Welcome! My name is Richard M. Wright, and I'm a storyteller. The M is for Marshall which was my grandmother’s maiden name. It gets confusing because I’ve gone by Dick my whole life. My personal Facebook page and professional pages are R. Marshall Wright.
I graduated from the University of Maine in Orono, Maine, in 1969 and Drew Theological School in Madison, New Jersey, in 1972. In addition to being a retired evangelical pastor, I’m also a retired U.S. Army Chaplain with 23 years of active and reserve service.
I married my fabulous wife, Lynn, fifty-three years ago. We are blessed to spend our summers on a lake in Michigan and our winters in Florida.
We have two children and five grandchildren. Marnie is married to Arick, the eldest, and has been a stay-at-home mom rearing three active boys, Luke, Levi, and Loden. She holds a Master’s degree from Northwestern in communications and now writes magazine devotionals. Trevor is married to Lori and is a pastor in Findlay, OH. And he also writes and has returned to school for a Master’s in counseling. His two children are Emma, the oldest grandchild and the only girl, and her brother Cole. We are incredibly proud of everyone in my family.
Like many people, I always wanted to write a book but never did anything about it. About seven years ago, my son preached a Christmas message about it not being the cute, cozy, and comfortable picture we paint. It wasn’t. It was downright messy! As I sat in the pew, I thought there is a book in that message that needed to be written. Seven years later, I wrote it. It was Mary and Joseph's Untold Story, which is no longer in print.
My second story went in a different direction. Grace Like a River Flows falls into the genre of inspirational Christian fiction with a bit of suspense, and this is my niche. So I’m male writing in a genre that is predominantly women! My third was published in the fall of 2019, entitled Laura, Don’t Run, which is Christian Romance. I decided to write a sequel to Grace Like a River Flows, and in the spring of 2020, I released When the River Runs Dry. And in November, I added the third book, Finding Grace. March of 2022 came There, But For the Grace of God, and now I’ve published My Grace Is Sufficient. I also have a two-book series, The Lonely Seagull and For the Love of Grace, which are my wife’s favorites and are childhood memories of where I grew up.
While it would be nice to write the next great American novel, it will probably never happen. But that's okay. I love to write and will continue to write good, clean, wholesome, Christ-honoring, Christian fiction. Your words of encouragement keep me writing.
I describe myself as a storyteller. I don't fit in the conventional mold of an author, although I am an author in the technical sense, because I write books. I asked my readers to compare me to another author they read. They couldn’t come up with anyone! I think of my writing more as telling a story that is long enough to turn into a book. I'm a pantser. If you aren't familiar with the term, it is someone who writes by the seat of his pants. ‘Hold on, and let's see where this goes.’ When I start, I have very little figured out, and I can guarantee you I have no idea where it is going and no clue how it will end. So, give me an idea and let me sit down, and I’ll write you a good story that will develop along the way.
When I write, I put a lot of myself into every story. The comment I often hear is reading my books is like having me sitting there telling her the story. I hope you find that to be true.
