On Friday, October 11th of 2024, Marcy Bialeschki, award-winning bestselling romance-thriller novelist spoke at Western Illinois University (WIU). A 1988 graduate of WIU, Bialeschki was so gracious to be featured as a gratis speaker during WIU’s first ever “Drop Everything And Read” (DEAR) event, “DEAR WIU.” 

Borrowed from the worlds of Beverly Cleary, a “DEAR day” or event entails – as the title implies – dropping everything (your stresses and concerns) and reading for pleasure. National DEAR day officially takes place on April 12th, the birthday of Beverly Cleary. For Western though, “DEAR WIU” took place exactly six months before (or after) national DEAR day, embodying a sort of “half-birthday” identity. 

Conceived by WIU’s The Book Was Better and sponsored by WIU’s The Reading Room Series, Sigma Tau Delta, and The Book Was Better, DEAR WIU took place from 10:00 a.m., all the way through 3:00 p.m. Readers and guests attending the event were encouraged to forget their concerns and stresses and to focus on relaxing with a good book.

Momentarily taking readers from their books, Bialeschki spoke from 12:00–1:00 p.m., at the halfway mark of the event. Bialeschki spoke about the difficulties of self-publication and how writing carried her from “retired teacher” to “published author.” Bialeschki discussed the inner workings of self-publications and talked about how writing “made her retirement [positive].” She explained how after she retired as a public school teacher, she became a life coach and full-time writer. 

On her website, Bialeschki states, “I’ve been going back to school since I was five years old. I’m a little lost not following that pattern.” She follows this quote saying, “But Marcy admits she’s ready to dedicate all of her time to promoting The Vengeance Series and continuing to write.” During her visit, Bialeschki read an excerpt from Seduction and Revenge, the second book in The Vengeance Series. The scene read by Bialeschki, showing a passionate couple having sex in the restroom of a fancy restaurant, allowed insight into the idea that one can (“and often should”) write what they want and “to figure out publication later.”

Bialeschki left DEAR WIU preaching the idea to “just write”; she made sure to leave the idea in the minds of the attendees that one should write for themselves and to find an audience later.