Meet Mariah
Mariah Fralick studies writing at Salt Lake Community College, and, on launch day at Meet the Neighbors she is in the full-throws of finals fever. 22 years ago she traded a full-ride through business school, for a full-ride through home and family craziness the year her first child was born.
As a wife, mom of four young adults, and co-founder of a non-profit organization, she is the author of her own story and co-author of the narrative about her marriage and family; both works are decades in the making.
Mariah loves reading and writing good stories about everyday inspiring people. In 2016 she raised funds, curated academic articles, and wrote a best-practice contribution for the book Family Capital and the Sustainable Development Goals, compiled by Susan Roylance.
She introduced the book at the United Nations Habitat III Conference in Quito, Ecuador, and moderated several additional book events at international conferences. She lives in Salt Lake City with her husband, Gordon, their children, a dog and a cat.
Meet Katie-Rose
Before she settled in the forested hills of Oregon, Katie-Rose lived from ages 4 to 15 in Japan. A place where the stories went all the way back in time to ancient China. While history always fascinated her, the massive number of names, dates and facts of the many dynasties never quite took root. She much preferred to sit by her father’s side and listen to the stories of his youth.
Like the time he hypnotized his brother into believing he was seeing a ghost, then got into major trouble from his Mom. Or the time he and his brothers thought they would do the neighborhood a favor and burn down a condemned building (which the city was going to tear down anyway), then got into major trouble from their Mom.
Her (much older—wink wink) four siblings also had their stories to share. Like how they used to go door to door selling their mother’s nude paintings (she was an artist, and the nudes weren’t of her), and even dirt to the neighbors.
An introvert among people she doesn’t know well, Katie-Rose loves the excuse to be able to ask the questions which swim around in her brain. While sometimes, her husband and three kids think she may be losing her mind a bit early for her years, she knows the truth. Once focused on something, an obsession takes hold. Kind of like when she eats chocolate…. once that KitKat bag is open, it’s game on. This is what happens each time she writes a story on someone. As soon as the piece is written, she re-gains most of whatever mind she had to begin with and is able once more to serve charcoal-free toast—at least until the next story comes along.
You can contact her at: katie@meettheneighbors.net
