UND Theatre Arts secretary launches self-published book series

Marilyn Gregoire, administrative secretary for the University of North Dakota Department of Theatre Arts, has penned and published a Christian romance novel titled The Fair Viking Princess: At First Sight. The book is a combination of a drama/comedy/romance/cookbook and is sure to both entertain and inspire. Its genre is Contemporary Christian Romance and it tells the story of love and life where characters grow in their faith. This book is one of nine Gregoire is writing. She is currently working on three trilogies. All have a focus on sexual abuse, which stems from her own experiences as a child. The first trilogy centers on trust, the second on truth and the third on forgiveness. The books were inspired by her local Icelandic roots and feature many small North Dakota and Minnesota towns. After going through all the proper channels to make sure there weren\u27t any copyright issues, Gregoire submitted her manuscript to a variety of inexpensive self-publishing websites and just clicked \u27publish.\u27 She has sold about 30 books so far. The first book, The Fair Viking Princess: At First Sight, has been proofed by a counselor at the Grand Forks Community Violence Intervention Center, who helped verify that the hurt and healing in the story is plausible. The CVIC counselor also helped add resources for people to use to get help if sexual abuse is an issue that affects them or someone they know. Resources are posted after the last chapter in the e-book and paperback and also on a page of her website. Book two in the series, When Prayers Aren\u27t Enough, will be published and available in late July. Book three, What the Heart Hears, which starts off with a Christmas theme, will be available before Thanksgiving. Then the series switches over to Truth with The True North Series for three books, and then to the To Forgive is Divine Series for three more in which small-town pride and tenacity are tested to the core, according to Gregoire. Gregoire\u27s books are available locally at Ferguson Books & More in Grand Forks; the Treasure Trove in Cavalier, N.D.; the Ye Olde Medicine Shoppes in Park River, N.D., and Cavalier; Drayton Drug in Drayton, N.D.; and Hurley\u27s Religious Goods in Fargo. Paperbacks are also available at Amazon.com and through links on Marilyn\u27s website, www.marilyngregoire.com, and by e-book for Kindle, NOOK, I-books, etc