Mary Jo Putney: Divine intervention? Everything fell into place quickly. I was fortunate to get feedback from a published romance writer. She suggested an agent who took me on (I still have that agent), and the agent sold my partial manuscript immediately. I'm still amazed when I think of this. Luckily I had a natural Regency voice and good storytelling instincts, and they covered up my writing deficiencies.

But I've spent a huge amount of blood, sweat, and tears since then learning how to write better. (I should also point out that in 1986, the market was more open than it is now; I could never have done this if I was starting out today.)

Crescent Blues: Did you sell based on a proposal or a completed manuscript?

Crescent Blues: What role (if any) did critique groups, fellow writers, writers groups, etc., play in this process?

Mary Jo Putney: I've never been in a formal critique group, but I do like to exchange manuscripts with a friend whose judgment I value. I do the same for her, so we both benefit by the arrangement. I'm also a member of several chapters of Romance Writers of America (RWA), as well as Novelists, Inc., and the Author's Guild. As you can tell, I like writing groups -- no one else will understand the whining better. [Grins.]

Crescent Blues: Did any of these groups become more or less importance as you grew into your new career? (I noticed that one Washington Romance Writers member created and manages your Web site, and you dedicated River of Fire to another, so I couldn't help wondering what role WRW plays in your personal support system.)

Mary Jo Putney: Certainly I have many friends in WRW, but my home group is actually the Maryland Romance Writers chapter, which is around Baltimore and north. I learned a tremendous amount about the business from the more experienced members when I joined. RWA members in general are terrific, warm, supportive people.

Crescent Blues: Do you feel your experience as the editor of a British art magazine gives you an edge in understanding editorial requirements?

Mary Jo Putney: Actually, I was the art editor, and it was a political magazine devoted to Third World development. It was called The New Internationalist. This was the Seventies, and it was a great, funky group of idealistic young people. The experience was wonderful, but I didn't learn a darned thing about writing or editing. [Grins.]

Crescent Blues: How did you convince your editor to trust a relative novice with such explosive subject matter (Dearly Beloved) so early in your novel writing career?

Mary Jo Putney: With Dearly Beloved, I was fortunate to have an editor who would allow any story that her writers could make work. (Bear in mind that she'd already accepted a book with an alcoholic hero.) Also, because I was changing genres with Dearly Beloved and The Burning Point, I completed the books before selling them so I could demonstrate how I handled the material. (These two are the only times I finished a manuscript before selling.)

Crescent Blues: What prompted you to later go back to some of your first published novels and expand them?

Mary Jo Putney: They were published as Regencies, and that's a somewhat different market from historicals. Since the publisher would have re-released them anyhow, it seemed in everyone's best interests if the stories would satisfy my historical readers, which meant revising them to suit historical expectations. The one book I didn't do that with was my first, The Diabolical Baron. The story seemed too inherently Regency to successfully become a historical, so Signet re-released it the original form. But most of my other Regencies had plots that could work in historicals, so it made sense to expand and polish the stories. I didn't want readers disappointed.

Crescent Blues: What were the greatest challenges and rewards of this project?

Mary Jo Putney: In some ways this was easier than doing a book from scratch because the general plots and psychological lines had already been laid down. In other ways, it was more difficult because the stories already existed in my mind and had to be rethought. Plus, the job of polishing the language was very slow and became progressively more difficult the earlier I went into my backlist. However, I enjoyed revisiting the characters, and it was very satisfying to know that the stories would reach much larger audiences in historical from.

Crescent Blues: Are you satisfied with your later works, or do you have the itch to revisit them too?

Mary Jo Putney: One can always fiddle, but basically the stories all hit the notes I had in mind when I started. I wouldn't have turned them in otherwise!

Crescent Blues: Could you tell us a little bit about your current projects?

Mary Jo Putney: In June I finished The Bartered Bride, a spin-off of The China Bride. It will be out in hardcover next summer. Now I'm starting my third contemporary romance.

Crescent Blues: Will your next book be historical or contemporary?

Mary Jo Putney: My two releases this year are historical reprints: The China Bride from Ballantine in August, plus Silk and Secrets is being reissued by Signet in November. (The third book of the Silk trilogy, Veils of Silk, will be reissued in 2002.) My next contemporary is The Spiral Path, and it will be out in January 2002.

Crescent Blues: Do you plan to continue to write both contemporaries and historicals, or do you foresee your writing developing along a different path entirely? What kind of books do you expect to be writing in five years?

Mary Jo Putney: For the time being I intend to continue with both [contemporaries and historicals], alternating them. I have no idea what I'll be doing in five years, except that it will be romantic stories with strong relationships.

Crescent Blues: Of all your novels to date, River of Fire, seems to make the most use of your background in art and design. Is there a particular reason why readers don't meet more artists in your work?

Mary Jo Putney: I put artists in a couple of my novellas, but I didn't want to do a full-length art book until I had the right story. River of Fire is my creative process historical, while The Spiral Path is my contemporary book about creative process, only the creative form in the latter is movie making instead of painting.

Crescent Blues: How do you feel your academic and professional background shapes your writing?

Mary Jo Putney: Everything a writer has ever done goes into shaping her writing. The subjects that interested me in my pre-writing days interest me still, and show up in the books. I think that writers tend to be very curious, so that's a pretty broad range of interests.

Crescent Blues: The prose of your historical romances never sounds anachronistic, yet the cadences don't sound stilted or forced. How do you achieve this balance? (Is it in any way related to your degree in 18th century English literature?)

Mary Jo Putney: This is an example of consistency in interests. As I said above, I have a natural Regency writing voice, and surely that is related to the fact that the 18th century was my favorite era of British literature. (I include Jane Austen in that; though she wrote into the 19th century, her sensibility is very different from the Victorian writers who came later.) The further I get from that Regency voice, the harder I have to work. What can I say? I love compound sentences and polysyllables. [Grins.]

Crescent Blues: Do you have any particular rituals you like to follow when you write or in your preparations to write (e.g., research)?

Mary Jo Putney: Well, I can waste a lot of time before I settle down to work. [Grins.] As to research, there is a certain critical mass that I have to know before I can write the story, so a major research phase precedes the start of each book. Research also gives me ideas that I'd never come up with on my own.

Crescent Blues: Is there a specific season you find particularly conducive to writing?

Mary Jo Putney: January through March are nice. The world is quiet and cold and people leave you alone so you can get on with your work.

Crescent Blues: What writers and artists most influenced you when you were growing up?

Mary Jo Putney: Among writers, the most influential were Mary Stewart, Dorothy Dunnett and Georgette Heyer.

Crescent Blues: How has that list changed over the years?

Mary Jo Putney: I read all kinds of things, but those original influences are part of me, so the list doesn't change.

Crescent Blues: What type of art do you find most satisfying or inspiring?

Mary Jo Putney: I have a real weakness for Pre-Raphaelite painters. I also like the objects of everyday life that are found in museums like London's Victoria and Albert: fabrics, costume, furniture, tools. Plus, I love music and always have it playing softly in the background when I write. No vocal music, though. It's too distracting.

Crescent Blues: Do you paint?

Mary Jo Putney: No, I have no talent for that kind of creativity. I was always more of a designer than an artist -- and interestingly, the process of design is not unlike that of creating a story that works. Both involved creating a balanced -- well, integrated whole that looks so right that one can't imagine it being any other way.

Crescent Blues: For most of us, an artistic inclination is a lifetime itch. How do you feed your graphics itch while working as a full-time novelist?

Mary Jo Putney: The designer sensibility is part of me and my world view, but I have absolutely no desire to work in graphics again. Been there, done that, but I do like having lovely, well-designed things around me. Things like flowers and Oriental carpets and antiques take care of my visual needs.

Crescent Blues: Any question you'd particularly like to answer that I neglected to ask? Soap boxes provided free of charge.

Mary Jo Putney: Nope. I've said more than enough!

Click here to learn more about Mary Jo Putney.

Jean Marie Ward

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