From the Pentagon to a Ph.D.: What Hasn't Marilyn Maple Done?

Marilyn Maple was writing even before she graduated from high school, but before her first book was published, she'd worked at the Pentagon, run national advertising sales campaigns and covered the Civil Rights movement deep in the heart of Dixie. Oh, yes, and she managed to earn three college degrees and start on a fourth while working full-time and rearing a daughter.

She went to high school with the first astronaut to walk in space, turned down a part in "The Sound of Music"—and snuggled up with Bengal tigers and boa constrictors in the animal refuge where she found time to volunteer.

Today Maple's officially retired, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have a hundred projects on the table. She's just finished a video on homelessness in the Gainesville area, she has a children's story book she'd like to get published, and then there's the plays and the painting and the . . .