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M. J. Brett (a.k.a. Margaret Brettschneider)
always loved reading and telling stories, from her three-year-old
imaginary sagas told to a farm cat (the only one who would listen) to
the classics. But writing was on hold until she retired from teaching.
Everyone knows teachers have little time for their own pursuits. |
Twenty-one
years teaching literature and journalism on U.S. military bases in
Germany and marrying an Army pilot triggered her interest in the unique
challenges of our nation’s military families. From widow, to the single
life, to officer’s lady, Ms Brett has seen all sides of
the marital enigma. |
Watching
five friends whose marriages fell apart under the stress of command, Ms
Brett began to wonder what characteristics in a military marriage
enabled it to succeed and what caused it to fail. Were military people
that much different from civilians? What were realistic expectations in
families torn by war and the threat of war? Could an officer’s
career suffer through efficiency ratings that reflected his private
life as much as his command decisions? These interesting psychological
questions, plus the unending variety of emotion and error inherent in
all human relationships, prompted her third novel, one of an
unconventional love, Between Duty and Devotion. |
Ms.
Brett's second novel, Shadows on an Iron Curtain tells of life on the
Cold War Border delineated by both communist intrigue and the unique
camaraderie of those soldiers who defended against it. Living on the
Border for seven years, Ms. Brett had a unique vantage point from which
to watch the silent battle that raged across the minefields and barbed
wire. It was so much more treacherous and top secret that she felt the
Border story needed to be told as a balance of Cold War literature, in
contrast with the very public Berlin Wall. The naive young narrator of
Shadows must learn to survive loss in an alien environment. |
Mutti's
War was Ms. Brett's first novel. Based on a true story, it tells of a
mother forced to smuggle her children across Europe during WWII.
Through interviews and research, the author found that earning trust
from the elderly Mutti was key to writing the stories. Mutti had
believed that if she never talked about the war, her sons would not
remember the bad things they had seen as children. The novel won the
prestigious Paul Gillette Award for Historical Fiction in 2003, has excellent reviews, is
now in its third printing, and is part of the curriculum at the United States Air Force Academy. |
For her fourth novel, Street Smart on a Dead End,
Ms. Brett went back to her roots as an elementary school teacher in a
difficult urban school in Los Angeles County of the 60's, where
teachers encountered a renegade twelve-year-old drug addict before any
of them even knew how to recognize drugs. The resulting cultural clash
between hard-core Olivia and straight-laced teacher, Kate, brings
Kate's whole family to a chaotic and dangerous climax. Sometimes
love and hope are just not enough to avert tragedy. |
Ms Brett
and her husband retired from their overseas military lifestyle in 1995
to enjoy life in Colorado Springs, where her former high school
students started urging her to write stories. She firmly believes that
everyone has a story to write, and it should be done quickly, before
another person dies and another little piece of the puzzle of history
is lost. |
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