Former British Ballerina Becomes Novelist

Reno, NV (PRWEB) August 27, 2006

Mary Christian, like her husband Paul Svendsen, is starting a third career.

When her husband was a concert pianist and conductor, Christian was a ballerina, dancing before audiences throughout Europe Later, when they moved to the US, Christian trained in physical therapy for work in a rehabilitation hospital. Now, through another career change, she's plotting murder.

Christian trained at the Rambert Ballet School in her native London and performed in ballets in Europe and toured South America. Later she directed her own British ballet school, recognized by the Royal Academy of Dancing.

She met Svendsen, an American, when she was dancing with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein (The German Opera of the Rhine) in Duesseldorf, Germany. Svendsen was assistant conductor. They lived in Germany, England and later moved to St. Louis, MO.

After teaching at the Ballet Conservatory in St. Louis, Christian went back to school for training in physical therapy. She now works at a rehabilitation hospital in Reno, NV.

Svendsen's career path has been no less diverse. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1989, he realized he'd have to abandon his career as a pianist and conductor, so he returned to college for an advanced degree in psychology. He was a clinical therapist in St. Louis for many years before he and Christian moved to Reno.

The mystery/suspense writing started as a product of the two of them discussing characters and possible plots one evening. The ideas gradually developed to novel length.

Their books-Svendsen's "Bursar's Girls is due out in March-are, to some extent, joint projects, products of discussion and several rewrites.

"I'm the practical one," says Christian. "If something in the plot is improbable, I'll shoot it down, right away."

"We discuss and discuss. What it boils down to is we have respect for each other's strengths and weaknesses," she says. "We rarely argue; we collaborate."

"Vice Versa" takes place in Reno and St. Louis Connie marries a law student who is attracted to her by an inheritance she is to receive from an aunt. Ultimately, Sonya, her alter ego, kills the husband during sex and, unbeknownst to Connie, the killing spree begins

Investigating the case is an improbable pair: James Kelley, a wheelchair-bound psychotherapist and Frank Vinucci, a middle-aged St. Louis police detective.

Christian and Svendsen have more novels in the works, including a mystery based around a ballet company.

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