Marilyn A. Gardiner

As a child, an addiction to reading led, eventually, to the need to write. I wrote my first novel at age eight, mostly penned under the covers at night with the aid of a flashlight or high in the apple tree with the wind rocking a benediction to my fantasy.

When a public library opened in my small town I thought heaven was at hand. I devoured Nancy Drew books, two and three a day, and went on to Grace Livingston Hill and Zane Grey with the same appetite. But it wasn't until I found Bess Streeter Aldrich that I discovered what I wanted to write about. Relationships. The way all our lives rub against each other and, in the process, change us in ways both great and small.

Over the years I have published in almost every genre. My byline has appeared on everything from children's literature to newspapers, religious curriculum, inspirational material, newsletters, magazines, poetry, etc. My family coped for years with mismatched socks and thrown-together meals, and a faintly guilty memory is hearing, "Shh, Mom and/or Grandma's writing." At the moment, I have five books under contract with Wings ePress. FLIGHT OF ANGELS, a paranormal romance, received a five star review. Needless to say, I am very pleased. MY PRETTY LADY, a contemporary romance, has garnered rave reviews and thrilled me to the core. The book deals in layers with a woman's struggle to grow in spirit and move on after a near fatal blow. My historical romance entitled LIKE A RIVER, MY LOVE, will be released the first of May.

KEEPER OF THE SINGING BONES is due for publication in September. A book of suspense, romance and mystery, it takes place deep in the duppy-infested caves of the bush country in Jamaica and is complete with Rastafarians and political intrigue. In WHEN THE WIND BLOWS I took up the problem of child kidnapping. Little five-year-old Gilly is gone, and only his mother suspects that her estranged husband took him.

Currently, I am hard at work on yet a new book. An out-and- out, unapologetic, ghost story, DANCING LADIES takes place in a haunted house. It gives me goosebumps even as I write!

Thankfully, I have a supportive and extremely patient husband who has had faith in my stories from the beginning. My two grown daughters have given us the blessing of eight healthy and happy grandchildren. As the wife of a Presbyterian minister, a singer with a large Chorale, and now an author, my life is, indeed, full.

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