Jeanne is an author, narrator, marketing consultant, and motivational speaker. Her love of storytelling lies in her performing arts background and the colorful tales of myriad characters in her life. After theatrical training and performance as a child and young adult, Jeanne moved to Hawaiʻi to teach acting and dance. With certification as a teacher of Scottish Highland Dancing, she helped organize Hawaiian Highland Games on the islands of Hawaiʻi and Oʻahu. She also served as Volunteer Talent Coordinator for the Honolulu Police Department Training Division, Educationally, Jeanne earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history with distinction at the University of Hawaiʻi, where she subsequently studied Asian history during a teaching assistantship in their World Civilizations program. Her professional writing and narration began with promotion of theatrical performances and the classes she taught. As a freelance author and co-author of fiction and non-fiction, her carefully-researched articles and essays have appeared in business, literary, and professional publications. Her professional memberships include: The Phi Beta Kappa Society, Phi Alpha Theta, the National Writers Union, Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Arizona Mystery Writers. She is also a Lifetime Member of the British Association of Teachers of Dancing, Highland Dance Genre.
Under Sonoran Skies, Prose and Poetry from the High Desert was the first print and audio book on which Jeanne worked. She served as co-art director, indexer, and a co-author of the six-author anthology that was a 2012 Top Pick of Southwest Books of the Year. With having been a resident of Hawaii for 20 years, it’s no surprise that her award-winning Natalie Seachrist Visionary Hawaiian Cozy Mystery Series is set in its lush environs and feature Island multiculturalism and pan-Pacific history.
In addition to periodic public addresses and workshops, Jeanne shares her work on a new duo website/blog which offers biographical information, written and audio interviews, samples of her work in several genres (history, poetry, affirmations, sci-fi) and even recipes from Hawaii and beyond. The Blog Posts offer articles on promotion and marketing for authors and artists, and other literary professionals seeking info on: authorship; public speaking; usage of images; membership in professional and civic associations; augmenting public relations; and strategic event planning.
To learn more, visit https://www.JeanneBurrows-JohnsonsImaginings.com.
Publications
Yen For Murder, 2025
2025 New Mexico Book Awards, FINALIST, Cozy Mysteries
In this fourth Natalie Seachrist Visionary Hawaiian Cozy Mystery, semi-retired journalist Natalie, private investigator Ke`oni and their feline companion Miss Una are enjoying their seaside home in Lanikai. One night Natalie experiences a most unusual vision. It features the killing of a Buddhist minister at her altar in a Honolulu Jodo Shinshu Temple during the theft of a sacred statue of the Shākyamui Buddha. Subsequently, Ke`oni recognizes the ancient icon in a brochure for an antique auction. With memories of one of his last cases as a homicide detective with the Honolulu Police Department reawakened, the duo (aided by the clever Miss Una) move into the world of international antiquarian auctions. Soon the couple, and his former partner Lt. Homicide Detective John Dias, are embroiled in the complexities of Japanese history and philosophy. As though unchallenged, Ke`oni and Natalie’s twin brother Nathan contemplate purchase of a yacht for inter-island jaunts. With no criminals in sight, the enlarged team wonders if they will be able to solve the murder of the gentle priestess and theft of the sacred icon that has haunted Ke`oni since his retirement?
Murders of Conveyance
2019 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards, WINNER, Fiction-Adventure-Other
The First Annual Aloha Scavenger Hunt is beginning during Chinese New Year and journalist Natalie Seachrist and her life-partner, PI Keʻoni Hewitt, are joining in the fun. But when her dream of a film noire whodunit set in the mid-twentieth century eerily parallels a murder near their downtown Honolulu hotel suite, Natalie realizes it was another of her recurring visions. Knowing the usefulness of her unusual gift, HPD Lieutenant John Dias asks Natalie and Keʻoni to watch for clues to the crime he is investigating...and the death she envisioned.
Continuing full-color visions indicate Natalie’s vision was in Chinatown, the victim was Chinese, and the perpetrator may have been a mysterious woman dressed in red who periodically reappears. A false scavenger hunt clue’s allusion to a priceless Kuan Yin statue causes Natalie to call on her friend Pearl Wong for help. After a Chinese New Year’s feast, the investigative team tours Chinatown’s Shēn building, once a boutique hotel from which the owner’s granduncle disappeared in the 1950s. Is this the man Natalie envisioned? What of the false clue’s reference to hidden treasure? Coincidences? Or, have Natalie’s visions revealed a murderer with long hidden secrets?
Murder on Mokulua Drive
2018 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards, WINNER Cozy Mysteries, WINNER Cover Art
2018 Arizona Literary Excellence Contest, SECOND PLACE Published Literature
Hawai`i journalist Natalie Seachrist has always had unusual visions. Her viewing of war-like scenes of a Jewish family’s predawn escape from Denmark initially seem unremarkable. Soon, Natalie and her boyfriend private investigator Keoni Hewitt move into a Lanikai cottage, where their expectations for relaxed living are met with warm welcomes. Across the fence live Miriam Didión, a widowed human rights activist, Joanne Walther, a retired teacher, and Esmeralda Cruz, a cook. They have all become friends by the time Natalie throws Keʻoni a surprise birthday party. Even Natalie’s feline companion Miss Una has embraced the women and keeps nightly watch over their property. Unfortunately, vision of a garroting by moonlit shatters the peaceful environment and Natalie must reveal her horrifying insights of the actual event to Keʻoni’s former partner, Honolulu Police Department Homicide Detective John Dias. When a suspect’s body is found on Diamond Head Beach, the case appears solved and Natalie plans a tour of historic Kawai Nui Marsh, a favorite destination of Queen Lili`uokalani. Unfortunately, the day of playing tourist devolves, and Natalie and her new friends are soon in the cross hairs of a dangerous adversary. Does resolution of the gruesome murder lie in the deceased’s transnational past? Or in the visible present, among innocuous seeming companions?
Prospect For Murder
2017 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards, FINALIST, Mystery Suspense and WINNER, Best Cover Design
Semi-retired journalist Natalie Seachrist’s had visions since childhood. But when her twin Nathan confirms the body she saw draped over a vintage Mustang was one of his granddaughters, her world shatters. With the cautionary help of retired Honolulu Police Department Homicide Detective Keʻoni Hewitt, Natalie begins investigating the Honolulu foothills apartment where Ariel died. There the writer discovers the fascinating story of the 1920s Shànghǎi origins of the affluent Wong Sisters who own the complex—and more than a little discord between the family and staff. Unfortunately, Natalie’s on-site sleuthing with her feline companion Miss Una produces few leads. Just as she questions her mission, she experiences a surprising vision from Ariel’s perspective. When Natalie declares her certainty that the girl did not fall from the apartment’s lanai to Keʻoni, she’s forced to reveal her ongoing visions. Meeting with Nathan, the coroner, and the Honolulu police detective who was once his partner, Keʻoni and Natalie learn items are missing from Ariel’s effects. Was the unattended death a murder rather than an accident or even a suicide? If so, Natalie may have put herself in the way of a murderer who’s willing to kill again to hide their secret.
