by Mary Jo I'm getting into Deep Writing Mode to try to finish the current book, which is waaaay behind. So instead of writing a new blog, I decided to exercise Wench privilege by pulling out an old blog and buffing it up. This blog dates back to the earliest days of the Word Wenches and was inspired by a regular reader who asked me when I knew I was meant to be a writer and suggested that it was a question worth blogging. I agreed that the question is an intriguing one, but I’ll bet that others have a... Continue reading

by Mary Jo I've promised that audiobooks of my Silk Trilogy were on the way, and now the first, Silk and Shadows, is available with Silk and Secrets and Veils of Silk on the way. Once more the wonderful Siobhan Waring is the narrator, as she has been for all my audio releases for more than a year. I think of Silk and Shadows as my Count of Monte Cristo story. The first sentence of the book is, "He called himself Peregrine, the Wanderer, and he came to London for revenge." Here's the blurb: Like the falcon he named himself... Continue reading

By Mary Jo In a summer where most of us have not been getting out as much as usual, I decided it would be fun to dig out older movies we've enjoyed watching on Saturday nights. In the nature of things, many have had historical setting because, not surprisingly I like historical movies. (Most of what we've seen has been DVDs, which I consider a more reliable technology than streaming, which is fine when it works--until it doesn't.) So the first we watched was The Scarlet Pimpernel, a great romantic adventure story. It's been filmed several times, but the version... Continue reading

by Mary Jo I've just released Carousel of Hearts , the second in my Putney's Classics series. Carousel was published as a sweet Signet Regency and is one of my three early books that really couldn't be revised into historical romance because the tone is light and the sensuality is muted. The story has four main characters and there is much love and much confusion. Here's the blurb: Love is in the air, but where is Cupid aiming his darts? Spirited and beautiful, Antonia Thornton is a baroness in her own right and her companion and best friend is Judith... Continue reading

by Mary Jo I'm happy to welcome Maggie Robinson back to the Word Wenches! Today's blog is not a suggested mental exercise, but the title of her new book, Just Make Believe, third in her delightful Lady Adelaide historical mystery series. I've been hooked since she mentioned the first Lady Adelaide story to me: Nobody's Sweetheart Now. Set in the 1920s, the series features Lady Adelaide, the wealthy widow of a philandering war hero, a handsome Detective Inspector who is a half Indian--and Rupert, ghost of Addie's late husband who is trying to work his way into heaven by doing... Continue reading

by Mary Jo This blog is a revision of one I wrote after watching the presidential inauguration in January 2009. More about that later, but what got me thinking about anthems was an issue that is very much in play in Maryland, namely, a movement to toss out the current state song, "Maryland, My Maryland." Now this is not a subject I've thought about much . I'm more interested in the official Maryland cake, the multilayer Smith Island Cake cake, which is tasty and decadent. Or the Maryland state cat, which shares the orange, black, and white colors of the... Continue reading

The Return of The Diabolical Baron! by Mary Jo I've been slowly reissuing my older books digitally, and now the time has arrived to send my very first Signet Regency, The Diabolical Baron, back into the world. It's the first in my Putney Classics Series, which will include Carousel of Hearts and Lady of Fortune. Back when I was writing my Fallen Angels Series, my publisher asked me to revise several of my early Signet Regencies into historical romances. I was happy to do that with some of the stories that became Petals in the Storm, Angel Rogue, The Bargain,... Continue reading

Three Good Things by Mary Jo This is a revised version of a blog I did way back in 2006, the first year of the Word Wenches. It's been a lot of years, but the same ideas are still worthwhile. I think the transitions seasons of spring and autumn are the loveliest of the year. In the northern hemisphere we have spring and lush richness of new life. In the southern hemisphere it's autumn, with the last nostalgic flare of beauty before sliding into winter. But now we're dealing with the challenges of a pandemic, and a lot of stress... Continue reading

Interviewed by Mary Jo Marry in Scarlet, the long awaited final book in Anne Gracie's Marriage of Convenience Series, has arrived, and it's great. As Publishers Weekly says in its review, "George is an admirable heroine and the chemistry between her and Hart is magnetic." Lady Georgiana, the wild child niece of the Rutherford clan, has come to value the family she didn't know she had, but she still prefers to be called George and likes her giant wolfhound, Finn, and her magnificent stallion Sultan more than most humans. She also has no desire to lose her independence by marrying,... Continue reading

Compiled by Mary Jo This year, we're holding a ball! Each Wench will bring one of her favorite heroes. (Not the favorite, because how can one choose just one from among so many fabulous men? <G>) I'm wearing the burgundy velvet gown I was married in, but I'm not the star of this occasion! That would be Lord Ross Carlisle, hero of one of my earlier books, Silk and Secrets, second in my Silk Trilogy. Though by nature he's rather reserved and scholarly, he's also deeply interested in all kinds of people and distant places. Which is why he became... Continue reading

by Mary Jo Audiobooks, like so many elements of publishing (and the world in general) have changed greatly in recent years. Once upon a time, only huge bestselling mainstream books had audio editions. They were really expensive and libraries were the primary market. (In those days a lot of audiobooks were on cassettes! Remember them? <G>) But there was interest in audio, so gradually more genre books like romance began to be recorded. My first audiobook was The Wild Child, which came out in 1999. I was so excited--I felt that I had arrived! I don't know if at that... Continue reading

by Mary Jo I've always been intrigued by spices, so much so that I wrote a blog about them years ago, and liked it so much that years later I posted it again while under deadline. <G> So naturally I read an article on black pepper when browsing an issue of Cook's Illustrated, a publication of America's Test Kitchen. Even though I learned a lot about cooking by working my way through recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking when I lived in England, I don't do a lot of cooking these days, but I do like... Continue reading

Mary Jo I'm happy to announce the first ever digital release of my novella, The Dragon and the Dark Knight! I've written a number of novellas and shorter works because they're an enjoyable change of pace and give me the chance to go to new and different places. They can also be quirkier or more humorous than full length novels. In short--fun! The Dragon and the Dark Lord was originally published as a longish novella in the Dragon Lovers anthology with Jo Beverley, Barbara Samuel, Karen Harbaugh, and me. The four of us were friends and enjoyed working together, and... Continue reading

by Mary Jo Audiobooks! Those of you who have been following me here know that I've had a slow but ongoing program to get more of my stories into audio format. The main reason is because a fair number of people really like audio books. They're great for those with commutes, or who want the distraction of stories while gardening or doing housework or other mundane tasks. They're also a real boon for those with vision problems. (My mother listened to a lot of audiobooks from the National Library of the Blind in her later years.) Audio Page: A new... Continue reading

by Mary Jo Authors love hanging out with each other, interacting with readers, and writing about delicious bits of research. (Especially historical writers on the research!) But sometimes an author becomes too busy to include regular blogging in her life. Such is the case for Susanna Kearsley, who is bowing out with mutual regrets all around. To say farewell, we're sharing some memories of her and her books. The picture above is a record-setting five Wenches together in Real Life at last summer's RWA conference in New York. From left to right: Anne Gracie, Mary Jo Putney, Andrea Penrose, Susanna... Continue reading

By Mary Jo The idea for this post came from chatting on our private loop about jewelry with special meaning for us, and it sounded like a fun blog topic. Personally, I've never been particularly interested in classic jewelry like diamonds and strings of pearls. I like bright shinys, but the jewelry that interests me most is usually old or ethnic or funky--and the pieces generally come with stories. I've always loved interwining lines of Celtic art and Viking (and Arabic) art, in illuminated manuscripts or stone memorial crosses or jewelry. I have a number of Celtic pins like the... Continue reading

by Mary Jo Occasionally I've been asked who I might like to collaborate with to write a book. My answer is more or less "That will happen over my dead body!" It's my book. MINE!!! Yet though writing is justly known as a solitary pursuit, that doesn't mean that writers don't like talking with other writers, and that we can find ways of benefiting from such interactions. I'm part of an online book club of long time authors. We all started in romance, and some have gone in different directions such as mystery, women's fiction, and paranormal. But we're all... Continue reading

by Mary Jo In the depths of winter, it's pleasant to take a vacation in sunnier climes, and the Caribbean isn't all of that far away from Maryland. This year we decided to sail the Spanish Main on Windstar's Star Pride, a small ship holding about two hundred passengers . We started with a two day pre-cruise extension in Panama City, which was founded in 1519 and was the headquarters for Spain's conquest of Peru. It's at the Pacific end of the Panama Canal, which is one of the great engineering feats of history. Here's a picture of a ship... Continue reading

By Mary Jo A year and a half ago we took a lovely little New England cruise (here's the link to my blog about it), and our first stop was at New Bedford, Massachusetts. We were told not to miss the New Bedford Whaling Museum. (I assume that's a squid on the museum entrance!) Being a 21st female with a conservationist bent, I was somewhat dubious about a museum dedicated to killing whales, but in fact, it was fascinating. New Bedford was the whaling capital of the world back in the 19th century, and now it's one of America's top... Continue reading

by Mary Jo Cats of 2019 Anyone who has read many of my stories is probably not surprised when a cat wanders through the pages, much as they wander through real life. It's worth noting that while my characters are fictional (apart from cameos of real historical figures), my cats are just about always real cats, often but not always mine. (That's my Panda on the left.) Since I finished the Book That Ate My Life just before Christmas, I've been in a light-minded mode, which is why I got the idea of talking about the cats that have appeared... Continue reading