Living and Learning

Traverse City, Michigan, is fortunate to be the home of Northwestern Michigan College (NMC). NMC hosts something called Life Academy providing education for members of the community not seeking degrees. Twice a year it holds a “Campus Day” with three sessions of classes for the senior community.


Now, I grew up in the Northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan, within 25 miles of Traverse City. After getting an Associate’s Degree from NMC, I left in 1961, at age nineteen, never expecting to return. Return I did, at age 63, in 2004 after losing my husband, because my mother was still here and needed someone to look after her. I soon decided that I needed to start a new series of mystery books where I now lived.

Always interested in widening my scope of knowledge, I have attended Life Academy classes and Campus Day regularly. This year, however, I decided to do something different for Campus Day. Instead of following my normal interests, I would take whatever sessions would increase my knowledge about this beautiful area, giving me fabric for my new series of books.

All I can say is WOW. The first session was “The North Country Trail – Your Adventure Starts Here”. The North Country Trail runs from New York to North Dakota, cutting right through my section of Michigan. Trail heads and accesses along the route allow for hikes of varying distances and varying degrees of difficulty. Now, I am way out of shape for hiking, but this is going to make me get back into it. Who knew that one of the few stands of old growth timber was located right here in Michigan, protected by its marshy location from both clear cutters and forest fires? This summer I am determined to see it for myself.

The second session was “Watershed Wisdom.” In addition to Schoolship educational endeavors, which include teaching excursions for fifth and sixth graders, high school students, and adults on the Grand Traverse Bay, we discussed invasive species like Groupies, Zebra Mussels, and Asian Carp in the Great Lakes and what we could do to protect our water from pollution. Oh, my, can I see heightened emotions around these issues in such an environmentally aware city leading to violence!

The third session, “Community Development in TC – What Does it Mean?” embarked on a subject many aspects of which are already causing angst and anger in our community. All the research in the world would not have given me the insights into the why and how of what the city is trying to do as this one class.

The lesson I learned is that to step outside my normal interest areas creates a life enriching environment in which to broaden my knowledge and excite brand new interest areas, whether I use the new knowledge in a book or not. I can hardly wait for the next Campus Day.

Where Did Marge Christensen's Talent Come From?

Marge Christensen is a water color pencil artist. Why? I know next to nothing about water color pencil art.


When I first started the Marge Christensen Mystery Series, I was looking for something a little bit different. Cats and crafts and catering were well represented in the cozy mystery genre, and anyway, I wasn’t proficient enough in any of them to make it the “hook” for my series. As it turned out, having Marge be an artist was just right for the way the series developed. I have a feeling it was one of those areas where the characters told me what was true for them rather than the other way around.

In What Did You Do Before Dying?, Marge’s art started as a symbol of what she had given up when she married and had children. After the death of her husband, she began to reclaim her talent and to hope it might be a way to a new beginning. In the end, it was a unique aspect of her talent that helped bring some bad guys to justice. In Why Did You Die In the Park?, that talent led her to questions that would never otherwise have arisen. And by the time Who More Than Wanted You Dead? came about, she was beginning to depend on it to help discover who did the deed. Because, even if she couldn’t otherwise recall something she had seen, her fingers never forgot.

I only knew about water color pencil art as a serious art form because a sister-in-law, Phyllis, who unfortunately died young as a result of an auto accident, practiced it. She painted a picture as an anniversary gift for my husband and me which made me a believer in the medium at first glance. When I adopted that as Marge’s chosen art form (or she chose it for me) I figured it would be a sideline to the plot, a way to honor Phyllis. I wouldn’t have to know anything more about the art. When it became a central element in the series, I knew I was doomed to educate myself.

I purchased a kit for learning water color pencil art. Fine, as long as I was using its templates and following its instructions to the letter. Otherwise, my attempts looked more like something a first grader might do. Then I discovered some artists combined water color pencils with water color paints. That helped, but it wouldn’t make an artist out of me. I took a drawing class (all the painting classes were at bad times for me) from my local community college. The instructor convinced me that my college art teacher who, many years ago, had left me with the impression I couldn’t draw was all wet. But it didn’t make an artist out of me.

So I struggle along, trusting that Marge or Phyllis or whoever put this idea in my head will lead me when I have to deal with it. At a recent book presentation, someone asked if a person’s fingers could really draw something the person couldn’t otherwise remember. I had to tell the truth. I have no idea. But it seems to work for Marge.