M.R. Wilson’s latest book is a collection of her Sassy Sandpiper columns from Tampa Bay Reporter.

LEALMAN – M.R. Wilson, Tampa Bay Reporter’s popular columnist, has published a collection of her columns in a new book, Anything & Everything: The Sassy Sandpiper.

Regular readers know Wilson’s Sassy Sandpiper columns as insightful homages to home, nature, and the oft-amusing challenges of rearing a collection of cats.

“Merry’s columns are a welcome respite from the chaos of modern life, whether she’s writing about food or traditions or cats. Lots of cats,” writes Jill Hohnstein, a reader who lives in Salem, OR.

Wrote Hohnstein: “She challenges us to think a little bit differently, a little more gently, but never does so in a condescending way. Merry talks to us, her readers, as if we’re all friends.

“She likes us. We trust her. And I promise you will find something in each of these columns that make you smile.”

Wilson has been a writer since her elementary school days, and her range is extensive.

Among several other books she has written are Protocol 9, a baseball novel; The Secret of the Mermaid who Wept, her first children’s story; A Flamingo Named Flannigan, which was used in a sixth-grade literature program and resulted in publication of a companion guide; and a volume of poetry, Notes in a Bottle: Selected Poems.

Waaaay Beyond Lemonade is Wilson’s memoir about surviving cancer and a misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder. To see the video introduction, go to youtu.be/z82xq8rgGyo .

The St. Petersburg Audubon Society published her Canal Diary: A Hymn to Urban Wilderness.

“The natural world is my greatest comfort and inspiration,” Wilson says.

A native of Scottsbluff, NE, Wilson moved with her family to Florida in 1956. She attended Westgate Elementary, Lealman Junior High and Dixie Hollins High in St. Petersburg. She attended college in Kansas City, Mo., and makes her home in Lealman.

Anything & Everything: The Sassy Sandpiper is available on Amazon for $9.99. Click here for more information.

Photos courtesy of M.R. Wilson.

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