About the author

Jessica Sellars also writing as J.R. Deem

I have loved writing since high school, when I started filling notebooks with characters and worlds I kept mostly to myself. After years of carrying those stories around, I have finally decided to bring them to life: picture books for little readers under my own name, and slipstream and YA fantasy for grown-ups as J.R. Deem.

Away from the page, I teach and have spent my career working in medicine. The thread through all of it is the same: I like to make life a little easier for the people around me, and to bring them some joy along the way.

Every story I tell has had two sounding boards: my husband, and my brother Cody, who spent years listening to my ideas and talking them through with me. Cody passed away in 2025.

The flowers on this card are from my own garden.