Nancy Gettelman's life can best be described as heterogeneous, defined in the dictionary as "consisting of diverse ingredients or constituents."

Born in Victoria, British Columbia, she lost her mother at the age of thirteen and came to live with her aunt's family in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. In high school, she met Tom Gettelman, who was to become her future husband. Upon graduation she returned to Victoria, but two years later Tom "imported" her, as she likes to call it, and they married.

During their early years, Tom worked in the brewery his family had owned for over a century, and while raising their two children Nancy tried her hand at writing articles. Some were published in magazines of general interest, and several in various brewing magazines.

Eventually, she enrolled at Marquette University as a thirty-five-year-old freshman, unheard of in those days, and graduated with a Political Science Major and a Minor in Asian Studies. Three years later, she became Marquette's first Foreign Student Counselor, and also acquired a Masters in Education (Counseling and Guidance).

Nancy's interest in the Far East began with her reading a book written by Lowell Thomas Jr., entitled "Out of This World". The Dalai Lama, fearing the Chinese were going to invade his country, had invited Lowell Thomas, Sr., the well-known news commentator, to visit Tibet and then go back and tell the world about the Chinese threat.

Her curiosity was further increased as she met the several Jesuits who visited Marquette while on home-leave from their teaching in India and the Himalayan countries. Deciding to see that part of the world herself, she took with her a young Tibetan girl who was attending Marquette on a scholarship, and the only Tibetan studying in the United States.  The Dalai Lama, now a refugee in India, was aware of that fact and the two of them were granted a memorable audience with him.

On that first visit to the Far East, Nancy also visited Sikkim, and spent the night at the palace of the King of Sikkim and his American wife, Hope Cooke.

After she had made visits to India, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, And Tibet, and earned an MA in Indian Studies (Buddhist Studies), she wrote her first book, "The Himalayan Journey of Buddhism." Beautifully illustrated, it describes the history and culture of those countries, and explains how Buddhism, born in India, moved from there to the various Himalayan Kingdoms.

Next, she wrote an illustrated account of her husband's family-owned, 107-year-old brewery, entitled "The History of the A. Gettelman Brewery."

From there, Nancy turned to fiction and has published four novels. The first was a Romance set in Victoria, B. C. The second, a Suspense set in Bhutan, gives an authentic picture of that isolated country before it was opened to tourists, while keeping the reader turning the pages.

The last two novels were just published. "Not An Ill Wind" is timely in that the story deals with two up-to-date problems. One is the romance between an older woman and a younger man, and the other the modern situation in Tibet, where most of the story takes place.  "Full Circle" is a Suspense involving a Milwaukee brewery. The reader learns something about Milwaukee's history and about brewing, while being caught up in the plot.