Mr. Media Interviews By Bob Andelman

I’d like to tell you something about Jess McConkey, but she was a bit of a mystery to me. Her bio is just two sentences — “Jess McConkey is an award-winning writer of short fiction. She lives in a small Iowa town and is currently working on her next novel.” That only told me that she may be in the witness protection program. Then I found out the truth: Jess McConkey is the pen name of Shirley Damsgaard, creator of the Ophelia and Abby mystery series. So I’ll talk to Shirley as Jess, then Shirley a