Glory Be is a story about the unique and enduring relationship of identical twin girls who become lost to each other at age thirteen when one of them gets caught up in a life with a gangster. To protect him she abandons her connection to her twin. Glory and Bea are born in the middle of a hurricane, their birth assisted by their great-grandmother, Gram Stela, a midwife from Romania. Gram raises the girls and shares her talents and Gypsy skills with them until she dies suddenly when the twins are thirteen. The girls have a special relationship common to identical twins: throughout their childhood they communicate by reading each other’s minds. So even though they have to fend for themselves after Gram’s death, at least they have each other—until Glory disappears and closes her mind to Bea. Despite being told that Glory must be dead, Bea knows Glory is still alive somewhere and searches for her for twenty-two years. She finds Glory living in northern California, in a small down-home western town, non-descript except for one novel feature: a secret establishment known to participants as The Orgasm Parlor. A freak accident at the town’s annual Easter Parade gives Bea the clue that allows her to locate Glory, and the twins are finally reunited. “A funny and inventive story that takes the reader right up to the edges of American surrealism.” Stephen Scheuerman, Poet and retired Professor Boston University Writing Center “A poignant and fanciful tale with unexpected twists and turns in the adventures of identical twins, Glory and Bea, along with a cast of hilariously dysfunctional characters.” Clare Newbury, author of “The Mushroom Circle: A fairy Tale for Giants”

Maianna von Hippel started writing fiction in the sixth grade. When she later worked as a therapist her supervisors complained that her case notes sounded like short stories. She has written many radio features and has produced and hosted radio talk shows.