Born in southeastern Virginia into a military family, Mari Mann had the usual shuffling about in her early years, but finally was settled and grew up in Norfolk, VA. She became an avid reader and lover of art and also felt very close to the animal world and anything earthy and old--like old bones and stones, deeply buried. This idea extended itself into the area of deeply buried memories and perhaps even lives.She took a B.A.degree at Virginia Wesleyan College and then a Masters in Humanities from California State University at Dominguez Hills. Her thesis was on Maya Jaina Island burial figurines from the collection of the Chrysler Museum and is now part of the museum library. But, instead of using the degree in some way and digging deeper, Mann went to work for an investment firm in downtown Norfolk, VA.A few years later, in another reversal, she spent time in the Southwest in New Mexico and then attended an archaeological field school at Southern Utah University. Their dig that summer was on an ancient Anasazi site near Little Creek Mesa where the nights could be filled with ghostly howls.In Parisian by Heart, Mann's first novel, she dug into the history of her dreams and reading life and made some of those writers come alive in the City of Light. This work, in 2011, was a quarter-finalist for Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award. In October of 2014, she released a book of short stories called Stories from the Other World. A second novel, entitled Father We Go, delves into the mystery of the Lost Colony. A third work in progress, tentatively called Coyote Moon, follows the path of a group of archaeology students as they dig their way into the past and try to survive the present.In 2012 she began co-writing a book with her Yoga teacher, Master Adam, about his life and teachings rooted in a royal family from Vietnam. In 2014 it became the basis for the making of the film, called Eyes of the Roshi.