Bloomfield, Missouri - Rose Marie (Robinson) Kinder, a native of Bloomfield, Missouri, authored "The Universe Playing Strings"  She is the author of four books, including "Old Time Fiddling: Hall Sappington, Missouri Fiddler."

Her article on Missouri artist Gary Cadwallader was published in the February/March issue of Missouri Life.  She is known as a regionalist writer featuring life in small communities in Missouri and in the southwest.

Kinder is currently writing a novel about a ghost house in Missouri and conducted research for that book in Bloomfield.

Her new short story collection, "The Dancer's Son and Other Stories." was a finalist for the 2016 Richard Sullivan Prize in fiction, while her novel, "The Universe Playing Strings," was a finalist for the 2017 Binghamton University John Gardner Fiction Award.

From 1989 to 2002 Kinder was a professor of English at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg and is currently living in Warrensburg with her husband.