
Her stories are noted for psychological depth and unusual subject matter such as alcoholism, death and dying, and domestic abuse. Putney has published twenty-nine books and counting.

(“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. 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.įortune sometimes favors the foolish and her first book sold quickly, thereby changing her life forever, in most ways for the better. 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.

After earning degrees in English Literature and Industrial Design at Syracuse University, she did various forms of design work in California and England before inertia took over in Baltimore, Maryland, where she has lived very comfortably ever since. Mary Jo Putney was born on 1946 in Upstate New York with a reading addiction, a condition for which there is no known cure. 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 fool She writes young adult fiction as M.J.


