You’re not done.

And neither am I.

At 73, I published my first novel, Whispers of Echo Canyon, the first in the Women of the Canyon series.

Five women in their sixties and seventies.

Friendship. Power. What comes next.

If you’ve ever felt a chapter closing and something else stirring, you’re in the right place.

👉 Read Whispers of Echo Canyon

About This Space

This is Knowing Yourself Through Fiction, a Substack centered on story.

I’m 73 and I write fiction about five women in their sixties and seventies who are navigating change, choice, and what comes next.

Their lives aren’t winding down.

They’re opening up.

This work matters because Baby Boomer women are not often given center stage. We’re fun, adventurous, and still becoming.

I’ve planned a five-book series called Women of the Canyon, one book for each woman you’ll meet. The first was published in February 2026

I recently started writing fiction in my seventies, and this series includes one book for each of the women you’ll meet. The stories are the anchor. Everything else exists to support them, and you, as you join me in this phase of our lives.

My #1 goal for all subscribers?
For you to fall in love with these women.

But to do so, you need to meet and come to know them. When you subscribe to Knowing Yourself Through Fiction, I share excerpts from the novels as I write them, occasional micro-stories as a Dose of Fiction, and Life’s Threads, where our lives connect to the women’s stories.

As a thank-you for subscribing, I’ll send you a small booklet called Find Yourself in the Stories.

Inside are five women from Echo Canyon, each one holding a mirror many of us recognize later in life.

Read one page at a time. Notice what stays with you. That’s how these stories work.

As a free subscriber, you’ll get your fill of their stories. And you might begin to want more. You might even start to see yourself differently. You might choose to step back into the role of protagonist in your own life.

My second goal for you is harder to explain. So I want to tell you a story.

Years ago, as a business coach working with restaurateur clients, I was often invited to soft openings and new menu concepts. Over time, I became comfortable in their kitchens. It felt like a privilege, an experience I’ll always remember. Even though I was there to help, I was invited inside their world.

That’s what I want to offer you as a paid subscriber, a Story Insider.

I want more for you than simply falling in love with the characters. In the same way I came to know the chefs and managers and experienced the intimacy of being at the table, I want you to come inside the stories. To see yourself in their mirror. To find your own rhythm.

Story Insiders come inside to be seen, to rekindle possibility, and to find permission to want more.

You’ll have access to these women’s private journals and the stories of how each of them came to be. They are making creative, financial, and business decisions under real constraints: time, energy, and responsibility.

The stories don’t tell you what to do. They help you recognize what you already know.

These aren’t lessons or motivational essays. They are reflections from inside the stories, on what it means to create, decide, and stop performing. To build something sustainable at this stage of life.

That recognition often becomes permission. To want more. To choose differently. To step forward without apology.

With your own experience as context, the next step becomes clear, and you move forward without second-guessing.

This isn’t something you read and finish. It’s something you enter and stay inside, as your own stories move forward.

Fiction, memoir, personal history, or the story of your work. Your stories count. Your next chapters matter.

How this space works

The stories here arrive in pieces. Sometimes it’s an excerpt from a chapter of a novel in progress. Sometimes it’s a short scene or a moment that stands on its own. At other times, it’s a brief reflection that grew out of the story, something the characters stirred up rather than resolved.

The full novels are being written alongside what you read here. This space is where the stories first find their footing, before they become books you can hold in your hands.

You don’t need to read everything in order. You don’t need to keep up. You can follow one woman for a while, then drift toward another. You can read deeply for a stretch, then step away and come back later.

Some readers tell me they read one of my stories and think they’re done with it, only to notice later how it shows up again. In a decision, a memory, a question they hadn’t quite named before.

That’s intentional.

This isn’t a feed to scroll or a system to master. It’s a body of work unfolding, one story at a time, at a pace that leaves room for your own life to be part of it.

Meet the Women

The stories here center on five women in their sixties and seventies who have reached a point where pretending no longer works.

Riley has done well by most measures. She’s capable, respected, and outwardly settled. What she’s wrestling with is quieter and harder to name. The sense that the life she built no longer fits, and that ignoring that feeling is starting to cost her.

Quinn is competent and used to being in control. She’s spent years managing risk, anticipating problems, and holding things together. When that structure begins to fail, she’s forced to confront what happens when the systems you trust no longer protect you.

Raven lives close to the land and carries responsibility that didn’t come with a choice and knowledge that doesn’t fit neatly inside dominant systems. Her stories ask what it means to hold authority without domination, and what it costs to keep translating yourself to be understood.

Skylar has built a life around history, evidence, and what can be preserved. She’s reached a point where she wonders whether documenting the past is enough, or whether she’s being asked to risk something in the present instead.

Val has spent much of her life tending to others. She’s generous, steady, and deeply competent. What she’s beginning to realize is that being needed is not the same thing as being fulfilled, and that care can become a quiet way of disappearing.

Over time, a friendship develops among these five, built on attention, trust, and the understanding that each woman can change without asking for permission.

The friendships form as something wakes up when they’re together. Conversations stretch. Ideas surface. Choices that once felt unthinkable begin to feel possible.

Readers often recognize themselves in one woman first. Then, unexpectedly, another steps forward and opens a different door. The stories are written to allow that kind of expansion.

What It’s Like to Open Yourself to Fiction

As the free stories arrive - chapters and scenes - something subtle but unmistakable happens. The women don’t just feel familiar. They begin to pull you forward.

You start to recognize patterns. In the characters. In yourself. Questions surface that had been sitting quietly for years. Not as problems to solve, but as invitations to look again.

Readers often tell me they didn’t come here looking for change. They came for the stories. What surprised them was realizing how much life still felt open, especially in their later years. New ideas. New wants. New ways of seeing what’s possible from here.

That’s what opening yourself to fiction can do. It doesn’t rush you. It doesn’t ask you to reinvent yourself. It simply keeps the door open long enough for something new to step through.

I’ve Been Where You Are

I know the ache when a friendship disappears without explanation.

I know what it’s like when the purpose that once fueled you is gone, and you’re left wondering what’s next.

When we moved to Hawai‘i, I left a career that had defined me. I felt unmoored.

So I started writing. And I landed in fiction.

These characters became women like us, navigating this later chapter with honesty and courage. Readers began telling me the stories were helping them look at their own lives differently.

That’s why I do this.

Stories let you feel seen without needing to explain yourself.

They don’t rush you to fix anything. They show you what’s still possible.

I’m Marylee

I’ve always been a builder. Of businesses, gardens, and now stories. After decades in the nonprofit world and years running an award-winning gardening business, I turned toward fiction rooted in real emotion.

I’m blending lived experience with imagination and sharing how I’m doing it so women who feel the same pull toward writing can see it’s possible at any age.

I live in Tucson with my partner of over 30 years.

When I’m not writing, you’ll find me traveling, golfing, swimming, puzzling, or reading good stories with a strong cup of coffee nearby.

You’re not alone.

And you’re not done.

Be part of something meaningful.

Fiction that touches your heart.

A writing journey that gives you voice.

And a place to meet others who speak to your life.

Come meet me inside