteries and was hooked. She spent many a night under her covers with a small reading lamp (so she wouldn’t disturb her sister). Later, Carolyn Keene was replaced by James Herriot, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Ken Follett, and others. Her thirty-year career in academic libraries offered plenty of breathing space near the written word, but she never once considered writing a book until one morning a few years ago when she learned there were POW camps in Iowa during World War II. Inexplicably, she decided to write a book about one of those camps, and eventually, My Mother’s Friend was born.

 

Beyond reading and writing, Sally is most passionate about traveling in Europe, spending time with family and friends, singing with others, and walking the dogs on the battlefield trail. She’s addicted to solitaire and pumpkin seeds, and 2001: A Space Odyssey is her most favorite movie of all time. Field of Dreams is her second favorite. (“Is this heaven? No, it’s Iowa.”) At the end of a long day, she always smiles when the dogs join them in bed for their nightly snooze. For Sally, that’s heaven.

 

Sally is a member of the Historical Novel Society and the State Historical Society of Iowa. She proudly supports the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia, and the National Museum of the U.S. Army near Washington, D.C.