Lynn Hesse won the 2015 First Place Winner, Oak Tree Press, Cop Tales, for her mystery, Well of Rage, a crime novel about a female rookie cop accused of mishandling evidence by her white-supremacist training officer, then tasked with solving the cold case murder of an African American teenager. Her second novel, Another Kind of Hero, was a finalist for the 2018 Silver Falchion Award and won the International Readers’ Chill Award in 2021. The mystery unfolds when a casket full of drugs and money found in the Pick’n Pay in Forsyth, Georgia, put two contentious sisters and an undercover DEA agent in jeopardy.
 
Hesse’s short stories have been widely published and well received. Most recently her short story “Bitter Love,” a humorous view of a bad day involving a murder, appeared in Crimeucopia, The I’s Have It in 2021 by Murderous Ink Press, United Kingdom. “Jewel’s Hell,” a story about domestic violence, was published in 2019 in Me Too Short Stories: An Anthology by Level Best Books and edited by Elizabeth Zelvin. Her short story about domestic homicide, “Murder: Food For Thought,” was published in the anthology Double Lives, Reinvention & Those We Leave Behind by Wising Up Press in 2009. Also, it was adapted into a play. 
 
Her 2022 suspense release, The Forty Knots Burn, is based on the turmoil created by a maintenance man coming into the women’s dressing room at the author’s local wellness center and is fueled by Hesse’s intense desire to help the underdog or the outcast as exemplified by her dandelion performance persona. Her recurring interest in flamenco dance sparked her intense research in Roma culture.
 
A retired police lieutenant, Hesse draws from her experiences on the force to create gripping plot twists and multi-dimensional characters. She enjoys a daily yoga practice, and as an accomplished dancer she performs with several dance and theatrical troupes in Atlanta, Georgia.

"It was a rainy night in Georgia but we had about sixty people for "You Are the Resource" a public awareness event. We raised around a thousand dollars for Georgia Coalition of Domestic Violence between sells including author Jennie Helderman's non-fiction book "as the sycamore grows" and the "Me Too: Short Stories, An Anthology". I am indebted to Denise Funk and the Decatur Library staff in Decatur, Georgia, and the Executive Director of GCADV, Jan Christensen and Chancy Chea, their Communications and Events Manager, and my talented panelists. The program for "You Are the Resource" Included: Ananda Shakti and Julie Fuzel performed "#-We-2" a movement piece with dialogue. D. Olivia Jones, read her poem, "Create Your Own Reality" and spoke about sexual harassment in the AIrForce. Each panelist spoke their personal 3-sentence story about some aspect of domestic violence after Jan Christensen read a domestic violence statistic. The panel discussed their work to change the culture, how domestic violence had affected their lives, and why they were a resource. Wende Ballew, Executive Director Of Reforming Arts, spoke about the court system that puts women in jail for protecting themselves against their abusers. Jennie Helderman spoke about her harrowing experience of interviewing and writing a book "as the sycamore grows" concerning a severe case of economic and environmental deprivation where a man abused his wife in a cabin in the woods. I spoke about "Jewel's Hell" and breaking stereotypes in fiction. I thanked Elizabeth Zelvin, the editor of Me Too: Short Stories, An Anthology" and Level Best Books for giving me a shipping deal on the book order for the event. I ended by discussing the themes of healing and forgiveness from trauma in my books and the transformational quality of art. I paraphrased Elizabeth Zelvin that women want to be respected, believed, and safe and free. A reception and book signing followed. Free ticketed event: Accessible, Advocates, Deaf Interpreters "