Common Thread – Uncommon Women begins in 1863 at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas. This historic saga covers four generations of women, beginning with the author’s great grandmother, Minerva, who was Cherokee Native American. Minerva warned her daughter, “Jennie, they put my people on a reservation, took away their pride, and left them with no way to defend themselves. Don’t you ever let anyone hurt you or your children.” Jennie, Minerva’s daughter, was a determined woman. Her friendship with a slave created tension within her husband’s family. Thedis moral presence was a blessing to the sick, and when death won, she readied them for burial. She was destined to suffer heartbreaks too horrific to imagine. Robbie was Thedis’s second-born child. Daily she was reminded of a tragic event, the shotgun blast, her screams, and the smell of fresh blood. Born with a proud Native American heritage, these women endured hardships beyond modern comprehension, but still found joy and happiness. Marylin Hayes Martin breathed essence into her characters, taking them through some of the most difficult times in American History: the Civil War, the Great Depression, and two World Wars. Common Thread - Uncommon Women is Martin’s debut novel. “Marylin Martin’s startling book, “Common Thread - Uncommon Women,” captures the enormous well of strength, both physical and emotional, that the women who helped settle America – and who were born here, of Native American blood – had to draw on simply to survive. Alexander Stuart, author of The War Zone In “Common Thread - Uncommon Women” a story that covers the lives of four generations of her own family, Marylin Martin takes a historical family saga and raises it to a moving memorable work of art. Bill Manville, columnist for the New York Daily News

Common Thread - Uncommon Women begins in 1863 at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas. This historic saga covers four generations of women, beginning with the author's great-grandmother, Minerva, who was a Cherokee Native American. Minerva warned her daughter, "Jennie, they put my people on a reservation, took away their pride, and left them with no way to defend themselves. Don't you ever let anyone hurt you or your children." Jennie, Minerva's daughter, was a determined woman. Her friendship with a slave created tension within her husband's family. Thedis moral presence was a blessing to the sick, and when death won, she readied them for burial. She was destined to suffer heartbreaks too horrific to imagine. Robbie was Thedis's second-born child. Daily, she was reminded of a tragic event, the shotgun blast, her screams, and the smell of fresh blood. Born with a proud Native American heritage, these women endured hardships beyond modern comprehension but still found joy and happiness. Marylin Hayes Martin breathed essence into her characters, taking them through some of the most difficult times in American History: the Civil War, the Great Depression, and two World Wars. Common Thread - Uncommon Women is Martin's debut novel. "Marylin Martin's startling book, "Common Thread - Uncommon Women," captures the enormous well of strength, both physical and emotional, that the women who helped settle America - and who were born here, of Native American blood - had to draw on simply to survive. Alexander Stuart, author of The War Zone In "Common Thread - Uncommon Women," a story that covers the lives of four generations of her own family, Marylin Martin takes a historical family saga and raises it into a moving, memorable work of art. Bill Manville, columnist for the New York Daily News Marylin Hayes-Martin grew up in the foothills of the Arkansas Ozarks where she was exposed at an early age to the history and culture of the characters in her novel. She was mesmerized listening to epic tales of the shocking tragedies and hardships endured by the four generations of women in her family. She has woven their stories throughout her novel, Common Thread ? Uncommon Women. A number of Marylin's short stories were published in the White County Arkansas Historical Society publication and more recently, in Second Saturday, a literary anthology published by Ladybug Press which is available from Amazon. Marylin is the co-founder and facilitator of the Sonora Writers Group. She now lives in the foothills of the California Sierra Mountains with her husband, Frank, where she enjoys life as a writer and visual artist.

After Liz McDonald and Joseph Allen are married in the mid-1940s, things go terribly wrong on the family farm in Chatham, Ontario, and there is a great deal of sadness for everyone. Joe and Liz decide to move to Philadelphia, Mississippi, where Joe has accepted a new job designing bridges and overpasses. In 1947, they are excited to begin a new life, especially as they are expecting their first child. But Joe and Liz are unprepared for the outright hostility they face as a mixed-race couple. In this Ku Klux Klan country in the South, it’s not acceptable for a black man and a white woman to be married, and the community holds this against them. A host of trouble follows Joe and Liz through the birth of their multi-racial twins and beyond. Common Threads II, the second book in a three-book series, follows the lives of Joe and Liz who naively try to establish roots in a place where their interracial marriage is taboo. This novel narrates the couples’ trials and tribulations and their experiences with racial cruelty and death. “A tense tale with a complex portrayal of loss, life and love.” -Dr. Joseph Zadra

Everyday Knowledge and Uncommon Truths: Women of the Academy is a thirteen chapter volume which draws on the life experience and varied backgrounds of academic women from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. The book addresses a variety of issues pertaining to women’s home lives, education, teaching, research, writing, and activism. To provide diverse perspectives on women’s experiences of being and knowing in and outside the academy, contributors draw on a range of critical approaches derived from feminism, poststructuralism, postmodernism, critical education theory, discourse theory and analysis, narrative inquiry and life histories. Lately, there has been considerable interest by women in the academy in a discernment process involving an examination of the historically, politically and culturally situated nature of their knowledge of the world, their work in the academy and other activities in which they engage. These examinations, especially in the form of narrative inquiry, life histories and deconstructive language practices such as discourse analysis, figure prominently in breaking silences and giving voice to the many tensions that women experience in the academic workplace and other settings.