The Maryland Writers’ Association created the Writers’ Round Table Program to encourage writers, poets, playwrights and authors through monthly articles and activities.|
The Notable Maryland Author articles and associated Fun With Words writers’ prompts are the centerpiece of the program. Each month, Southern Maryland Newspapers will feature a Maryland Writer’s Association article about an author. Marylanders are encouraged to read the articles and try their hand at the writing prompts each month.
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 (six books), “The Lost Lords” series (eight books), “The Fallen Angel” series (seven books) and “Christmas Romances” (11 books).
“Ideas are everywhere, the hard part is turning them into books.” — Mary Jo Putney
The award-winning, bestselling author was born in Upstate New York and earned degrees in english literature and industrial design at Syracuse University.
Putney, who eventually settled in Baltimore, is fond of saying, “I was born with a reading addiction, a condition for which there is no known cure.”
As proof of her addiction, she read everything in sight, but especially loved action, adventure, romance, history, and happy endings, all of which are essential components of historical fiction.
Growing up, Putney’s fantasy was to be a writer — she always had stories in her head — but she never felt it was doable until she had her first computer. She then realized the tremendous advantage it gave a writer and it inspired her to write her first book “The Diabolical Baron” in 1987. She wove action, adventure, romance, history, and a happy ending into the novel and it became 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,” she explains.
Putney is also a versatile writer. While well established in historical romance, she has also written contemporary women’s fiction, young adult romantic fantasy, and historical fantasy. Her repertoire consists of more than 50 books and she is still writing.
Her books have been on all the national bestseller lists including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly. Dancing on the Wind and The Rake and the Reformer were awarded RITAs by the Romance Writers of America and in 2013, she received their Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award.
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.”
The MWA invites writers 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 which 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 as well as posted on the MWA website.
Last month readers were asked to write mystery like Tim Cockey and in 00 words or less, pick a character from a profession not associated with solving mysteries and begin a mystery with something found under the snow.
Here are some regional responses:
Soft perfect snow had arrived overnight. Grandson Dylan and I went to look for animal tracks. We found bird and squirrel tracks. Some small footsteps walked away.
“What could they be,” he asked?
“A little man. Perhaps a leprechaun.”
“Gramps, does he have his pot of gold with him?”
“Don’t know. Could be?”
We followed the steady tracks to a digging. Snow was pulled up and then replaced to cover what he hid. We did not disturb it
“Did he bury his pot of gold here?”
“Perhaps. It is a mystery.”
“Let’s continue following his tracks and catch him.”
I sit at my desk, as I wait for my students to get back. I keep thinking about how the teacher across the hall is gone. No note, nothing. No one even went to look for him. I stand up as I put my coat on. I will go look for him. I walk outside as I see my kids line up. I walk through the parking lot and through the woods. I then see dug up snow and a shovel. As I step closer, I see hidden under the snow is the teacher from across the hall.
“Coach Nina! Coach Nina! I landed my triple axel combination!”
Nina Myers smiled at her 13-year-old figure skating protegé. “I saw!” she said. “Good work, Vivian! Now, that’s enough for today. Come off the ice, and let’s get you home.”
Nina marveled inwardly at Vivian’s boundless energy as the teen skipped her way to the parking lot in her excitement over landing the jump.
It had snowed while they were training. The asphalt and the vehicles parked on it were all coated in white.
Halfway to Nina’s SUV, Vivian suddenly tripped on something under the snow and fell.
“Vivian? You okay?” Nina asked.
The young skater made no move to get up. “Um, Coach? Somebody lost their boot out here, and it looks like it’s all bloody!”
Red light from Eusebius “C.B.” Kant’s headlamp rose and fell on a pair of huge, hairy feet. They stuck out from under trackless snow.
The amateur astronomer cinched the straps of his backpack telescope over his parka’s shoulders. Had his health department co-workers violated his secret hill, southeast of Bryantown, with a prank? He crept, snow squeaking under hiking boots, toward the head.
In death the eyes of the man behind the mask showed white, a bullet hole in his brow. Such a costume, C.B. thought, should come with a warning label: Impersonating Sasquatch could be hazardous to your health.
– Lawrence McGuire, Waldoirf
Pearlberg — The-Snowplow-Driver walked into the Last National Snowbank. Pearlberg discovered missing lollipops and an empty vault. Back outside, Pearlberg found a lone pink snowshoe under a snowdrift. Pearlberg then followed some tracks (evidently made by a getaway snowmobile) to an icy lair with a sign: “Snow-Bunny Bandit / No Crime Too Small / Free Estimates.” Pearlberg spotted a gal wearing a fluffy pink parka and a single pink snowshoe. She DID NOT look as pure as the wind-blown snow. Pearlberg shouted: “You’re guilty of robbery in the first degree … below zero!” [rim-shot]
The Snow-Bunny Bandit spit out a lollipop and retorted: “Keep shoveling plowboy! If you think you’re burying me with THAT snow job … you’re a flake!
The MWA is a 35-year-old state-wide association dedicated to encouraging and mentoring Maryland writers, poets, playwrights, and authors.
