Cathy Marley is an award-winning author and entrepreneur who lives in Phoenix, Arizona.  She readily admits she has loved language and the power of the written word since a family friend taught her to read around the age of five.  A voracious reader of other authors’ work (one room in her home is a library filled with books, some from as far back as her childhood), she did not discover her own unique voice until middle age. 

A former techie, she worked with engineers in the Aerospace industry for over fifteen years.  At 46, she decided to complete her MBA then follow her heart.  She founded her own business, CJM Communications in 1991 and began ghost and contract writing, editing, marketing, and doing media relations for small businesses.  Over the years, as she published a variety of articles under her clients’ names, she developed a taste for seeing her words in print.

With the business established and successful, her own creative voice began clamoring for attention and she began writing more and more for her own expression.  The result was Peeking Over the Edge…views from life’s middle.

Cathy and Norm, her husband of over 30 years, share their home with a lively menagerie of three demanding house cats, a pair of vocal cockatiels, a ring-neck dove, a tank of fish with personality, and families of turtles and slightly feral cats in the backyard.  Family gatherings at her home tend to become large, raucous events filled with the sounds of pets competing for attention with the human clan that includes two sons, a daughter, seven grandchildren, seven great grandchildren and a variety of spouses for two generations.

Asked what inspires her to write, Cathy says, “I spent a lifetime learning how to love myself.  When I turned 50, it was as if I grew into my own power.  My whole life’s experience came together for me and I saw everything filtered through a more positive light than ever before.  Now, it’s as if the ideas that have been growing in me for years have finally ripened to the point where I have to give them life.  It’s a transformation that reaches to my core and demands to be shared.”

Affiliations

Cathy is a member of:

Entrepreneurial Mothers Association where she has served in a variety of capacities, including: State Board President, Northeast Valley Chapter President, Publicity Officer and Newsletter Editor. In 1996, she was honored as Northeast Valley Entrepreneurial Mother of the Year.

Women Writers of the Desert where she helped publish Love in Bloom, a collection of love stories by the organization’s members.

Society of Southwestern Authors.  Cathy is a Professional Member of this nonprofit association of writers, and other publishing professionals that was founded in 1972

Awards

Cathy has twice been honored to receive third place awards in Women Writers of the Desert Annual Essay Competitions that were open to national and international entries.  In 2004, she won for Ripples in a Pond and in 2006, she won for The White Suit.  Both essays are included in Peeking Over the Edge.

In her spare time, Cathy is also an award-winning photographer, having won ribbons for everything from Best of Show to Honorable Mention for her work.  Her first place photograph, Eagle’s Home, is the cover design for Peeking Over the Edge.