Welcome to my website!

I am Mary E. Calvert, author of the Soultrekker Chronicles trilogy, the story of a young woman, Margaret Ann Shepherd, who finds herself in a unique predicament—having her soul “borrowed”, inexplicably “trekking” to a different world where it manifests in a different body with a new name, “Arwyn”. As she seeks to unravel the mystery behind her sudden appearance in a world where myth and magic are reality, her attempts to create a new life lead to adventure, intrigue, and danger.   It is a book that speaks to finding hope and purpose, even when one’s world turns topsy-turvy.

Writing an epic fantasy trilogy has been a journey of nineteen years. But really, God put this story on my heart long before. For three summers during my high school years, I spent many afternoons locked in my room, typing away on an old electric typewriter to put the rudiments of Arwyn’s story onto paper. Eager to get on with new adventures of my own, I then put my story in a box and headed off to college and graduate school to focus on a career in psychotherapy. And there my story sat, neglected, a remnant of childhood that nevertheless continued to have a nostalgic hold on my heart. And just as Tolkien’s One Ring waited patiently for ages at the bottom of a river until Gollum found it, my book waited patiently until the day God whispered in my ear that the time had come to dust it off and to make it better, making it His story. That was 1997.

How to eat an elephant? One word at a time.

My life is virtually unrecognizable from what it was back in 1997. Soon afterwards, I met a man who quickly became the person I could not imagine living a day without, and we were married a year and a half later. From there it was son #1, a move from Atlanta to Denver, followed by sons #2 and #3 (at the same time), and learning to balance child-rearing with mounting responsibilities to my aging parents. At some point during those years I made a first, unsuccessful attempt at publishing, followed by a personal decision to take a break from writing, and then a family decision to take a break from the U.S. Some thought us crazy, but we put our life on hold for an amazing year of travel and soaking in the wonders of Europe, with a home base in the rolling hills and verdant farmland of Tuscany. Following our return to the States, the adventure continued with another cross-country move. Through it all, I have somehow managed to grab bits of time here and there until, nineteen years later, I am finally realizing my life-long dream of becoming a published author.

As the title of my website and trilogy suggests, we are all soultrekkers, spiritual beings traveling through this life. And although our souls may not have gone off gallivanting to other worlds, they still search for purpose and meaning in the lives they have been given in this one. That purpose and meaning I have found through Jesus Christ, and in my own flawed way I have attempted to honor Him through my little trilogy. But whether you are a follower of Jesus or not, I encourage you to read my trilogy as it’s a good yarn about adventure, romance, and intrigue in a beautiful, breathtaking world nevertheless tinged with darkness, much like our own.

If you would like to know more about my journey to become an author of fantasy, particularly fantasy that appeals to women, please read my blog. It will focus not only on writing but will be generously sprinkled with stories about how I have learned to glean creative inspiration from my travels, from nature, from my family and more in hopes that it will help us as busy wives, moms and career women to seize those precious moments when we are free to dream and to realize God’s creativity in each one of us.