Beverly Marquart is a research associate at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, with aPh.D. in Education. She has published multiple peer-reviewed articles on educational and sociological topics. Finding Safehaven is her debut novel, based on her father’s experiences during World War II.

After returning home from the war, her father Erv was severely injured on the job and spent months in a Veteran’s Administration hospital in St. Louis. After the accident, Beverly was parceled out to three different families, while her father recovered and her mother, Betty, worked to support their family.Eventually they moved to Colorado to be closer to Betty’s parents. Betty found work in Boulder, and Beverly began first grade. From the start, she loved school. One of her teachers from high school, Miz A, fostered in her a love of writing while she was editor of the school newspaper. Miz A bestowed confidence on her young student and exposed her to a future she hadn’t thought possible. Beverly went on to college, a dream her parents had never been able to entertain for themselves.

After receiving her Ph.D., she decided to write the story of her father’s experiences. She knew his side of the story, but had to create the tale of Catherine whom he met and helped to save outside the Kaiseroda salt mines, near Merkers, Germany. Erv only knew she was young, pregnant, a slave laborer for the Nazis, and wanted to have her baby behind Allied lines. He translated her pleas, which revealed information of stolen treasure. From those events, Finding Safehaven was born. Even though the task of writing a novel was overwhelming at times, Beverly spent years researching and learning her craft through classes, workshops, and surviving critiques. Her love of history (and her father) helped see her through to the books' completion.

She lives in Fort Collins with her husband. They have two children and four adored grandchildren.

---