Rebecca Dunbar and her over-active imagination grew up Baptist in the small farming community of Jonesville, Louisiana, with her parents and seven siblings. She received her bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA and her MBA in Finance from the University of Wisconsin @ Madison. Rebecca has worked in financial management in corporate America for more than twenty-five years.

In 1997, she moved to Colorado, having lived in Michigan and Virginia. Though not totally shucking her Baptist roots, she began attending a non-denominational church, “which initially scared the living daylights out of me,” she readily adds. She currently describes herself as Bapti-costal and faithfully attends her church.

When asked how she came about writing her novel MARIAH JENNINGS – The Battle: Too holy for the corporation; not holy enough for the church, Rebecca says:

“One day in corporate America, I sassed my boss (not a recommendation, folks!) and got suspended from work—without pay for ten days. The “what if’s” kicked in. I decided to write a novel, where I could safely share my “what if’s.”

I had read that writers should write what they know. My life consisted of my job in corporate America and my church. “What if I combined the sacred and the secular,” I thought. “Sacri-secular fiction, I’ll call it. I’ll write something for church folks who don’t get out much, and for secular people who get out too much.”

So, I chose a theme for which I was passionate, took experiences from my own life, from the lives of friends and acquaintances, from things I had heard on the news,…and I made up a few more, of course. With the unplanned time on my hand, I wrote down the basic scenarios and launched into my “what if’s.” Great, great fun!! I gave the scenarios a timeline and went to the library to fill in the blanks with factual data. And voila! - MARIAH JENNINGS – The Battle…And I dedicated it to God.”

or:
Rebecca Dunbar
Five Smooth Stones Publishing, Inc.
P.O. Box 804
Golden, CO 80402 - 0804