PRO CONNECT
Born in Tacoma, Washington, “The City of Destiny,” Marla was destined to move to Los Angeles where she shoots her arrow of love on a daily basis as a professional matchmaker, helping countless couples connect with their soul mates.
She is the author of three memoirs, Diary of a Beverly Hills Matchmaker, Hearts on the Line & The Buddha Made Me Do It. Marla has been interviewed on the Today Show, WGN Chicago Morning News, San Diego Living, Urban Rush, CTV Calgary, Better TV, KUSI San Diego Morning Show, and over 100 radio shows including Coast to Coast AM with George Noory.
Her husband Adolfo has asked her, “Marlita, do you want to go to the moon too?” referring to her many interests—a true Gemini. Yet nothing has fascinated her like her profound adventure far beyond the moon and into the vastness of cosmic spirituality.
“A warmly funny, wide-ranging, and off-kilter spiritual odyssey.”
– Kirkus Reviews
An antic memoir about a woman exploring the byways of New Age spiritualism.
The long string of problems and bizarre encounters in Martenson’s (Diary of a Beverly Hills Matchmaker, 2014) autobiography begins when, while clearing her Los Angeles house of “SICLW” (or “Shit I Can Live Without”), she made the impulsive decision to throw out a small Buddha statue treasured by her husband, Adolfo. The housecleaning was part of a spiritual journey she was taking with her friend Julie and held special appeal to Martenson as a kind of psychic counterweight to her job as a “successful, well-known, high-end matchmaker for affluent men.” Her quest met with steady resistance from her husband, who succinctly urged her to lay off the New Age stuff, but it also got an enormous energy boost from her visits to a place called the “Imagine Center”; there, she met a teacher known as “Goddess Tauheedah,” who tutored Martenson and Julie in the ways of the mystical world. Along the way (and accompanied most of the time by Adolfo’s irascible skepticism), the author digresses on dozens of side topics, from adventures in astral projection to the idea of a lurking order of Reptilians bent on world domination. The book has some serious didactic aims about spirituality and detoxification: “Though not all psychics and mediums are vegan or even vegetarian, for me, it is a package deal,” she writes at one point, “It’s about consciousness.” There’s even an appendix with wholesome recipes. However, its main attractions are very much grounded in Martenson’s zany everyday life and her unfailing, infectious happiness in describing it. As a result, her stories will make readers laugh, regardless of where they stand with the Buddha.
A warmly funny, wide-ranging, and off-kilter spiritual odyssey.
Pub Date: May 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9975664-0-6
Page count: 286pp
Publisher: Cupid's Press
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2016
Day job
Matchmaker
Favorite author
Edgar Allan Poe
Hometown
Seattle, Washington
Passion in life
Travel, Writing, Animals
Hearts On The Line: the elusive pursuit of love in the city of angels : Paris Book Festival, 2013
Hearts On The Line: the elusive pursuit of love in the city of angels : Readers’ Favorite, 2013
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