MARY JO PUTNEY
 |
When I started reading romance a year ago, one of the first authors I read was Mary Jo Putney. I fell in love with her Fallen Angels series, and had soon collected and read all of them. I wrote to her, telling her how much I loved her heroes because they were such gentlemen. She replied that she couldn't imagine writing about someone she wouldn't want to invite home to dinner. I think that says a lot about Mary Jo's writing. I hope you will enjoy meeting her as much as I have!
Maggie: Please tell us a little about yourself - where you live, your family - anything you'd like to share with us.
Mary Jo: I live near Baltimore, Maryland, in a house with lots of space, books, and flowers. When trying to figure out what happens next in a story, I prowl over to the windows and look out at trees. Very therapeutic. Beyond that - well, like most authors I'm pretty much of an introvert, and prefer that my books talk for me.
Maggie: I read that you have degrees in eighteenth-century literature and industrial design. How did you happen to start writing? Did you start off writing romance?
Mary Jo: I was always an obsessive reader, but thought that becoming a real published writer was so impossible as to be beyond imagining. Then I got a computer to do billing and copywriting for my freelance graphics business, and voila! Word processing got the means of production out of the way, because when you fix errors, they stay fixed. I'd never been a huge romance reader, apart from Georgette Heyer, but I adored Heyer's books and read them many times. So when I started writing, what came out was a Regency romance. Three months later, I was offered a three book Regency contract, and I've never looked back!
Maggie: What was your first published book? How did it feel when you got notification that it was going to be published? Were you surprised or did you expect it?
Mary Jo: THE DIABOLICAL BARON, my first Signet Regency, was just reissued this summer with a nifty new cover, but no rewriting - it's all original, which keeps me humble as I see how much I didn't know then. I sold TDB on a partial manuscript - it was about a third written - and even now, thirteen years later, I haven't gotten over the shock of the book's selling. I was amazed then, and I'm amazed now.
Maggie: Yesterday in the Sunday paper, I saw an ad for the Doubleday Book Club. THE WILD CHILD was one of the selections! Do you feel like you've "arrived" now? Is it special to be in the Doubleday Book Club and be one of the featured selections?
Mary Jo: It's a definite honor to have a book selected for the Doubleday Book Club, because they stick to authors who've achieved a certain level of recognition. My first book to be picked up by them was ONE PERFECT ROSE. Since then, THE RAKE and THE WILD CHILD were also selected. Very gratifying.
Maggie: You've published books as Regencies, single titles, and now your first hardcover, THE WILD CHILD. What's the difference in writing these three different styles of books? Do you have a preference for one over the other? Is one more difficult?
Mary Jo: I started with the traditional Regencies from pure instinct. Because I had a natural Regency "voice," I was able to get away with stories that were in many ways more like historicals. Once I figured that out, I started writing the Regency historicals, which are longer and more intense. That was something of an adjustment. There was no difference in writing THE WILD CHILD, though - putting it in hardcover was a marketing decision and had nothing to do with the content. What was difficult was writing my first contemporary, since that is a different voice from the historicals. My first contemporary, THE BURNING POINT, will be out from Berkley in paperback next May.
Maggie: You said that UNCOMMON VOWS is your version of the "captivity fantasy." Are there other fantasy ideas that have led to others of your books? Where do you get your ideas for storylines?
Mary Jo: UV was a subversion of the captivity fantasy, just as my very first historical, DEARLY BELOVED, was a subversion of the rape fantasy, where rape had very serious repercussions that had to be dealt with for there to be a future for the characters. Most of my books have fantasy components, but that isn't usually where the story starts. Rather, I come up with an intriguing plot set-up, then decide what characters will work best in that situation. Or I have characters that appeared as secondaries in one book, and I have to come up with a plot that will really take advantage of what is special about them.
An example of this was in ONE PERFECT ROSE. The hero, Stephen, was the brother of the hero in SHATTERED RAINBOWS. He was very reserved, but he intrigued me with evidences of more compassion and flexibility than one would expect of a duke. Since he'd had a very repressed life, defined by duty, and finally was at a place where he could have some freedom, it occurred to me to wonder what was the very worst thing I could do to him. The answer was to take away the life that is just opening up before him. Hence, a death and dying romance. Yes, it has a happy ending, but in the course of the book Stephen must face the very real issues anyone faces when death is up close and personal. What does he believe? Who does he care about? What bridges must be built? How should he use the limited time left to him? Powerful stuff - more so than I anticipated when I first came up with the concept.
Maggie: THUNDER AND ROSES was your first Fallen Angel book. When you wrote it, did you know you were going to end up doing a whole series or was that a surprise? Do you have a favorite Fallen Angel?
Mary Jo: I was thinking in terms of a trilogy. *G* I called a halt after seven books because I didn't want the series to get totally out of hand, but I'll be writing future books in the same fictional world, so some of the Fallen Angels characters might appear where they fit. And no, I haven't a favorite. I love all of my characters, and I thought that each story pretty much achieved what I had set out to do for that book.
Maggie: I understand THE WILD CHILD is being called a Fallen Angel book by the publisher, because Kenneth and Rebecca from RIVER OF FIRE appear in it. Did you intend for it to be part of the series? Are there going to be any more books in the series, or will the characters appear in other upcoming novels? Will you write the story of Kyle, the hero's brother in THE WILD CHILD?
Mary Jo: Basically, it was a production error to list THE WILD CHILD as a Fallen Angel book - someone did that because they didn't have another category to put in it. I'm thinking of TWC as the first of a trilogy. The spin-off, THE CHINA BRIDE, about Kyle, has been written and I'm thinking about the third book, but my next project is going to be another contemporary. I hope to continue to write both historicals and contemporaries.
Maggie: One thing I have enjoyed very much in your books is the very real history. In Michael Kenyon's story, SHATTERED RAINBOWS, we learn a lot about Waterloo; in Kenneth's story, RIVER OF FIRE, we learn about the art community in London during the Regency period. Do you spend a lot of time doing research? Where do you get your information?
Mary Jo: Yes, I do a lot of research, because history can add such depth and power to a story, not to mention giving a writer plot ideas. The trick is not to let the history overwhelm the romance, since that must stay at the center of the story. Most of my research is through books - by this time, I have a substantial research library, and I add new sections with every new project. The Internet is wonderfully useful, both for information and for searching out of print books. Plus, if there is some element of a story with contemporary applications, I may interview people. For example, a friend of mine who has done a lot of painting discussed that with me. Or when I wrote SILK AND SECRETS, I talked with a fascinating Afghani and his American wife. There is no substitute for first hand experience - or at least, talking with someone who has first-hand experience!
Maggie: THE WILD CHILD has a very unusual heroine. Ever since a terrible incident in childhood, Meriel has been mute and considered insane. Where did Meriel's character come from? What gave you the idea?
Mary Jo: She'd been drifting through my mind for years. Unspeaking, silvery-haired, and fey, I called her the Garden Lady since I didn't know her name. I only knew that she lived for and in her garden, and that she was neither mute nor mad, though she was considered so by others. When the Garden Lady intersected my concept for Estranged Male Twins, THE WILD CHILD was born.
Maggie: In THE WILD CHILD, we also meet a woman who has been committed to a mental institution by her husband to get her out of the way. Was this a common practice? What did you find out in your research of this difficult subject?
Mary Jo: I don't think it was common, but it certainly happened. I got a lot of my information from a book called WOMEN OF THE ASYLUM, by Jeffrey L. Geller and Maxine Harris. It had a lot of history, along with first-person accounts of women who had been institutionalized.
Maggie: You've reformed at least two villains now, Reggie Davenport who originally appeared in THE DIABOLICAL BARON, and Lord Michael Kenyon who originally appeared in THUNDER AND ROSES. Did you plan to redeem them when you initially wrote their characters? Is it fun to redeem villains or is it difficult?
Mary Jo: I knew all along that Michael would have his own book, but Reggie wasn't planned. I mean, he showed up in my first book, what did I know? Actually, redeeming bad boys is easy and great fun. Just about everyone enjoys seeing them transformed by love.
Maggie: You've now rewritten at least two books - THE RAKE AND THE REFORMER has become THE RAKE and THE WOULD-BE WIDOW has become THE BARGAIN. Do you enjoy rewriting stories? Have they been well-received by the reading public?
Mary Jo: Also rewritten were THE CONTROVERSIAL COUNTESS, which became PETALS IN THE STORM, and THE ROGUE AND THE RUNAWAY, which became ANGEL ROGUE. Rewriting is a special challenge, and quite tricky. I try to maintain the sense of the story rather than add elements that weren't in the original, while at the same time improving the writing, making the voice more historical and less Regency, and increasing the depth and complexity. It's fun revisiting the characters, but not easy.
THE RAKE was the simplest, because the original story was already historical length, and worked very well as it was. I buffed and polished, weighing every word, and it's actually 4000 words shorter than the original. On the other hand, redoing THE WOULD-BE WIDOW into THE BARGAIN was an immense amount of work, because it was such an early book that the writing needed a lot of polishing. For the first third, it was getting shorter, not longer! But it's worth doing the rewriting because so many of my current readers didn't discover my books until I started on historicals, and those early Regencies are almost impossible to find. By rewriting, I make the stories available to a much larger audience, and also try to make them stronger and more like what I'm doing now. Since the publisher wants to put them out anyhow, it's in everyone's best interest that the books be as good as I know how to make them. People seem to enjoy the rewrites - they've all had much larger print runs than the originals, and have sold many more copies. The exception to the rewriting rule was THE DIABOLICAL BARON. To me, it was just too Regency to make a real historical, so I asked them to reissue it in the original form. It was published in a much smaller way than THE BARGAIN.
Maggie: Your books won some awards recently! Please tell us about them.
Mary Jo: Hmm, not sure what that would be. I'd won the last Romantic Times Career Achievement for Historical Romance award, but hadn't collected it since I didn't go to that conference, so they gave me the trophy in September in Toronto. Very gratifying, but not exactly a new award.
Maggie: What's it like attending those huge booksignings? Is it fun? Overwhelming? How do you keep your balance with all those readers gushing over your work? What's the funniest thing that ever happened to you at a booksigning?
Mary Jo: The advantage of the huge booksignings is that you can always talk to other writers when things get slow. They're fun because they draw so many serious readers who really know and love romance. As to "readers gushing over my work" - it's a nice counterbalance to all of the days when I feel as if the current book is going to end my career forever! I can't think of any one especially funny book signing incident, but it certainly pays to keep one's sense of humor up and one's expectations down.
Maggie: You met Donna and Judy at CR!99. (Give us all the dirt about them! Did they behave themselves?? VBG!) Do you have plans to attend any of the big conventions in 2000? (Hint: CR!00 is going to be in Seattle, where I live, and I would just love to meet you!)
Mary Jo: They behaved themselves as well as can be expected at a convention hundreds of miles from home. VBG! I usually do several conferences a year, but I don't think CR!00 will be one of them. Though I adore Seattle, it's a long, long way from Maryland, and with two publishers, I'm not being allowed out of my cage very often! I will undoubtedly be at the RWA conference in Washington, DC, though, since it's just down the road. They always have a huge booksigning for literacy. Apart from that - not sure!
Maggie: What's coming up next? Will you be publishing more hardcovers? Any thoughts on writing a contemporary?
Mary Jo: THE CHINA BRIDE will be in hardcover in August 2000, a month after THE WILD CHILD is released in paperback. As I said above, my first contemporary, THE BURNING POINT, will be out in May 2000. It will be in paperback, but the current plan is for my second Berkley book to be in hardcover. We'll see. These things change.
Maggie: Is there anything else you'd like to share with us?
Mary Jo: Nothing, except that I sure enjoyed CR!99! Happy reading!
Thank you, Mary Jo, for taking the time to chat with us. We look forward to your new books.
Mary Jo's Website
Return to the
Index of Author Interviews.
Copyright � RBL Romantica!
All rights reserved.
Reproducing material from this site without permission is prohibited.
