Kristine Holmgren is a lot of things. An essayist for the Star Tribune and MinnPost. A theologian with a masters in divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary. A mother of two. What's she not is a corporate cog; she found that out at age 58. She had a job in marketing that she did well in but didn't like, so one day she up and quit — just like that. Only one thing: this was in October 2008. Not exactly flush times for the economy. Still, she was undeterred.
"I just knew it was time for me to move on. So one of my daughters picked me up that day and we went out to lunch and that was that," she says. "It wasn't until later that I realized that there might not be a lot of jobs out there for someone with my skills. That was a daunting moment."
She had some savings and was nearing the age where she could draw Social Security. She could have glided into retirement. But she didn't.
"I stepped back and said, This is a gift. I can think about what I want to do with my life," she says.
What she wanted to do was express herself creatively. She wanted to feel alive again.
"I've always had this great blessing of having an outrageous imagination, and I wanted to use it," she said, with a twinkle in her voice.
So she auditioned for a part in a play. She got it, and it was in that environment that she had an epiphany: She would write a play.
"I had never written a play before but I wanted to try it. So I started writing 'Paper Daddy,' which is about a woman reinventing herself after a divorce.
