Sharon grew up in suburban Chicago. She received four degrees from the University of Illinois because she didn't have the gumption to go anywhere else, and spent most of her career at the university, eventually earning a PhD, working in departmental administration, publishing, and libraries as well as teaching. Her specialties are 15th-16th century European history, polar exploration, and food history.

Having originally published nonfiction, she has a chapter, “Sylvie Green” in A Reason to Be Here, a collaborative novel. She also has the story “Hockey on the Moon” in the anthology Sci-Fi Stepdad. Her manuscript, At First Sight, was selected as a semifinalist for the 2021 Soon to Be Famous Illinois Author manuscript competition sponsored by the Illinois Library Association.

Sharon loves music, theater, travel, and cats, and less elevated activities like eating doughnuts and sampling gins and single malts. After spending most of her life in a medium-sized university town she moved back to Chicago in 2017 so she could go to more Blackhawks games and spend quality time at Eataly.

Unfortunately her lifetime goal, to be English, is likely to remain unfulfilled.