Mary is the sister of seven siblings, the aunt of oodles of nieces and nephews, the friend and cousin of bunches and the neighbor of a few. She is the wife of one and the worshiper of One. (Those two are not the same.) She is the leader of one writers group and a protector of all two-legged and four-legged species she comes in contact with.
Mary grew up on a sharecropper farm in North Carolina, hence the southern twang, which might be heard through her writings. Early on, she learned the value of a day's hard work. When her hands were big enough to wrap around three or four leaves of tobacco, she worked at the barn, handing leaves to the stringer.
One of her accomplishments, since you asked, is that she earned a college degree in a nontraditional way by attending classes at night and working 9 to 5 by day, for nine years. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Management with a minor in Strategic Planning, but she would rather be writing than managing or strategically planning.
She and her husband left North Carolina many years ago to settle down in a different place. When the surroundings near the city became overcrowded, they moved again, to a tiny but adorable town in between two big cities. There they live Little House on the Prairie style, where birds sing, cows moo and tractors hum. Although she has overcome her humble beginnings, she is still humble.
Several years ago, she retired from a demanding job and embraced country life. Now she roams free of telephone cords and swivel chairs. The sight of fresh hay bales and rhododendron blooms gives her more pleasure than she ever thought she would find.
Since her tenth grade English class, Mary dreamed of becoming a writer. Now she writes almost every day and can definitively say she is a writer. On that note, one could conclude that at least one of her dreams has come true. She is still waiting on some of the others.