Gayle Larson Schuck

Gayle Larson Schuck is a North Dakota native who lives in Bismarck. She is a graduate of Bismarck State College and the University of Mary. After a 28-year career in public relations, she retired from the Bismarck Library Foundation to write full-time. Since then, she has published four novels. "By the Banks of Cottonwood Creek", "Amber's Choice" and "Cottonwood Dreams" are part of the Prairie Pastor Series. "Secrets of the Dark Closet" is a historical novel based on a true family story that was hidden for over one hundred years.

"My characters are like real people to me, so I hope readers can relate to the joys, sorrows and challenges found within the pages," she says. "I like to use nature as a setting. The feel of digging your toes into the cool, sugar-fine sand along the Missouri River. A color-splashed sunrise over the prairie. The wind tinkering with the leaves of a cottonwood. I feel God's pleasure when I record these things, as though He's saying, 'I'm glad you noticed!'"

In 2022, she published "Grace Like Snow, Essays from the Heartland." Part biographical, part devotional, readers have called the uplifting book "an antidote for the evening news." She says, "I wrote the essays over a seven-year time frame and published them as blog posts. But I'm fond of holding a book in my hands, and I wanted others to be able to read it in a less hurried way."

Gayle enjoys travel adventures with her family, but you can often find her at home, reading before the fireplace or outdoors in her miniature garden. She has led Bible studies over 35 years.