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Mary Jo Putney | |
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| Born | New York, United States |
| Pen name | Mary Jo Putney, M.J. Putney |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Syracuse University |
| Period | 1987-present |
| Genre | Romance, Fantasy |
| Website | |
| www | |
Mary Jo Putney (born in New York) is an American author of over twenty-five historical and contemporary romance novels. She has also published romantic fantasy novels as M.J. Putney. Her books are known for their unusual subject matter, including alcoholism, death, and domestic abuse.
Putney was born and raised in New York. She attended Syracuse University, earning degrees in English literature and Industrial design. [1] She served as the art editor of The New Internationalist magazine in London and worked as a designer in California [2] before settling in Baltimore, Maryland in 1980 [2] to run her own freelance graphic design business. [1]
After purchasing her first computer for her business, Putney realized that it would make writing very easy. She began work on her first novel, a traditional Regency romance, which sold in one week. Signet liked the novel so much that it offered Putney a three-book contract immediately. [2] In 1987 that first novel, The Diabolical Baron, was published. Since then, she has published twenty-nine books (as of January 2007). Her books have been ranked on the national bestseller lists of the New York Times, USAToday, and Publishers Weekly. [1] The vast majority of her works have been historical romance, although she did write three contemporary romances. She has also begun writing fantasy romance and romantic fantasy as M.J. Putney.
According to IUP (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) Magazine, Mary Jo Putney wed John Rekus (IUP alumni 1990), a consulting engineer, on April 14, 2012 at the castle at Maryvale. They reside at their estate in Ruxton, Maryland along with their four cats.
Putney has won the Romance Writers of America RITA Award twice, for Dancing on the Wind and The Rake and the Reformer and has been a RITA finalist nine times. She is on the Romance Writers of America Honor Roll for bestselling authors, and has been awarded two Romantic Times Career Achievement Awards and four Golden Leaf Awards. [1]
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Mary Balogh is a Welsh-Canadian novelist writing historical romance, born and raised in Swansea. In 1967, she moved to Canada to start a teaching career, married a local coroner and settled in Kipling, Saskatchewan, where she eventually became a school principal. Her debut novel appeared in 1985. Her historical fiction is set in the Regency era (1811–1820) or the wider Georgian era (1714–1830).
Regency romances are a subgenre of romance novels set during the period of the British Regency (1811–1820) or early 19th century. Rather than simply being versions of contemporary romance stories transported to a historical setting, Regency romances are a distinct genre with their own plot and stylistic conventions. These derive not so much from the 19th-century contemporary works of Jane Austen, but rather from Georgette Heyer, who wrote over two dozen novels set in the Regency starting in 1935 until her death in 1974, and from the fiction genre known as the novel of manners. In particular, the more traditional Regencies feature a great deal of intelligent, fast-paced dialogue between the protagonists and very little explicit sex or discussion of sex.
Heather Graham Pozzessere is an American writer, who writes primarily romance novels. She also writes under her maiden name Heather Graham as well as the pen name Shannon Drake. She has written over 150 novels and novellas, has been published in approximately 25 languages, and has had over 75 million copies printed.
Mary Josephine Beverley was a prolific English-Canadian writer of historical and contemporary romance novels from 1988 to 2016.
The Regency era in the United Kingdom is the period between 1811 and 1820, when King George III was deemed unfit to rule and his son, later George IV, was instated to be his proxy as prince regent. It was a decade of particular manners and fashions and overlaps with the Napoleonic period in Europe.
Susan Kyle, née Susan Eloise Spaeth is an American writer who was known as Diana Palmer and has published romantic novels since 1979. She has also written romances as Diana Blayne, Katy Currie, and under her married name Susan Kyle and a science fiction novel as Susan S. Kyle.
Suzanne Enoch is an American author of best-selling contemporary and historical Regency romance novels.
Stephanie Laurens, is a best-selling Australian author of romance novels.
Sabrina Jeffries is American author of romance novels, who also writes under the pen names Deborah Martin and Deborah Nicholas. Entertainment Weekly calls her "one of the long-reigning leading voices in historical romance."
Lynn Kurland is an American author of historical, time travel, and fantasy romance novels. The characters in most of her books all belong to one of three extended families. She is a recipient of the RITA Award.
Joan Wolf is an American writer of romance novels.
Elizabeth Rotter is an American author of romance novels. She has been published under the pseudonyms Elizabeth Walker, Elizabeth Neff Walker, and Laura Matthews. As Laura Matthews, she has released more than 30 Regency romance novels. Under her other pseudonyms, she writes mainstream women's fiction or contemporary romances, most of them revolving around people working at a hospital.
The RITA Award, presented by the Romance Writers of America (RWA) from 1990 to 2019, was the most prominent award for English-language romance fiction. It was named for the RWA's first president, Rita Clay Estrada. After not being awarded in 2020, it was replaced by the Vivian Award, which was awarded once in 2021.
Sheila Frances Walsh was a British writer of romance novels from 1975 to 2001; she also wrote as Sophie Leyton.
Nicola Cornick is a British writer of historical romance novels and time slip mysteries that merge multiple genres, including historical fiction, romance, suspense, adventure, crime, science fiction/fantasy and the supernatural. Her books have been translated into over 40 languages and she has won a number of awards.
Signet Books was an imprint of the New American Library (NAL), which was established as an autonomous American publishing house after branching off from its British-based parent company, Penguin Books. Signet had the longest running Regency series, beginning in the late 1970s and ending in February 2006. It generally published three books each month, though this varied over the years. Signet also produced reissues, both of their own previous releases as well as those of other publishers.
Louise Allen is the pseudonym used by Melanie Hilton a British writer of romance novels since 1993, she started writing in collaboration with a friend under the pen name of Francesca Shaw. Her novels The Piratical Miss Ravenhurst in 2011 and Scandal’s Virgin in 2014 won the Love Story of the Year by the Romantic Novelists' Association.
Melinda Hammond is an awarded British writer of romance novels since 1980, she also uses the pseudonym of Sarah Mallory.
Lecia Cornwall is a Canadian author of romantic fiction. Her works have primarily featured the Regency era.
Manda Collins is an author of romance novels. Most of her books are regency romances, but she has also written a contemporary romance novels novella, Legally Yours.
