One of her 4th grade assignments was on Shakespeare and she took it upon herself to rewrite one of the plays in “American English”. She remembers the teacher being quite puzzled by the rewrite but she got an A+ anyway. From the vantage point of 50+ years, she is amused and startled at her effrontery! Her longing to be a writer was a postponed desire for many years as she pursued a career in advertising and marketing which took her to Italy and many developing nations -- Afghanistan, Bosnia, Moldova, Kosovo. Throughout all those years she was scribbling madly in her journal and writing first chapters of many novels. She retired from the never-ending work of corporate marketing when she was seventy years old and began to fulfill her dream of writing fiction. Growing up in a rural Minnesota township – a bend in the road where the dogs outnumber the people – she wanted to recreate the love and friendship of that tight circle of friends and neighbors, where people gather round one another, love on, feed extravagantly, cry with, and forgive.

A place where everyone knows the backstory of each family and though sometimes heads were shaken and brows furrowed, the face of love was deeply expressed in tears and hugs. Where the churches are the gathering place, and the pastors and the priests are true friends and confidantes. Marilyn’s books also include a tender homage to her family’s rural history and struggles, along with over 600 keeper recipes. “How About A Little Lunch?” is her family history and cookbook with an evocative history that includes a Civil War letter written by a family patriarch, and history of the family’s survival of an Indian raid in the late 1700s. And recipes which reflect a particular time and place in rural Minnesota life. SDG

– “Soli Deo Gloria”. To God alone be the glory.