Never too old to write a book

What does one do with an accumulation of life experience and wisdom?

Write a book?

That's what Phoebe Maurer did.

The 83-year-old recently published her first novel, "Circle of Acceptance," a family saga that tells the story of a man who confronts his true identity and undergoes a sex-change operation.

Just the stuff of a bestselling book, thought fellow members of a Scottsdale, Ariz., writing group, who encouraged the fledgling author to expand a short story to novel length.

She spent four and a half years finishing the book, whose plot turns on the themes of change and acceptance. Her first draft was written in longhand. Her husband, Herb, typed it into a computer, then printed out the hard copy for her to edit.

"You have no idea of the patience he had," says Phoebe of her husband of 62 years. The couple met in 1943 at the USO in Atlantic City during World War II and married a year later in Garden City, Kan., where Herb was stationed.

"Both our mothers came to make sure we got married properly," recalls Maurer. An army chaplain from Denver supplied two witnesses and a chuppah.

Love and marriage — and their joys and sorrows — are part of the novel, too.

Maurer proudly notes that her three children and their spouses have enjoyed marital bliss. "We gave our kids a home that was filled with love, and as a result all our children have been married lengths of time."

Daughter Gale and her husband, Ed Finger, were the reason the Maurers relocated to Scottsdale from Great Neck, N.Y., 20 years ago. Phoebe, who worked as a sales representative in the gift business in New York, was looking to develop new interests. Writing classes, first at Scottsdale Community College and later at the Via Linda Senior Center, tapped into a latent talent.

"I think writing was always in me," says the octogenarian, who has kept a journal for years.

She believes writing has allowed her to process much of her life experience and philosophy.

"If you do not grow and change as you mature, I think life becomes meaningless," she says.

"I don't feel my age," adds the writer, now at work on a second novel. "I don't think my age — except, I hope, that I am a lot wiser and more broad minded."




"Circle of Acceptance" by Phoebe R. Maurer (225 pages, iUniverse. Inc, $15.95).