Marjorie Klein, Author
Marjorie Klein begins her works of fiction, first, to entertain herself. “If I’m fortunate enough to meet in my imagination characters who are entertaining in some way, that’s usually because they’re funny,” she says. “I don’t feel that I create them; they’re already there, waiting for me, and it’s my pleasure to bring them to life.”
Like her two previous novels, Time in a Bottle is set in Miami, where Klein lived for 45 years before moving to Weaverville and wrote for publications including the Miami Herald’s Sunday magazine. “Time and experience-wise, my Miami years still imbue my work, even now,” she says. “Among other subjects, I wrote features about the city so I came to know it pretty well.”
Time in a Bottle tells the story of Lorelei, a 60-year-old virgin and owner of a lingerie shop, who discovers the Fountain of Youth in her backyard. “It’s hard to say what inspires a story,” Klein says, “since I believe that my fiction is a symbiosis of life experience, eureka moments that come to me in the shower triggered by something I saw or heard that day, or an overactive imagination. This novel, however, was inspired by the acknowledgement that I am aging along with the rest of humanity, and how I, and they, deal with this basic fact of life.” It is, she adds, “about our sometimes absurd quest for eternal youth,” and should appeal to “anyone who counts birthdays.”
Time in a Bottle, February 2023, fiction, paperback $21.95, eBook $5.99, by Marjorie Klein, and published by Black Rose Writing, Castroville, TX. Learn more at MarjorieKlein.com.
