Mary Jo Putney

Mary Jo Putney was born in Upstate New York with a reading addiction, a condition for which there is no known cure. After earning degrees in English Literature and Industrial Design at Syracuse University, she did various forms of design work in California and in England, where she lived for two years in Oxford. Eventually, inertia took over and she settled in Baltimore, Maryland, where she has lived very comfortably ever since.

While becoming a novelist was her ultimate fantasy, it never occurred to her that writing was an achievable goal until she acquired a computer for other purposes. When the realization hit that a computer was the ultimate writing tool, she charged merrily into her first book with an ignorance that illustrates the adage that fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

Fortune sometimes favours the foolish and her first book sold quickly, thereby changing her life forever, in most ways for the better. ("But why didn't anyone tell me that writing would change the way one reads?") Like a lemming over a cliff, she gave up her freelance graphic design business to become a full-time writer as soon as possible.

Since 1987, Ms. Putney has had thirty-three books published in the United States where she has made all of the national bestseller lists; including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USAToday, and Publishers Weekly. However, while most of her books are set in Britain, they have never been published here before.

Her stories are famous for their psychological depth and unusual subject matter which have included alcoholism, death and dying, and domestic abuse. Such qualities have won her numerous plaudits and awards, including two RITAs, the romantic equivalent of the Oscars; and have earned her a place on the Romance Writers of America's Honour Roll for best-selling authors.  

Ms. Putney says that not least among the blessings of a full-time writing career is that one almost never has to wear pantyhose.

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