Meet Marlys Beider

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Marlys Beider. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Marlys, thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?

My eventful life taught me that negative thinking is a waste of time. Optimism always works out better and takes me where I want to go. Nothing is more encouraging and dynamic than a positive outlook. Am I always successful in following my beliefs? Absolutely not! I often have doubts, question myself and make mistakes. However, through life experiences, I learned that making a mistake can also be healthy because it provides the opportunity to learn from faults and flaws. I can’t think of anything more liberating than when I work through a challenging situation and make things right again.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I was born and raised in Hannover, Germany. As an only child, I appreciated the closeness of a large extended family full of grandparents, aunts, uncles and older cousins. My father was a trained and incredibly talented pianist, but family challenges prevented him from pursuing a musical career. Instead, he owned a textile business. My mother was vocally trained and almost every weekend growing up, I fondly remember our house being filled with friends and music. My parents also loved to travel and took me to many European countries during my childhood and teenage years.

When I was twenty-one, I decided it was time to see more of the world. I stepped away from my studies in art history and accepted an invitation to visit friends in Chicago. I decided I wanted to stay after my visitor’s visa ran out, so I applied for a student visa and transferred my transcripts to start studying journalism. During my second year of college in the U.S., I met a wonderful man. We got married soon after and raised four children together. My husband ran a successful real estate company while I focused on raising our children. I also became involved with a few charitable organizations and served on a couple of women’s boards. My husband passed away unexpectedly in 1990, requiring me to step in to run his company. Ten years later, I turned the reigns over to one of our daughters. Today, my four children have produced their own beautiful offspring and today I have ten grandkids and two great-grandchildren.

I’ve enjoyed a few careers and hobbies in my lifetime, but I always enjoyed writing. For as long as I can remember, I loved spinning stories in my head. I was often the one chosen to write scripts for short, funny plays while attending high school in Germany. Before email became a communication tool, I corresponded with family and friends via “snail mail.” My type-written letters were usually several pages long and my relatives and friends in Germany would say they read like a novel.

It wasn’t until after my mom passed away in 1996 that a bigger story started to grow in my mind. It began to run like a movie in my head, while I was alone in thought and when out in nature hiking. I could see my characters’ faces and imagine their voices. I thought of it as a fun mental sport but when the fantasy came to an end, I had an overwhelming urge to share the story with someone else. It was around that time a friend of mine—a writer for a Hollywood gossip column—came to visit me in Arizona. One day we hiked Sabino Canyon, and when I lightly touched upon the fantasy in my head, she insisted on hearing all of it. Well, I didn’t shut up for three hours. It was that dear friend who encouraged me to turn the story into my first book.

I wasn’t very computer savvy in those days, but my friend taught me what I needed to know, and I began to write. My words became sentences and sentences turned into chapters. My first novel, Fateful Parallels was published in 2001. Since then, I’ve written and published three more novels: Continuum in 2004, I Am Here in 2019 and Molly’s Milestone in 2024. During the long lapse between 2004 and 2019, I was running the company, living life, and working on a family history. That monumental undertaking took eight years of research and writing before “Forward to the Past” became a big and beautifully leather-bound coffee table book. It includes 600 written pages and almost 300 photos that tell everything there is to know about my late husband and my own ancestry, as well as our lives together. I still don’t know how I managed to do it, but for eight years I kept my work on this book a secret and when I surprised my family in 2010 with the finished work, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room.

Outside of my family and my writing, I have a love of the arts. I enjoy attending opera, symphony, theater and ballet performances. For several decades I’ve been a great supporter of Lyric Opera in Chicago and hardly ever miss a performance. In 2010, I became a board member of the then newly formed Tucson Desert Song Festival and support the Arizona Opera, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, U of A Dance, True Concord Voices and Orchestra, Tucson Guitar Society and more. Each year during the months of January, February and March I greatly enjoy seeing and listening to the fantastic talent that enriches the Old Pueblo during our Tucson Desert Song Festival.

Currently, I am primarily focused on promoting my recently published book – Molly’s Milestone. And I have new stories beginning to form – so maybe another book in the works soon.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

My parents gave me the freedom and independence, and they always encouraged my creativity and imagination. Growing up in Germany, I rarely watched television. Instead, I read tons of books and interacted with friends and family. Reading and socializing kept my eyes and ears open to the world around me and inspired me. My childhood experiences taught me how to make sense of the good, the bad and the ugly and manage the things life throws at you. I gained an understanding and appreciation of love and compassion, and learned how to cope with conflict. I also learned how to debate and resolve arguments, which supplies me with some of the necessary ingredients I need for my writing.

In other words, it’s the rich flow of life experiences that inspire me. When I allow myself to get lost in the world of discovery, it takes me to regions I never expected to bring to light.

My best advice to anyone interested in writing:
• Believe in yourself.
• Be curious.
• Trust your instincts.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?

I’m fortunate to be surrounded by a big supportive and loving family as well as close and nurturing friends, but I believe that to overcome challenges, I must count on myself to master life’s hurdles. The advice from well-meaning, people around me is always appreciated, but ultimately the answers to any problem are within me. Whenever I am facing a stumbling block I must do the work. I also think facing conflicts straight on or taking on challenges builds resilience. Of course, I consider myself very lucky to have met so many interesting, intelligent people throughout my life. They continue to motivate me and their own life experiences can spark a fire in me and provide me with the foundation I need to spin a new story. Again, reading books and discovering inspirations from great authors, walking through life with open eyes and ears and doing research are most instrumental in my writing journey. When I discovered my potential, my passion was born. I don’t intend to lose it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://marlysbeider.com
• Instagram: @marlysbeider
• Facebook: Marlys Beider
• Twitter: @marlysbeider
• Youtube: @Marlys Beider