Far from Magnolia Drive

In “Far from Magnolia Drive”, Mary Anna Parker grew up in a small, southern town, but the trials and tribulations of her life have taken their toll and separated her from the idyllic settings of her childhood and youth. Mental Health issues that run in her family have become all too evident in her own life and family and have drawn her into an emotional maelstrom–far from her home on Magnolia Drive. The setting of this book is very contemporary, and is Erler’s first book in which she has not used her signature time-travel motif.

Author’s Note: This book is not quite a memoir, though it is based in many ways on personal experience. It has been fictionalized to protect the innocent. In some ways, it was a book my mind forced me to write, in order to bring to light the stigmas attached to mental health and gender identity issues which our family has experienced, and are prevalent in our world today. It was like something that clawed its way out of me, almost in spite of myself. When I tried to use the time-travel motif I favor, it didn’t work, so this book is entirely contemporary.