1524 Brown Street is a significant address for Marissa Malson ’11. As an alumna of Theta Phi sorority, it was the house she lived in as a Flyer. It’s also the address for Martin’s Grocery Store, a key location in her new book.
The Not So Average Life of Average Jane is a cozy mystery novel Malson published in May 2025. One year prior, it was just a glimmer in her eye, and in 2023, writing a book wasn’t even on her radar. But it was a fateful Flyer experience featuring basketball and Erma Bombeck that helped Malson become a published author.
“I didn’t have creative writing experience before this,” said Malson, who majored in both communication and Spanish. “I did feature writing and worked for Flyer News when I was in school, and had a journalism concentration, but it wasn’t fiction writing.”
According to Malson, the main character’s voice and the first few chapters of the book came to her unexpectedly after a yoga class in 2024. A few months later, she was on UD’s campus for a basketball game with her family. They arrived early, headed to The Blend for a cup of coffee and walked around Roesch Library. That’s where Malson saw an Erma Bombeck exhibit and a flyer for an upcoming Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop.
“It’s the best workshop I’ve ever been to,” Malson said. “The keynote speakers were impressive. There was information for all levels of writers, and the workshop was so practical and hands-on. After going through that, I felt like I had a good understanding of what I needed to do.”
The timing was just right. Malson was working in digital marketing, and while she enjoyed it — including having worked for the Indianapolis Colts, her favorite professional football team — she craved something new. So when she was let go from her role after a company acquisition, she took the opportunity to finish her book and become a self-published author.
Now she’s using her UD education, digital marketing expertise and authorship journey to run her own company, Just A Good Book Publishing, where she provides indie authors with publication coaching, marketing and design services.
“It was a gift to be able to write Average Jane’s story, but then to learn how to publish it through the Erma workshop was something special — all of that lined up exactly at the right time,” Malson said.
Malson is no stranger to taking the leap and trying something new. After she moved from North Carolina back to her home state of Michigan, she saw that the West Michigan Alumni Community put out a call for a new leader. “I thought, ‘Sure, why not,’” she said. “I love Grand Rapids, and I love the Flyers. Perfect fit!”
As the alumni community leader, she encouraged her sister, Kaitlyn Malson ’13 to join as the social chair, and they brought on a friend as the service chair. They connected with alumni through social media and helped garner more involvement at local events.
Malson recently completed her term, but not before receiving the University’s Alumni Association Alumni Community of the Year award in a small market city under her leadership in 2024.
“It was great to do service and social events and meet a lot of different people and friends of Flyers — almost every time we did an event some person who was not part of our group would come over because they knew somebody who went to UD. It’s been nice to connect to the community and meet people locally as well,” Malson said. “Now I'm looking forward to attending just for fun with the new group.”