About Christine

I have been writing for as long as I can remember. As a child, I wrote poems and stories before I went to bed. As a teen and young adult, I wrote in a journal, but it wasn’t until I first became a mother that I wrote for publication. I felt all this love and joy emanating from within and it prompted me to write an essay. I submitted it to my local newspaper’s weekly column titled, "The Women’s Forum," and right then and there a writing junkie was hooked. I went on to publish many more essays on women’s concerns, as well as political issues for the same newspaper. I felt like I was combining my love of writing with my college degree in sociology whenever I wrote essays about the human condition. Similarly, I feel that way now with the start of this book about marriage.

The majority of my writing for children and adults has been non-fiction, though I have had fiction stories published, as well as a myriad of poetry. My writing credits include many informative articles in MetroKids Magazine, Byline, New Moon Magazine, Housewife Writer’s Forum, Aandazz Magazine, On The Line Magazine, as well as various newspapers and journals. I also had a monthly column in my local town focusing on parenting. Some of my credits writing for children include Pockets, Hopscotch For Girls, and WeeOnesMag.com. One of my articles written for Hopscotch was purchased for an educational science journal that is available online and in print. I am currently finishing a Young Adult novel and, at some point, will be searching for a publishing home for it. Additionally, I worked for many years at a YMCA researching and writing to obtain government grants, writing and editing brochures, bios for volunteers, press releases, and committee reports.

Having been married twice, I feel compelled to write this book with my dear friend and writing companion, Phyllis. This idea has been growing inside both of us for 20 years and needs to come out. Women of all ages will see themselves here and have a voice. Marriage has been, and still is, a time honored tradition, but it is not for everyone and it shouldn’t be. Research indicates that men receive the most benefits from marriage, which is why we feel women must be smart in choosing whether to marry and whom to marry.

About Phyllis

My writing background is quite diverse, although the majority of what I have written encompasses the lives of contemporary women. These writings include articles similar in style to those of Erma Bombeck, and also of a serious nature that many women can easily relate to. I have written several fiction short stories, often of a romantic nature, that have been quite successful and I have had many informative articles published for which I conducted interviews and gathered data pertaining to a wide range of subject material.

On a lighter, but equally important side, I have written poems and rebuses for children, one of which was selected by an educational testing publisher for use in standardized testing throughout the USA.

To date, my published credits include a story in one of the "Chicken Soup" anthologies, which was also used by a calendar company (Year in a Box) in 2002 and recently appeared on the "Chicken Soup" website as a featured story. Several of my stories have been published in The Star, True Love, True Story, and Romantic Interludes. I have had many articles published in a column for women in my local newspaper, as well as commentaries. I won third-place in a New York Times - Columbia Pictures essay contest and first-place in a writing contest for Housewife-Writer’s Forum. Two of my short stories were recited by a theater company in New York and one was performed by a prominent Southwest Florida actors group. I’ve been published in Turtle Magazine for Preschool Kids and online at WeeOnesMag.com. I have also written several articles for a magazine entitled Newborn News, and Writer’s Journal has published two of my poems. Boys’ Quest has also published one of my poems and I won first-place in a Redwritinghood.com flash fiction contest and was featured in their anthology. For a period of time, I also wrote medical scripts which were read daily on CBS news in Southwest Florida.

One of the joys I receive from writing is the comfort I can offer a reader. To know that someone is feeling less alone because she or he read something I wrote is a gift that cannot be surpassed. To know that I have provided an educational resource or just an escape from the stress of life is a reward beyond measure. And so, Chris and I hope to provide all of this and more, and look forward to the adventure ahead.