BISBEE - Sunday is a big day for author J.A. Jance, a former Bisbee resident.

Not only will she hold a book signing at Atalanta's on Brewery Road, but she will be honored by the Copper Queen Hotel with a room dedicated in her honor at the hotel's 105th birthday bash.

Judith Ann Jance has been writing novels since the early 1980s, and her first book, "Until Proven Guilty", came to print in 1985 featuring her famous Detective J.P. Beaumont. She used her initials rather than her name after being told by a publisher that a woman writing a novel about a male detective wouldn't sell.

Twenty-five years later, she has stacked up just more than 30 titles and has received recognition from the New York Times as a best-selling author.

On Sunday at 2 p.m., she will be at Atalanta's to sign her latest book, "Web of Evil", the second in her new Ali Reynolds series. In the story, Reynolds, the 40-something heroine, is fired from her job as a TV news anchor in Los Angeles and heads home to Sedona and her cheating husband who has been murdered in a suspicious car accident. As the sole heir to his large estate, she becomes the prime suspect.

At 6 p.m., she will be at the Copper Queen Hotel, where she will open the room dedicated to her.

"She is a big Bisbee author and has mentioned the Copper Queen and Bisbee numerous times in her books," said Adam Lamb, the hotel's manager. "We just want to show our appreciation."

Jance has set a series of mystery novels in Bisbee with the heroine Joanna Brady, Cochise County Sheriff.

Jance attended Greenway School in Bisbee and as a second-grader decided to be a writer after reading the "Wizard of Oz" series by Frank Baum.

After graduating from Bisbee High School in 1962, she received an academic scholarship that sent her to college at the University of Arizona. In 1966, she earned her degree in English and secondary education and in 1970 received a master's degree in library science.

Jance also taught English at Tucson's Pueblo High School for two years and was a K-12 librarian at Indian Oasis School District in Sells for five years.

Jance notes on her Web site: "I learned on the reservation that the ancient, sacred charge of the storyteller is to beguile the time. I'm thrilled when I hear that someone has used my books to get through some particularly difficult illness either as a patient or as they sit on the sidelines while someone they love is terribly ill. It gratifies me to know that by immersing themselves in my stories, people are able to set their own lives aside and live and walk in someone else's shoes. It tells me I'm doing a good job at the best job in the world."