About the Author
Marilyn Wooley Ph,D. is a clinical psychologist with a busy practice in Redding, California. She specializes in forensics and the treatment of post-traumatic stress. Approximately five years ago, she became interested in writing. After realizing she knew nothing about the craft, she signed up for a continuing education class that led to joining a local writer's group. In 1997, Marilyn took Elizabeth George's novel writing class at Book Passage in Corte Madera, California. Elizabeth instructed the class to write on a fresh topic, saying, "I don't care if it's about a guy in a garbage dump." Marilyn immediately called her husband, who works in the environmental field. He said, "Well, dumps are pretty interesting, if not fresh." That's how Jackpot Justice started, and Marilyn wrote a book that went on the end of it.
Jackpot Justice is about clinical psychologist, Dr. Cassandra Ringwald, who takes on a Native American accused of murder. Initially, she can't stand his attitude or the swastikas on his tennis shoes, but she grows to understand her client by learning about his tribe's tragic history. In the meantime, she has to outwit a group of skinheads who would do anything, including committing murder, to prevent her from testifying. In 1998, the first chapter of Jackpot Justice won the Sue Grafton Scholarship at the Book Passage Mystery Writers Conference. Later that year, Marilyn submitted the manuscript to the St. Martin's Press Malice Domestic Contest. She won the contest which included a cash prize and publication of Jackpot Justice in March 2000.
In the life is stranger than fiction department, the final revision of Jackpot Justice for St. Martin's was due the same week that Marilyn's husband underwent emergency brain surgery. Marilyn comandeered the secretary's desk in the neurosurgeon's office, put up a sign that read, "I am not the secretary," and went to work. "Believe me," she says, "it was better than ruminating on what was happening in the real world." By the way, her husband has made a full recovery and continues to take her to garbage dumps. During the 1998 and 1999 Maui Writers Conferences, Marilyn took classes from novelists Steven Goldsberry, Elizabeth Engstrom, and Terry Brooks. While in Maui, she met Lori Liss of the Harvey Klinger Agency, who represents her latest novel, Covenant's Child. In Covenant's Child, Dr. Cassie Ringwald is hired for the defense of a twelve year-old-girl accused of killing her mother; to save her client's life, she tangles with a corrupt juvenile justice system and a polygamist cult. Marilyn is currently working on her third Cassandra Ringwald novel which will, in part, take place in an underground mine.
Contact the Author
Monday, August 14, 2000 8:37 AM
