„Writers/Authors: We Get Through This Together“ 

Marilyn Barr currently resides in the wilds of Kentucky with her husband, son, and rescue cats. When engaging with the real world, she is collecting characters, empty coffee cups, and unused homeschool curricula. She has a diverse background containing experiences as a child prodigy turned medical school reject, biodefense microbiologist, high school science teacher, homeschool mother of a savant, and advocate for the autistic community. She would love to hear from readers via her website.

Many of the characters in the Strawberry Shifters Book Series are grown-up versions of disabled or medically fragile kids I have met in medical offices and hospital lobbies. As a mother of an autistic child and an adult with sensory processing disorder, it is important to me to give those with disabilities stories where they are portrayed as strong, powerful, smart, and loveable. I want to give them stories where they are the heroes with happily-ever-afters.

Reading and writing give me an escape where I can recharge. Watching the news and engaging with social media exposes me to society’s fear, sadness, and greed which punctures my armor around my tender heart. My family is depending on me to be the calming influence and reassure them in an everchanging situation. Fantasy worlds, such as Strawberry Kentucky, give me a place to mend my armor to face another day.

Strawberry Shifters Book 1: Bear with Me will be released on June 3, 2020 with pre-orders starting in Mid-May. Strawberry Shifters Book 2: Round of Applause is a Yuletide book which is in submission with The Wild Rose Press. I hope to release it late fall of 2020. Strawberry Shifters Book 3: Go Scorch Yourself and a summer spin-off novella, Smoother Than Spumoni, are right on its heels.