MaryAnn Shank
AUTHOR

MaryAnn Shank

LGBTQ+
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If MYSTICAL LAND OF MYRRH were a poem, I would likely finish it in a few hours … or a few weeks. If it were a business plan, I could whip that out in a few days … or a few weeks … something that I did for over a decade in the venture capital world. If it were a web page, odds are that I would devote an hour or two to writing it before loading it up. But MYSTICAL LAND OF MYRRH isn’t any of those things. It is an historical novel, a biographical novel. A very personal novel. That is why it took fifty years for the words to be set on paper; fifty years for me to focus my thoughts, prodded no doubt by the unfair, shattering bad press of the U.S. government when the president put Somalia on the “no entry” list, when the media told the stories of Black Hawk Down and the Somali pirates, with barely a sentence devoted to the Somali point of view. It was all so wrong, but I didn’t know how to make it “right”. I hadn’t intended to write about Somalia, for I didn’t think I could. I sat down to write a children’s story about a little fairy who cavorts with witches and Goddesses and elves. Yet when I looked up from my paper, the words were there: .......... The grand Goddesses played a fiery game of jacks, each tossing an apron full of iridescent bluewhiteyelloworange jacks across the pathway of the sky. The Milky Way sometimes glowed so brightly that I could read by its light, mesmerized by the miracle dancing overhead. Tonight the stars skipped between the clouds. So what was I doing kneeling there in a muddy puddle, the rain obliterating any trace of the tears that tumbled down my face. .......... And I knew what I had to do. I had to tell the story of Somalia as I knew it, with all the warts and rainbows that I experienced. That was all I knew. It was real, and the story had to be told. The story is so incredibly unique. I was a lesbian in a strict Moslem country. I was a Peace Corps Volunteer when lesbians were “de-selected” from the Peace Corps. I was in Somalia as tensions grew just prior to the major elections of 1969 that set off the civil war that engulfed all of Somalia. I was there as an eager young adventurer, oblivious to the very real dangers that lurked behind so many bushes. So two years ago I set everything else aside to work on what is certainly the most important piece of writing in my entire career. This writing has been a remarkable journey for me. I am glad you are coming along. PUBLISHED WRITINGS BUSINESS BOOKS. As a researcher/ project manager for a venture capital firm, I wrote many dozens of business plans, raising many millions of dollars in funding for emerging companies. I took that knowledge, creating dozens of books for solopreneurs, especially women with online businesses. Those books included TOP MARKETING TACTICS FOR TIME CHALLENGED SOLOPRENEURS, TOP 13 WAYS TO FINANCE YOUR HOME BUSINESS, and 31 WAYS TO SELL YOUR SERVICE. WEBSITES. I have been a web pro for over 15 years. While I have fully created dozens of websites, three are presently in in my name: MysticalLandOfMyrrh.com HerBizNow.com LavenderPoems.com For many years I worked with clients in creating and marketing their own internet businesses. POETRY A contributor to We’Moon Date Book, 2015, the premier date book in the women’s feminist and spirituality movement. Contributor to the blog from Southern Oregon Women’s Writers Group, Gourmet Eating Society and Chorus.
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