A resident of Tulalip, J.R. (Judith) Nakken attempted mayhem before using stories to turn her life around.

“I create happy stories to mollify my killer temper,” Nakken said.

“It was just a matter of time before I offed someone with the car or my little handgun.” So, many years ago, I got rid of the Beretta, saw a shrink, and practiced the anger management tricks he suggested. But I invented the story idea myself and still use it today, although I don’t need it as frequently in this new millennium as I did in John and Jackie’s thousand days.

It goes like this:

J. R. (Judith) Nakken, always a closet writer, has been a good bookkeeper and bad barmaid, a practicing alcoholic, accountant, recovered alcoholic, Avon Lady, administrative director of a large recovery facility, comptroller and, finally, a full-time writer. “Stream and Light” contains memoir pieces written and stashed away over a 25-year period.

Her first novel, “Three-Point Shot,” for young adults, won a Writer’s Digest award in 2004, and she delights in speaking to youth who are using the book in their classrooms.

“American Patch,” won first prize in the Preservation Foundation’s 2003 contest. Nakken currently resides in what she describes as “God’s Country,” on the Tulalip Indian Reservation, with her soul mate, Dale, and an assortment of eccentric felines.

In “Stream and Light,” J. R. Nakken creates happy stories, sad stories, scary stories, but, most of all, stories with the cutting edge of truth. The collection spans nearly 70 years of personal history, from pre-WWII South Dakota prairie through decline into alcoholism and recovery from same.

J.R. Nakken will be at The BookWorks bookstore on Third Street in Marysville, 5 – 8 p.m., Wednesday, July 30, reading from her new book, “Stream and Light — A Woman’s Journey.”