Marj Charlier

Marj Charlier's latest novel, ONCE UPON A MARRIAGE, winner of the 2026 Colorado Authors League award for historical fiction (pre-1850), is a time-slip novel set in the contemporary Midwest and sixth century France and Spain. An historian researching historical arranged marriages slips through a portal to medieval Paris, and accompanies a Merovingian princess to her marriage with a Visigothic prince in Spain, sparking a country's religious conversion. Ever wonder why the Iberian peninsula and Latin American countries are all Catholic? Based on a true story.

THE CANDLEMAKER'S WOMAN is based on real events during the early Middle Ages. Melia, a girl on the cusp of womanhood, is forced into slavery in the Roman Empire shortly before the barbarians storm across the Rhine River. Learning the craft of candlemaking, she develops the strength and talents that save her family and herself amidst the violence that engulfs a continent transitioning from the Roman Empire to our modern Western world.

THE REBEL NUN, published by Blackstone Publishing, is based on a real sixth century nun in a monastery in Gaul who fought misogyny and the abuses of the patriarchy long before anyone was using the word "feminist." The book won first prize for historical fiction and first prize for all fiction in the Colorado Independent Publishers Association awards in 2023.

Prior to working in historical fiction, Marj wrote several contemporary women's novels. She now writes in both genre.

Marj started her career as a reporter at the Story City Herald in high school, and after getting a bachelor’s degree from Iowa State University and a masters degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she worked at several small and mid-sized dailies before joining the Wall Street Journal, where she stayed for 12 years as a staff reporter.

After twenty years in journalism, she received an MBA at Regis University and began a second career in corporate finance. She retired in 2013 and turned to writing fiction and publishing books for clients through her company, Sunacumen Press.

Marj was born in Iowa, and now resides in Colorado Springs, CO, with her husband, Ben. Her non-human loves are books, dogs, books, languages, books, wine, books and writing books.