NTRWA August 2005 Spotlight On...

MARILYN EUDALY
          by Sheniqua Waters

Marilyn Eudaly is a persistent lady who refuses to give up on her dream to have a book published. She admits her story is always with her. She continually thinks about her characters, scenes and setting as she goes about her day. She concedes she is still defining her writing style. She gets the idea, the characters, the setting, makes a storyboard then begins to write. The story she is currently working on is an inspirational romance for Steeple Hill or Heartsong Presents called Alicia's Story. She has been working on having her first book published for many years. But she has not given up.

She joined Romance Writers Association, American Christian Fiction Writer (ACFW) and then joined NTRWA in 2001. She noticed NTRWA had real writers who help other writers. She now knows she has found the help she needs on her journey to become a published author. Marilyn reveals she also gets inspiration from her daughter who has pursued a writing career since she was twelve. Her daughter’s perseverance and unwavering confidence has been an invaluable inspiration to Marilyn.

Marilyn loves to write and she loves to read books. She often reads two or three books at one time. She likes to read romance, suspense, and non-fiction. When she was in the first grade, she made a book about an opossum as a class project. She was hooked right then and knew she was meant to write books. When she was ten or eleven, she watched the movie The Diary of Anne Frank and wanted to write like Anne Frank. She liked the idea of putting something in writing that would be read years later. In high school, she wrote a poem, entered it into a contest and won. Winning that contest made her believe she could actually write something others would read.

From her early years until today, Marilyn is still working toward her goal of writing. She has had a story published in a book. "The Secret" was published in CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL, HEALTHY LIVING SERIES: WEIGHT LOSS. It is about she and her daughter finding their own solutions to weight loss. Since having weight loss surgery last summer, Marilyn has made a lot of life style changes. She is settling into a routine that includes regular exercise and support group meetings. She has learned to look at each day and make a decision about when writing will work into her schedule.

Marilyn currently lives in Arlington, Texas advising undergraduate students and Ph.D. candidates in her position as an Administrative Program Specialist at Texas Christian University. She works to balance her personal life, work life and still achieve her dream. Marilyn admits there were times throughout her life when she put other things before her desire to write. However, there came a time when she decided to eliminate anything from her life that stood between her and fulfilling her dream to write. That decision was the catalyst for her to grow, learn and take chances to become truly happy and content.

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