Call Marcia Bennett a late bloomer if you will, but we prefer to think of her as a perennial.
For Bennett, 82, writing wasn’t a lifelong calling, although she’s proven she has an aptitude for it. The Outskirts Press author was a 40-something, “non-traditional” college student when she stumbled upon a latent talent for prose. Required to write a book for a children’s literature class, she learned she enjoyed the process–and great things came out of it.
Bennett has penned five books since then and is riding a recent wave of interest in her newest work, the children’s book “Umbrella Town,” about a girl who bucks her village’s black-umbrella penchant for bright colors.
First, a newspaper near her home town of Spring, Texas, profiled her. That attention lead a local magazine to offer Bennett a commission to write two articles, slated to run in July. An interview with ABC affiliate KTRK about “Umbrella Town” soon followed and a lengthier profile is in the works.
And to top off the whole publicity storm, Bennett’s retirement facility planned a launch party for her with a live reading of “Umbrella Town”–complete with a slideshow of the illustrations–and a white umbrella painting activity.
When Bennett’s not writing, she’s creating in other ways, with jewelry art and other creative pursuits.
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Title: Umbrella Town
ISBN: 9781432744151
Price: $16.95 (Paperback)
Summary: Little Katarina sees beyond the bleak parade of black umbrellas in rainy Umbrella Town. Her decision to transform her own umbrella into one full of color brings scorn from the townspeople, but Katarina’s determination overcomes their prejudice and brings surprising changes to the little town. Umbrella Town won first prize in the Texas Katherine Anne Porter Literary Contest.
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