| Ms. Mary Agria M.A.
 With Bachelor and
Master's degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in
literature, author Mary Agria has spent her career writing in
and about rural life and communities. As a college chaplain,
director of economic development agencies in Michigan and
Pennsylvania, and researcher for the Center for Theology and
Land in Iowa, Ms. Agria has come to appreciate in rural life a
powerful microcosm of the human search for community. She
coauthored
RURAL CONGREGATIONAL HANDBOOK: A GUIDE FOR GOOD SHEPHERDS
[Abingdon] and PLANTING THE SEEDS OF COMMUNITY [CTL], as well as
writing numerous books on community building and work force
issues. Her syndicated column, WINNING THE RAT RACE, ran for 20
years in newspapers around the country and a book by that title
[Wm. C. Brown Publishers] was used as a college textbook. Ms.
Agria is married to a retired university president, the mother
of 4 daughters and an avid gardener. She is currently working on
VOX HUMANA, a novel about a rural church organist trying to
"find her voice" in her retirement years, and polishing A
COMMUNITY OF SCHOLARS, a novel of intrigue and suspense set in a
struggling liberal arts college in Pennsylvania.
Currently Available at
 lulu.com
Laced with gardening tips, wit and wisdom, TIME IN A GARDEN is
an inspiring story of emotional and spiritual growth...for
gardeners of all ages, for mothers and daughters, and anyone
struggling to bloom where they are planted. Retired and in their
sixties, Eve Brenneman and Adam Groft land in an unlikely Eden,
helping a crew of senior citizens beautify their dying rural
community by creating a perennial garden along an interstate
offramp. Eve is widowed, estranged from her daughters. Adam has
spent a lifetime avoiding relationships and expectations that he
run the family nursery business. When Eve starts writing a
garden column in the local county weekly, these unforgettable
characters embark on a heartwarming, poignant journey to
discover love and meaning and cope with growth and loss in the
changing season of their lives. In Eve’s words: "We all do
battle with stony ground and unseasonable dry spells over the
years. Though we may not call ourselves gardeners, it is the
human experience."
"Engaging writing." "Lovely
characters." "An intriguing plot."
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