Thurs., Oct. 17th at 12:00pm

Award-winning suspense writer Marcia Preston will be the speaker at the semi-annual Brown Bag Luncheon on October 17 at Donald W. Reynolds Community Center & Library, 1515 W. Main in Durant.

Her noon appearance is free, sponsored by the Friends of the Reynolds Library.  Attendees are encouraged to bring sack lunches and eat during the presentation.  The Friends will provide bottled water and cookies for all attendees.

Preston won both the Oklahoma Book Award and the Mary Higgins Clark award for suspense writing in 2004 for her novel “Song of the Bones.”

She was also nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark award in 2002.

Preston grew up on a wheat farm in central Oklahoma and now lives in Edmond. From her father she learned the art of storytelling; from her mother, a reverence for books; and from Oklahoma’s red earth, a love of wildlife and the outdoors.

Her first two novels were set in Oklahoma, mysteries that featured the daughter of a Gypsy mother and a redneck father named Chantalene Morrell.

She then moved to general fiction with the novels The Butterfly House, The Piano Man, Trudy’s Promise (a historical), and The Wind Comes Sweeping.

Preston earned both the B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Central Oklahoma, taught in public high schools, and worked as public relations and publications director for the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

She has freelanced for a wide variety of magazines and also edited and published ByLine, a trade magazine for aspiring writers.

Copies of Preston’s books will be for sale and autographing following her presentation.