Dodging Her Chariot

Dodging Her Chariot grips the reader throughout with tears and laughter spanning the first sixteen years of the author’s life in this first of a four book series. Marie’s writing delivers a clear message that comes from her survival. No one who knows her well can miss the point that her personal relationship with Jesus stands in the center of her being and is the source of the courage to put these stories on paper. Yet you will not be flodded with that message; it too revealed with grace. I use that word in its two most common meanings to say that the reader will find a beautiful fluidity in her words and thoughts and the humbling mystery that brings one from the depths of agony to the heights of joy, forgiveness and love.

Dodging Her Chariot is a fascinating memoir with strong writing throughout and highly developed, interesting characters. Ms. Wakefield's mother is in fact so well drawn that I felt as if I knew her myself a few chapters into the story. Protecting her siblings from a schizophrenic mother and an abusive, alcoholic step-father was sometimes beyond her, but she determined to keep them from the circumstances that stole her own earlier childhood. If you want to find an example of strength, foresight and love, you are definitely in the right place. The author does a wondrous job of relating the many peculiar and traumatic events of her life growing up with this woman without ever coming across as overly bitter. It"s almost as if she is viewing events as an outsider looking in. It's the latter that actually gives this memoir the feel of a well-plotted novel. The book's design is clean, the chapters well titled, and the cover art appropriate for the story.

Marie's next book, Can-Can: A Kansas City Era of Bets, Babes, and Bombs, is well on its way and should be out later this summer. It’s the second in the four part memoir series and covers roughly the next five years of her life as she became intimately familiar with the Kansas City Mafia during the height of the 1970s mob wars. She is also working on a book of experience titled, Living Above RSD/CRPS: Going Up With a Fight Against Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy or Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. Marie lives in Independence, Missouri, with her family and takes pleasure in her children and grandchildren. She stays actively involved with her local church, exercising, gardening, reading and of course, writing. She has three daughters, Cora, Angela, and Rashida, and one daughter-by-heart, Brandi. Three girls live nearby and Rashida Maroon Barber passed on to her new beginning after a car accident with a dear on Easter of 2006. There is a link to pictures of her and the family on Marie’s website - Fieldsawakened.com titled, "Our Sleeping Beauty." Marie has traveled extensively living in or visiting every state in the country. Her occupations have been varied and are too many to list. To name a few - she began as an assembly line worker at Hallmark Cards at age l3, has been a go-go dancer and a professional seamstress, has owned an art gallery and is a prize winning artist, and owned a bed and breakfast for ten years. Most recently she drove an 18-wheeler over-the-road from coast to coast. Travel is still a favorite past time, faith in God is the leading factor in her life, and romance remains a child-like wonder. All that is Marie makes for a deep well from which to draw as she pursues her passion as an author.