The Story Behind the Series

I’m Carol Dean Jones, a retired geriatric social worker. During my many years working with men and women facing the issues of aging, I learned a great deal about growing old. I saw folks who withdrew into depression and others who remained engaged in life. I began to look at the differences, and what I learned was the value of remaining as active as possible, being open to learning new things, developing and maintaining a caring social network, and finding ways to deal with (and then focus beyond) the many personal losses we all experience as we grow older.

Sarah Miller was born out of my desire to share what I have learned. Sarah is the main character in my Quilting Cozy series. She’s a woman of a certain age who has faced the loss of her husband, her young grandson, and the home where she raised her family. The story begins in Cunningham Village, a retirement community, and follows Sarah as she finds ways to make a successful adjustment to this new way of life. From taking classes at the community center, making lasting friendships, and even exploring the possibility of a romantic connection, Sarah remains steadfastly determined to continue to be a vital active woman engaged in life.

Being an avid quilter myself, I also wanted to integrate that particular creative expression into the story and Sarah, always willing to go along with my wishes, took up quilting. She, in fact, makes the quilts (along with me) for each of the book covers, as you will see as you read the stories.

Because I wanted to write about quilting and about relationships, I chose the cozy format. A cozy is a light mystery without explicit sex, violence, or profanity. If the crime is murder, it tends to occur out of the view of the reader. Cozies are usually organized around a hobby and a group of friends in a small community who work to solve the mystery.  In the case of this series, the hobby is quilting and the community is a retirement village just across the park from the main street of a small town in the midwest.

Under MY BOOKS you are able to read a brief description of the books in this series.  In each book, I tried to walk that fine line between giving too much and too little information about previous books in the series. Each can stand alone, but reading them in order will offer the advantage of watching characters, relationships, and situations develop over time.

All the books in my Quilting Cozy series are available from C&T Publishing, on Amazon, and in major bookstores. They are available in both print and ebook formats.

I would love to hear from you. Just go to the CONTACT ME page or email me directly at QuiltingCozy@gmail.com.  Also, please click the FOLLOW ME button so we can keep in touch.

Best wishes to all my current and future friends.

Carol Dean Jones