Lori Nelson Spielman

Spielman was born in 1961, in Lansing, Michigan, the fourth child of a Catholic working-class couple – Franc and Joan Nelson – and the first of them to attend university. After graduating (BA, Central Michigan University; MA, Michigan State University),^[3] she became a speech pathologist and then a homebound teacher, teaching mentally or physically ill students in their homes or at the hospital.^[4] Her first book heroine's profession is exactly that – homebound teacher.

Spielman started writing only after reaching 48 years of age. It was in October 2009 that she started the first draft for her first book The Life List; four years later it was published.^[5] In the midst of the book promotion, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. After two surgeries, she was told that she is cancer-free.^[6] As of 2015, having written and published her second novel, Sweet Forgiveness, she has retired from teaching and became a full-time writer.

Nelson Spielman lives in East Lansing with her husband Bill Spielman. She has no children.

• Lori Nelson Spielman Website
• A Writer’s Life List, July 30, 2013
• How Do Writers Measure Success in Global Publishing?, June 4, 2015