Marla J. Hayes made freelance writing look easy. And yet complex.

First, she spread her talents with one-off pieces in US magazines on topics ranging from Japanese Knotweed, aka bamboo, to interviewing soap opera actors, and a working screenwriter.

It wasn’t all showbiz writing though - she reviewed four children’s books in The United Church Observer magazine and won acclaim for that opinion piece.

Then, she turned her artistic vent towards photography, using pictures to complement her articles whenever possible. Her photos captured other authors, weddings, and highlighted feature newspaper bylines on articles about the local theatre scene.  She was editor and illustrator for a winter nights book of children’s stories and poems written by all the members of a writers group to which she belonged. The book sold 1000 copies in near record time.

Academia called when she wrote stories for grade 5 & 6 readers, and informational material for teachers of two competing educational publishers. She settled in as a columnist for 10 years at a Canadian collectibles magazine where antique toys and dolls were her specialty.

Thanks to taking multiple courses online from ScreenwritingU, Marla found her real strength and passion is her imagination which manifests itself in her scripts - two have been turned into novels at Short on Time Books.

Marla has discovered she has ideas enough for screenplays and mystery novellas, the first of which comes out in 2018 through Short on Time Books.