Diana K. Perkins

Diana K. Perkins (born Oct. 19, 1949) is the American author of the Shetucket River Milltown Series. The self published series, set in towns along the Shetucket River and its watershed in eastern Connecticut. Her books often touch on the taboo subject of homosexuality, prostitution, incest and murder.

Early life

Born in Hartford Connecticut to Dorothy Carlin and Charles Woods she was given up to the state and placed as a foster child with Earl and Helen Woodworth in Willington. When Helen developed Tuberculosis and had to give the baby up, her in laws, Dr. Thomas and Frances Keegan adopted the baby and she became Diana Lee Keegan. Starting life in Willimantic then moving to Columbia she moved to several different schools before settling at Horace Porter School in Columbia. The freedom and safety of small town life when she was growing up as a tomboy racing through the woods, swimming in the lake and catching amphibians was no doubt an influence for her later life when she settled in the country. Her father a Dentist in Willimantic was handy and taught her fishing and carpentry. Her mother taught her the love of creatures and gardening. She graduated with average grades from Windham High School in Willimantic in 1967. Not having the grades or funding for college she started work at the Coventry Broadcaster as a secretary and typographer where she worked for six years before moving to Hartford to work for twenty years at the Hartford Courant. Starting as a typographer at the Courant she was able to graduate into the electronic world of publishing and Information Technology by taking night classes at Manchester Community College.

Writing

After writing short stories in her teens, Perkins started writing seriously in 2006 when she penned the first part of Jenny's Way. In the following years she finished Jenny's Way and started on Singing Her Alive, which she had published first with Friesen Press in 2011. Jenny's Way was published by Friesen in 2012 and the next three, Diana's Pool, Summer Ice and The Nonprofit Murders were published by the Shetucket Hollow Press, her own publishing house.

Shetucket River Milltown Series

Singing Her Alive (2011)

Perkins first book published novel set in the 1960s and the late 1800s, takes place in Willimantic and Merrow, Connecticut.

Singing Her Alive is a love story set in two time periods, presented as a fictional memoir. The primary story begins in the late 1800s when fate throws two young women together as roommates - in a shared bed - at a textile mill boarding house where they have gone to work, far from home and family. Two generations later their secret story comes to light when a granddaughter, narrator of the story, finds their personal journals hidden in a closet as she helps her mother clean out their family homestead to sell. The discovery of these family secrets sets the narrator on her own journey towards identity and place. Love and sacrifice, choices and consequences, are strong themes in this story.

Jenny's Way (2012)

Jenny’s Way, based on a local legend, is a fictional tale set in Baltic, Connecticut. The story spans four decades, from the 1930s to the 1960s. It follows the entwined lives of three families each with their own destiny who weave together their dark and light threads throughout the years. These families create a tapestry of local color: a good, hardworking farm family, a family with difficulties, and an extended family of women who are supported by the kindnesses of the mill boys they service.

Diana's Pool (2013)

Diana’s Pool, Diana’s Pool is a story based on a legend local to Eastern Connecticut. Set in the small town of Chaplin, it explores the story about a favorite swimming hole in the Natchaug River.

Summer Ice (2015)

Summer Ice, set in Coventry in the 1890s, is the story of Millicent Submit White’s struggle to find happiness working as a domestic at a small village inn, the Bidwell House. Abandoned by one family spurned by another  and always at the mercy of the inn owners, how could she escape the drudgery? 

The Nonprofit Murders (2016)

Set in In Eastern Connecticut in 2014 when times are tough for nonprofits.  A retired librarian is murdered when her generous trust for local nonprofits is announced.  Her frugal lifestyle allowed her to amass a fortune but someone didn’t agree with the disbursements.  Was it a relative?  One of the nonprofits?   Or a conspiracy among the nonprofits? An aging detective, a washed-up reporter, a shrewd librarian and a busy body historian endeavor to solve the mystery that the detectives seem to be bungling in this classic who-done-it.

In Retirement

Perkins has settled in Windham Center, Connecticut where she lives with her wife, three dogs, numerous cats in chickens. Writing mostly in the winter, their home and property along the Shetucket River takes long hours of maintenance during the warmer months.