Arlene Rains Graber

Vernie Arlene Rains Graber

Vernie Olander, is an author who lives with her husband and two daughters in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. She wasn't always an author. For over fifteen years, she was the executive director of the Portland, Maine Symphony Orchestra before retiring to pursue a career as a novelist. Days quickly changed from board meetings, pitching sponsors, and unraveling complicated budgets, to hours of writing, attending creative writing classes, and dreaming up plots for fiction novels. It was a life she enjoyed and after completing her first novel she was ready to forge ahead with a second book when a phone call presented an offer to return to the symphony position. Vernie wasn't about to give up her writing, but after much negotiation, she accepted to help on an interim one-year-basis while looking for a new executive director. Almost immediately, she encountered a series of challenges. The financial books didn't balance. Was it missing money or merely sloppy accounting records?