Mari Walker

Mari Walker developed a love of words at a very young age, listening to her mother's smooth mellow voice reading tales from an old Southern fairy tale book or spinning tales about her childhood growing up in Blakely, Georgia. Mari imagined that she could see worlds unfolding and characters acting out the adventures that were spun from those beloved stories.

Overcome with curiosity about whether the pictures in her head matched the ones in the book from which her mother read, she climbed onto her mother's lap with cries of "Can I see the pictures?" To her utter amazement, there were none. A new and wonderful thought was birthed inside her that day. A person could carve out worlds, adventures, people, pictures, sounds, and at times even smells out of mere words. From that moment, she knew she wanted to become an author.

Mari divides her time between freelance writing and editing, and advising aspiring writers on the techniques she has learned on creative writing. Her first novel, NEVER AS GOOD AS THE FIRST TIME, was an Essence Magazine bestseller and was featured on the list twice in 2008 and once in January of 2009. Ms. Walker has been a featured guest on BlogTalk Radio,Classic Soul 107.5.com,and is currently being featured on Terra Little's Blogzine the week beginning June 1, 2010. Her newest novel, NOT QUITE WHAT IT SEEMS is also featured on UrbanReviews Flash Drive promotion, as well as The Midwest Bookfest Promotion. Follow Mari on Twitter or Facebook!