Forty seven year old Marge Christensen finds her husband, Gene, dead in their garage, slumped over the steering wheel of his still running BMW. The police rule the death a suicide. Marge does not believe Gene killed himself. Although likely suspects for murder and fraud do not abound in the suburban community of Bellevue, Washington, with perseverance and basic sleuthing, Marge discovers the truth in spite of the doubts and cautions from the police, her two adult children, and hovering and obsessively attentive neighbors.
When her fourth grade teacher asked the class to write a story, Patricia K. Batta (Pat) was hooked. She already read incessantly, escaping the realities of her life,and now she discovered she could create her own world. So she began to write, some school assignments but mostly bad poetry and sappy love stories which only her sisters could enjoy.
Needing to support herself and not convinced she could write anything the outside world would pay for, she became an elementary teacher. Teaching reading became a passion, but left little time for writing. A stint as an editorial assistant on a magazine rekindled her desire and sharpened her skills, so she took some time to write. She ended up with an unpublishable novel and had to go back to work.
At this point Pat decided she would retire at age fifty-five and spend the second half of her life writing. She almost made it. She retired at age fifty-seven and immediately started the first of the Marge Christensen Mystery Series. That finally made publication in 2009, and Pat has been reading and writing ever since.
When she isn't doing either of those, Pat is busy with her church, singing in the choir and serving on the Hunger Committee. She is also active with Love In the Name of Christ (INC). Add in promotion for her books, responsibilities for her extended family, taking classes from Northwestern Michigan College, and other volunteer work, and she can't help but wonder how she ever found time to work.
