When publishing houses were uninterested in Alexis Rankin Popik’s debut novel the Marion author became restless; she released it by herself.

“I had tried to get a literary agent at one point,” Popik said. “Then I got the story to where I wanted it to be and realized life’s too short to be sending it out, waiting for an answer, so I decided to publish it independently.”

Her book, “Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate,” follows one woman experiencing the highs and lows of her husband’s manic-depressive disorder, which manifests after the couple moves to a new city.

Popik is new to writing, having spent a lengthy career as a union organizer working with shipyard workers, providing them with health and safety information.

“I was shy about being a writer, but regret I didn’t do it sooner,” she said. “I didn’t really know what I was getting into.”

She attended writing classes to develop her talent. Popik's work eventually appeared in “The Berkshire Review” and “Potpourri Magazine.”

She also wrote local history articles that were picked up by Connecticut-based periodicals. She and her husband have a condominium in Hartford, Conn. They have lived in Marion for seven years.

The cove behind the couple’s home inspired the name Aucoot Press, the name Popik chose to self publish under.

Though Marion is considered home now (“It’s the kind of place where people will wait around and talk to you in the Post Office.”), Popik was raised in California. She set the book's events in and around the Los Angeles area during the O.J. Simpson trial.

The idea, in part, came from her own move to Los Angeles many years ago, and from a question she asked herself after her husband came home late one night: “What would cause someone to come home late?”

“He only came home an hour late, but it set the gears in motion,” Popik said.

She then researched manic-depressive and bipolar disorders to get inside her character’s mind.

“Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate” is available online starting May 15.

Popik noted she would be happy to attend any area club to read and sign copies of her novel.

"This is a reading community," she said.

She can be reached online through her Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/Alexis.Rankin.Popik.