Award-winning author Marilyn Turk is enjoying life somewhere between her between her 71st and her 75th year. Even though she’d hit her 55th year before she decided to “do something” about her talent, her first encouragement came at the lovely age of 17. 

"When I was in high school in Honors English, my teacher praised my work and made me think I had talent. However, I never gave a thought to writing professionally. I just thought I could write if I wanted to, but the concept of doing so beyond my classes would have been totally boring to me at that time. I ended up going to college in advertising (which happened to be in the college of journalism)."

But what did the rest of her journey look like? 

“First, I took a correspondence course in children's writing. I submitted one of the stories from that class to Jesse Florea at Blue Ridge Christian Writers Conference.”

Submissions can be rejected of course. But did Jesse reject it or accept it?

“He published it,” Marilyn reports.

But one editor and one publication didn’t stop Marilyn from moving forward in what God intended her to do! “I also met Susan King at Blue Ridge. After taking her class, I submitted to The Upper Room and that piece was accepted as well.”

Ah, but two publications didn’t mean Marilyn was done. “In 2010, I submitted to the Guideposts Writers Contest and won. I began writing for Guideposts. At the same time, I decided to write a novel based on prompting and classes at Blue Ridge. That book was published in 2015. Now have over 20 novels and novellas published through Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas, Iron Stream Media, Winged Publications, and Barbour Publishing, Praise God!”

Praise God, indeed!

Now Marilyn is a multiple-published, award-winning author. She is a faithful member of Word Weavers Destin, who is blessed to have her talents.

Marilyn’s latest work is being part of a novella collection, Secrets Between the Shelves, published by Barbour, and a novel The Gilding of Minnie Tucker, which was independently published.

When asked to tell us something fun about herself, Marilyn reported, “For the past ten years, I've tried to do something new and different for my birthday. This past year, my husband and I traveled through the United Kingdom, celebrating my birthday in Glasgow, Scotland.”

Wonder where she’ll go next! 

Sue Smart (Word Weavers St. Croix) recognized she had a talent for writing at about age 14. “I was a freshman in high school. But I didn’t decide to do anything about. When I was 25, I enrolled in college at the University of New Mexico.  My first semester included Freshman Comp and my English professor, Dr. Lynn Beene, strongly encouraged me to write essays with the goal of being published.  I'm glad I took her advice!”

Sue is now in the “65-70” age range and, just last year joined a local Word Weavers chapter in Wisconsin.

“Right now, I’m working on my memoir and have completed six chapters. I hope to have another six to eight chapters done by the end of this year. The complete manuscript will consist of about 25-30 chapters.”

I wondered if she’d had anything published to date.

“I have," she said. "A few magazine articles were published in the late 90s.”

Finally, I asked Sue if there was something fun about herself that she could share, something our readers (and maybe even some of her local WW buddies) wouldn’t already know.

“I served in the U.S. Army in the mid-70s and was part of the first WAC training battalions to qualify on the M-16.”

Well, I’m impressed!

At age 12, Susan Pope Sloan, who is now in the 71-75 group, recognized she had a talent for writing. But that understanding wasn’t confirmed until she was 17 and part of a creative writing class.

One year later, at age 18, she submitted her first articles to Pathway Press, which is the publishing arm of the Church of God, Cleveland, TN, for their literature for young adults.  

After attending the North Georgia Christian Writers Conference, Susan joined Word Weavers at the young age of 68. For several years, she served as a president for Word Weavers Columbus (Georgia) and now serves as a mentor over several traditional groups.

So what did Susan’s journey to publication look like? “I published article in Christian periodicals and local newspapers sporadically for years. My first novel was rejected several times in 1990’s. But after winning the Florida Christian Writers Conference contest, I submitted a proposal to Wild Heart Books.”

And what happened after that? “I landed a three-book contract in 2022 and later a contract for two more books.”

Her latest book, Seeking Simon, was released this month! You can find out more about it by clicking on the link.

What’s something fun we may or may not know about Susan? “I’ve participated in a Victorian caroling group each Christmas since 1999.”

The Dickens you say!