“It’s fascinating to view other cultures, other people and other ways of life,” Paulson says. “Where I hang my hat is home.” Paulson holds degrees from the University of Minnesota, Trinity University in San Antonio and the American Graduate School of International Management, specializing in health care administration. She has worked as a health care administrator in rural Alaska and has held administrative positions with private enterprise in Nigeria during the Biafra War.

While Paulson has called Las Cruces “home” for the last 22 years, she spent some of the 1990s serving in the U.S. Peace Corps. She was sent to Haiti for her assignment, then was evacuated as a result of political unrest and transferred to Jamaica. After spending a year in Jamaica, she was medically evacuated after having to undergo emergency surgery.

During her time in Haiti and Jamaica, Paulson wrote letters home to friends and family, telling them of her adventures and experiences in the foreign countries.

“My friends kept telling me they loved my letters – they found them fascinating,” Paulson says. “I didn’t want to write, though.”

Despite not wanting to, Paulson did begin putting her thoughts on paper and signed up for creative writing workshops with New Mexico State University professors Robert Boswell and Kevin McIlvoy.

“After I retired, I had a lot of time on my hands, so I gave in and began writing,” Paulson says. “I never have thought of myself as an author – this isn’t what I wanted to do. I am an accidental author.”

Her initial book was based on the time she spent in Haiti and considered fiction and nonfiction, inspired by actual events. The book is called “The Necklacing,” which refers to the assassination technique used in Haiti and South Africa, among other places. A tire is placed around the victim’s neck and both are doused with gasoline and then set on fire. The novel is about a woman who worked in a rural hospital and became obsessed with the necklacing of one of her employees. Along the way, the woman becomes involved with voodoo and encounters a real-life zombie.

After authoring “The Necklacing,” she obtained an agent to see if she could market the book to a publishing company, but the book was never published. She has since turned the story into a screenplay and it has been sent to production companies in Hollywood.

“Getting an agent and publisher and doing the marketing for the story is very difficult,” she says. “Writing is the easy part.”

Her most recent work, “The Swedish Gypsy,” was inspired by her grandfather’s life at the turn of the 20th century in Stockholm, Sweden. The book is a historical novel based on the story of Fredrik, a successful businessman, who hires Lilly to work at his café. After a complaint from a customer, he learns that Lilly is a Gypsy, but he keeps her on to tell fortunes. Fascinated with her culture and mesmerized by her attractiveness and youth, Fredrick and Lilly become lovers, jeopardizing his family and his life.

“I used more than 50 sources on this novel – 14 of which were specific to Swedish gypsies, so it’s a well researched novel,” Paulson says. “It is authentic to the history and culture of Swedish gypsies.”

The book was published through Eloquent Books, a joint venture publisher. Recently, at a book signing at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, she sold 27 books, one of the most successful local author book signings in the store’s history.

Paulson says she is happy living in the Southwest, and throughout all of her travels, Las Cruces is where she calls home. “Home is Las Cruces because it has great weather, culture, three live theaters, a lyrical opera, great restaurants and you can get any place in 20 minutes,” she says.

Paulson continues to learn about writing and other subjects by taking one class a semester from NMSU in various subjects – mythology, philosophy, creative writing, screen writing and play writing.

Through these two stories, Paulson has said she is done writing. “People always ask what inspires writers and I think you shouldn’t write unless you have a story to tell,” Paulson says. “These are my stories – the two I have to tell.”

To order a copy of The Swedish Gypsy By Mary Paulson, please go here:

http://EloquentBooks.com/TheSwedishGypsy.html