Born to be a Star: Floating in a Galaxy of Hot Air author Mary Ellen Aschenbrenner is known as Joliet's Erma Bombeck and "Lettuce Lady." An orphan of sorts, she is always "up to something" and dances her way through life. She's been on the radio and performed on television. She out-smarts crabby nuns, rigs elections, eradicates that place Catholics call purgatory and flips her wig on a Ferris Wheel. At least one of her children seem to have inherited her talents. Their calamities turn into published stories. She is propositioned by a Turk in Istanbul's Covered Bazaar and manages to "lose" her mother. What happens in Aschenbrenner's house, never stays in Aschenbrenner's house ... it make headlines in newspapers while her "understanding" spouse simply looks on, shakes his head, and prays a lot. She's been published since the age of 14 throughout the Midwest and New York and has been a news correspondent, columnist and feature writer. Her subtle humor sprinkles hope on hopeless situations. Born to be a Star is volume one of a two-part series. A third book, The Monster Within, is to follow. In contrast to Aschenbrenner's light-hearted Born to be a Star dramas, this true story is crude and cruel, humor slides between the lines. Anyone who has dealt with a brain disorder will find her experience enlightening, devastating and miraculous. Yes, miracles happen! Molly Zelko, her first editor at Joliet's Spectator, was routinely threatened. She purportedly vanished at the hands of the Mafia. Molly's disappearance was investigated by Robert Kennedy and drew the attention of J. Edgar Hoover. Kennedy writes about Molly in his book The Enemy Within. A fourth book in the offing, "Terrors and Travels, " takes readers to three continents, the Caribbean, Mediterranean, and New Zealand. She draws the attention of the KBG and back home, working as a Joliet Herald News Correspondent, her life is also threatened, "You will be murdered and raped-in that order." Her response, "You can't frighten me." In Terrors and Travels she unveils her experience with ghosts and how she became a ghost writer.