Marie Staight. [Yep, I spelled that correctly! Note there is no ‘r’ in my last name.] I am a happy Northern transplant to Florida. I grew up in Indiana, but hating the cold weather, I moved to Florida in my twenties and have never looked back. I now live in Central Florida.
I had a long successful career as a Pediatric Physical Therapist. I gleaned many experiences from those years of working with children and their families. Long before writing stories, I wrote as a book reviewer for the national Physical Therapy Journal. Much later, I began writing as a contributor and soon a facilitator in an online Harry Potter reading group. I developed a bug for writing from doing that. I took a leap when I began to take part in the annual NaNoWriMo challenge (National Novel Writing Month). After several tries of NaNoWriMo, I wrote and eventually self- published a book The Peacock’s Tale which is available on all e-readers.
Shortly before it was published, I organized a Senior Writing Group at a local Senior Center. In facilitating this writing group (The Ink & Quill Writing Group of Winter Garden) I began to learn more about writing – finding out – of course, that I didn’t know nearly as much as I thought I did about it!
These days I am very active in retirement, writing manuscripts, short stories, poems, and even children’s stories. I am hoping to have a second book out soon. I continue to facilitate the Winter Garden Ink & Quill Writing Group, as well as participating in two local book clubs. Most days you will find me in front of the computer screen, before going off to do Wii bowling or participate in a book club or two. I am more busy than I was when I worked full time!
UPDATE: August 3, 2019
Amazing news came this weekend that I was the 2019 First Place winner in the International Literary Competition for a short stories! What a surprise. The winning short story was ♥ My Queen of Hearts ♥. You can read the story in my blog (August 19, 2019).
Chasing The Tale 