Hi, I’m Marie!

My first book was called “The Chlumsy Clown” (but really, my six-year-old self meant to title it, “The Clumsy Clown”). Half the words in the book were spelled incorrectly—hey, it’s the effort that counts, right? My Aunt Nancy laughed so hard the first time she read it (and saw my hilariously cute hand drawn pictures in it), that she had tears streaming down her face. She thought it was THE cutest thing she had ever seen.

When I was in second grade, my teacher, Mrs. Fisher (who was the coolest, prettiest, and most fashionable teacher I had ever seen), made a very impactful impression on me (not only for her sense of style). She helped developed my love of writing when we did a story unit in which we wrote and illustrated our own books. When we finished drawing the cover for each one we wrote, Mrs. Fisher would laminate it and assemble it with the story pages to transform it into our own little book! I thought this was THE coolest thing ever and I made A LOT of these little books in Mrs. Fisher’s class! That was the first time I knew I wanted to be a writer when I grew up.

Fast forward a few school years, and writing assignments were arguably one of my favorite things to do (especially the creative writing projects!). I know, I know, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. But it came easily to me and I loved it! I wrote a few more short stories, and while I still had a big dream of becoming an author one day, I understood the reality of how hard it was to get a traditionally published book deal in the 90s and 2000s. A few more years passed, and I eventually put a pin in the idea of becoming an author in order to pursue a teaching career that I knew would also pay the bills once I was out on my own.

After getting married to my husband Tony in 2007, and having pregnancy complications with my son Brandon in 2012, I decided to quit teaching to be a stay-at-home-mom to Brandon and our daughter Alexandra.

As much as I loved being at home with my kids, I still had a yearning to be creative. In 2015, my dad gifted me a DSLR camera and I quickly became addicted to taking photos of Brandon and Ally. I loved how it allowed me to capture their cute faces and little expressions, and I loved having this creative outlet. I eventually practiced my photography skills on my friends and their families, too. In 2016, I decided I was ready to take the leap from hobbyist to professional photographer. I launched my photography business, Ally and B Photography (named after my kids), in January of 2016.

I absolutely LOVE my full-time job as a newborn and family photographer. I have solely run my business since 2016 and have no plans of stopping anytime soon! So where does writing a book come into play, you ask? In the years I’ve had my photography business, I’ve spent countless hours editing photos. While I edit, my creative mind tends to run wild, dreaming up story plots!

In 2023, I decided to try my hand at writing once again with a story plot that I had envisioned in my head after long hours of photo editing. Thus, my debut novel, “The Summer We Kissed at Blackbird,” was born. I didn’t actually think it would come to fruition, however, the more I wrote, the more invested in it I became. All I wanted was to be able to say I finished writing a novel. It was certainly a labor of love (it took me over a year to write), writing any chance I had, while also running my full-time photography business. But I am so excited to say that I did it!

I achieved a lifelong goal of becoming a writer! And this is only the beginning…stay tuned for my Sophomore novel, “The Summer We Returned to Blackbird.”