Marilyn Colter

Marilyn Colter (1946-2024) was an award-winning author and educator. She lived and worked in Colorado. She was raised on farms and ranches in Colorado and Arizona and grew up among women who knew lots about seemingly everything:  how to treat sick humans and livestock alike, how to make enough lunch for 10 cowboys at the drop of a hat with last night’s pot roast, sing in the church choir at 6am on Sunday, then come home and cook up an amazing chicken dinner, before she goes out to start up the tractor and bale a  field of alfalfa. Then she’ll feed the new lambs and collect eggs.

Marilyn said, “I have been thrown from many a horse, kicked by cows and even been run over by a mean duck, but I no longer live on a ranch. I appreciate all I learned from those women and those events and the women I write about in these books will be respected despite their flaws because i know about their lives even though they are only characters in a book.”

A Woman’s Work

Award Winning Finalist in the 2018 Best Book Awards sponsored by American Book Fest

Raeanne Mara has just returned to the beautiful and hard scrabble ranch that has been the Family Ranch for five generations to grieve the deaths of her husband and daughter. Her cousin John who manages the ranch gives her a shoulder to cry on and hard work to help her heal, but he suddenly disappears after a fight at the Blue Dog bar.

Shortly after, she finds a dead body in the nearby forest and the local sheriff and others think John may have killed the man and left town. Raeanne, a journalist, doesn’t believe this could be true, so she starts a search.

When the neighbor’s teenage son arrives at her door and says John has sent him to tell Raeanne that he is okay and will be home in “a couple of days but don’t tell anyone”, Raeanne knows something is wrong. She collaborates with nearby women, delving into the dark places in the forest to find what’s going on.


New author to me, and once started reading was hard to put down. Fans of Craig Johnson and CJ Box will feel right at home with this writer. Complex plot with plenty of twists, love it when I can’t figure the mystery out. Rich characters and scenery felt like I was there. Would love to see this become a series.

Amazon Review

Marilyn captures the true feeling of Wyoming in this first book of her series. As a reader, I found myself reading “just one more chapter” to match wits with Rae Mara as she works to prove a man’s innocence.

Amazon Review

Missing Pieces – Mending the Head Injury Family

Missing Pieces:
Mending the Head Injury Family

Missing Pieces is an inspiring and compassionate recovery manual for families experiencing drastic life changes after someone in the family is brain injured. Thousands of brain injury families have been helped by this book, in the United States and throughout the world.

One medical professional says, “You have written an extraordinary book. I would like to send copies to clients who are currently coping with difficulties beyond our areas of expertise.”

Written by a wife and mother who has been there, the book offers advice, understanding and acceptance for the dark times in each family’s struggle with brain injury. Families struggling with PTSD, Stroke and Dementia may also find healing in this book. Missing Pieces is about the families who are often left alone without professional help to cope with the unbelievable changes that brain injury presents.


If you are a caregiver, this is the book you NEED to prevent your relationship with your TBI survivor from suffering.

Amazon Review

Pure and natural confession, helpful for other people struggling with the same disaster.
If your family member is brain injured this book will help you to puzzle out your feeling, fears, beliefs.

Markéta Zajícová (Amazon)