LoginFebruary 2023 Notable Author: Mary Jo Putney
Mary Jo Putney, an award winning, bestselling author, was born in upstate New York, earned degrees in English Literature and Industrial Design at Syracuse University, and eventually settled in Baltimore, Maryland. She likes to say, “I was born with a reading addiction, a condition for which there is no known cure.” As proof of her addiction, Mary Jo read everything in sight. She especially loved action, adventure, romance, history, and happy endings, all of which are essential components of historical fiction.
Growing up, Mary Jo’s fantasy was to be a writer (she always had stories in her head), but she never felt it was do-able until she got her first computer. She realized the tremendous advantage a computer gave a writer and it inspired her to write her first book, The Diabolical Baron (1987). She wove action, adventure, romance, history, and a happy ending into the novel and it was a success. This prompted her to become a full-time writer and leave her graphic design business. Her historical romances are known for main characters that come from difficult childhoods. As a result, her novels are known for psychological complexity and have included challenging problems like alcoholism, abuse, and death and dying “Part of the story arc is their struggle to heal and build a better life,” explains Putney.
Her advice to hopeful authors is to “Read, read, read, then write, write, write. Since talent isn’t uncommon, the defining characteristic of a successful writer is a burning drive to tell stories.”
Learn more about Putney and her books at: https://maryjoputney.com.
Genre: Historical romance
Writing that “focuses on romantic relationships in historical periods, ”typically where an independent woman encounters and spars with a stronger man who eventually earns or wins her love. Key to this genre is an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending.
Sample Reading List: The Rogues Redeemed series (6), The Lost Lords series (8), The Fallen Angel series (7), Christmas Romances (11).
Writer's Prompt - Fun With Words
Fun With Words - Maryland Writers’ Association (MWA) invites you to have fun writing historical romance like Mary Jo Putney. Using only 100 words, place a man and a woman, with childhood hurts, in a historical setting (identify the historical period) who struggle with each other to heal and build a better life. Title your work and submit to: https://marylandwriters.org/Notable_Maryland_Authors by the 22nd of the month to receive an MWA Fun With Words submission certificate. Selected responses to be published with next month’s article and on the MWA website.
Submit Your FUN WITH WORDS Prompt
Rob Billingsley
Mar. 2, 2023Mud Angel - “Sofia, I have to go,” Ron said before leaving the doorway. After working for weeks as Mud Angels at the Florence Biblioteca, cleaning the mess from the flood of 1966, he had no choice. Turning into his chest, small hands folded below her chin, tears flowed like the blood unnoticed on the shower floor that morning. Holding closer—one physical being, his eyes closed without tears. Carefully, he eased her back for a long last look— the love of their lives. “Sofia, I love you, but can’t look back. Okay” Months later, letters unanswered, little Gino was born in Stockholm.
Brett Dimiao
Mar. 2, 2023The Gift - Marina recalled the first time they met. At the trade union dance. He was - intense. And very American in his white T with the pack of cigs rolled up the sleeve. She fell, fast. They married in six weeks. Soon after, the baby came. But he flailed, lost. So she gave up her life, friends, family to follow him to his country. Still, he struggled. But she knew him. “Lee, this is gift. I believe in you. I know you will change the world.” He inspected the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle.
Ruth Ticktin
Feb. 23, 2023Returned - At a stuffy banquet honoring vets from the Great War, Herman approached Mollie and whispered in her ear. “Casualties, thousands needing immediate treatment. Transporting them to an old monastery, working crazed, all hours. Death, over and over.” His head drooped low. “Way too many. We loaded soldiers on stretchers, train cars to makeshift hallway wards.” Mollie peeked at the punch bowl. Herman described diseases. “Major injuries, minor burns, lung ailments, influenza, surgery. Dressing the wounds or shutting their eyes.” “Horrid.” Mollie stopped fiddling with her sweater buttons. “Unimaginable.” In a sudden move she grabbed his hand. “You, returned? To me?”
Mackenzie Tate
Feb. 23, 2023Memory Rush - She was sitting on the tree trunk as her husband painted her a portrait. “It was 1924 so art was the new thing” her husband would say, but as she sat on that tree, that rough edged, flat tree trunk with flowers in her hair, she remembered how her father would paint. How he used to paint her mother as she sat in the grass with a picnic basket in her hand. She remembered how not long after that painting of her mother was made, her dad had died. She became over rushed with emotions, and began to cry.
Beth Smith
Feb. 23, 2023Gold Rush - Rumor was that Abigail Merryman was bringing home an English duke for a gala wedding. But she arrived alone. To her mother’s questioning, she cried. “I am only marrying Jack.” “Mr. McFarlane disappeared when you left last year for London,” said her agitated mother. Abigail was shocked. She had asked Jack to wait. Later, Abigail was in the parlor when Jack strode in, pulled her into his arms, and whispered “Come with me now.” “Yes,” she said. They brushed by a flabbergasted Mrs. Merryman to Jack’s handsome surrey. “I am rich, California gold rush,” he said as they drove away.
Carol Russell
Feb. 22, 2023THE CHOICE - Peter emerged from the local Mass for President Kennedy. Brenda trailed, downcast. Driving up Hutton Street he pulled over at O’Leary’s. “I need a drink.” “What?!” “Let’s go in.” “You’ve done so well. You can’t go back to…” “My father’s path?” “My dad’s, too!” Brenda flung back. Peter’s eyes lit briefly with anger. The beatings he’d received from his drunk father, and how he himself had behaved before quitting…he must never raise a hand to Brenda again. “Could you make that tea I like?” he pleaded. “My love—one steaming pot coming up if you get this jalopy home.”
Viola Robinson-Boone
Feb. 22, 2023Love Challenges Amidst Civil Unrest - The headline read: August 9, 1943. Great Depression Woes Ease, Not For Blacks Her hot tea grew cooler by the second. “Your nightmare kept me awake again last night.” How could he explain his Army experiences as a black man so she could truly understand? “It’s been three years since they left the note. Have you tried finding them?” He’ll never understand being abandoned at fifteen because your parents can’t care for you anymore. He sat down at the table. They stared at each other through weary, depressed, and distant eyes. He reached for her hand. “Will you marry me?
Lawrence McGuire
Feb. 22, 2023DREAMING IN A DEMON'S EYE - Until her son's friend, John Wilkes Booth, swaggered into her H Street boarding house, Mary Surratt believed no man understood a widow's loneliness. Mary, dressed in a loose-fitting wrapper and apron, thinking of John, savored an illicit shudder. She couldn't wait for their next fireside conversation. During many chats, John had espoused spellbinding ideas. Lincoln betrayed the Founders, themselves slave owners. The North, a beast out of Poe, fed on the South's blood. True. Fascinated yet troubled by such remembered whispers, Mary felt in her apron pocket for her rosary. "Lord," she said, "spare me from the devil I know."
Jon Ketzner
Feb. 22, 2023Guess Who’s Not Coming to Dinner - Nancy Graves sat beside Santa Barbara Bay enjoying the social celebrating the tenth anniversary of California joining the Union. Nancy loved the summer heat. She was a comely twenty-three with only a few physical scars from her terrible deprivations of the Winter of ‘46. A prosperous fellow, her childhood companion, approached Nancy. “Shoo.” “I’m not going away Nancy. You could do worse than me.” “You listen George Donner, Jr. I don’t care how rich you got at Sutter’s Mill. I look at you, I’m back at Truckee Lake freezing and starving. You know what we both done. My mother and brother. Your father. You are a nightmare to me. Shoo.”
Nikita Elliott
Feb. 22, 2023Torn Apart - “But John,” wailed Rebecca. “We just had little Tim. Do you really want me to tell him that his father died fighting the British?” “Come on, now, Rebecca,” John White said, wiping a tear of his own. “Don’t say those types of ideas. I will be under the command of General Washington who never leaves a man behind. “I really need to go,” said John, standing up. “I will always think of you, Rebecca.” “John,” said Rebecca now bawling, “Please don’t….” But John was already heading down the road, seemingly walking through the bright crimson sunrise of November 19, 1775.
Leslie Dickey
Feb. 22, 2023Rendezvous with History - Lee had never performed well. Not in school. Not in the USMC. Not in bed. Marina appeared normal, yet suffered internally from the forced separation from her parents. Packed off to live with her uncle, an officer in the Soviet Ministry that replaced Stalin’s NKVD. Trafficked into matrimony with the American defector, Marina understood. It was only a Cold War, but it was still war. Lee failed in New Orleans, but Marina knew he’d succeed this time. Lee would regain his confidence, his sexual function. She’d be a good wife for Lee. Once he finished in Dallas.
Jim Coleman
Feb. 22, 2023Last Impressions - The 1970s. Sex, drugs, rock & roll. Except he wasn't getting sex, drugs scared him, and he didn't get the music. At 25, he felt as out of place as he did as a little kid with only an old secondhand windup car to show his friends what he got for Christmas. A woman came, sat, saw his cigarette and said, "Please don't smoke near me", more command than request. Seriously? They were in a bar for Chrissake. "Reminds me of my dear sweet dad", she said, the words heavy with sarcasm. This blind date was not starting off well.
Doris Brady
Feb. 22, 2023The Bridge at Remagen - “Miss, could you quickly read these plans for me?” “Lieutenant?” “I have dyslexia. Every word I see backwards. I was relentlessly bullied in school.” Colleen read the orders. It was March,1945, and somehow she had ended up supporting the 9th Army as a mechanic. “Can you wait till I replace the sparkplugs in this jeep?” “You can do that?” “Yes, sir!” she smiled. “My dad taught me, between beatings.” “He hit you?” “Only when he was drunk, and only if he could catch me!” Colleen had enlisted and somehow ended up at Remagen. The lieutenant insisted on driving them both across, making the trip before the bridge collapsed, saving them both.
Steve Baker
Feb. 22, 2023It Happened One Eon - Thagerella came from a broken cave. Raised by her Aunt Iquity, she still carried scars of Jurassic embarrassment from being dumped at her prep school's Olduvai Hawkins Dance. Og's got his own baggage. He grew up on the wrong side of the dinosaur tracks in the Paleozoic Projects. Og and Thagerella eventually met at the Fire Academy....where they learned how to START fires. Today, they work 'round the sundial at NASA (Neanderthals Amagining [sic] the Stone Age). Og and Thagerella plan to revolutionize transportation by combining the age-old "barrow" with the new-fangled "wheel." This industrial advancement is sure to move civilization from the Ice Age boldly into the Log Age.
Betsy Adeboyejo
Feb. 22, 2023Live on - I was picking purple flowers that bright sunny day. Then, it went dark. I awoke, chained to strangers. I floated from MaMomie’s embrace, you too. Alas, St. Mary’s, Maryland. The year I hear it is 1650. Though laden with tears, our eyes connect. I end up in the kitchen and you in the field. We step forward, we jump the broom— but we argue, we fight, we grieve. We kiss on repeat. We cling. I wink at you from the window, and you wave. We live on. We are old now; you call me ma and I call you pa.