Maureen Herring

Author Bio

Movies are my hobby but Christ is my passion. I always find writing the particulars about who I am a little awkward. I’ve been married since 1981 to my husband Ted who encourages me to write and helps with the technical part of this blog. He’s a cellist and works in the computer industry. I am the mother of three boys, all born in the 80’s and 90’s, who share my love of movies, music, and pop culture. We have a dog and a cat because there is something wonderful about indiscriminate, unconditional, unbridled love and also something special about being honored with deliberate and focused love.

I’m a librarian at a small Christian high school in Austin, Texas. I’ve worked there since 1994 and have been a librarian since 1983. I like to encourage my students to become readers and thinkers. I’m a proud Longhorn with an MLIS from University of Texas and a BS in English Education from Louisiana Tech University. I went to Austin, Texas in 1980 for graduate school at UT, got married, and never left. I love Austin except July – September when it’s way too hot.

When I’m not at work I enjoy helping out on the Creative Arts team at my church. I also like going to movies and concerts, reading, attempting art, playing tennis, and eating good food (but not necessarily cooking).

I spent all my childhood that I can remember in Louisiana. I lived in a small town along the Mississippi River near New Orleans.  I spent a good part of those years sitting on the floor in front of a black and white TV watching Laugh-In and Hogan’s Heroes. I don’t pre-date color TV, but my mom got it in her head that color TV might carry radiation (she was sort of paranoid.)

When I was 11 I moved in with my grandmother, who lived in a bigger town up north in Louisiana’s piney woods (in South Louisiana everything north of Alexandria is another place entirely.) We didn’t have a car but the Dixie Theater was in walking distance and I spent every free moment and every spare dollar at the movies. (I wish theaters still had chandeliers and faux columns painted on the wall.) I was a fairly serious, dare I admit morose kid until Mel Brooks, Monty Python, and Saturday Night Live rescued me. Jaws got me hooked on freak of nature movies.  Now I’m a sucker for anything with a giant animal like Arachnophobia or Lake Placid. Star Wars made me a fan of the epic. I didn’t like dramas too much when I was younger. I figured real life had enough death, dysfunction and depression. The Dixie Theater was my refuge.

I’ve always loved stories. I escaped into books and movies as a child and still need a story before bedtime. Sometimes I read my stories and sometimes I watch them or listen to them. I’ve found that stories are more than an escape from real life. They help me define and clarify my real life.

I have been utterly transformed by my relationship with Jesus Christ.  Naturally I love the Bible because those are his stories and are becoming mine too. I think God has used all sorts of stories to reveal truth to me. I sort of agree with Lewis and Tolkien’s theory that truth in any story humans create is there because we are creations of the God of all truth.