Spotlight: Mary Monroe

Mary Monroe is the third child of Alabama sharecroppers and the first and only member of her family to finish high school. She did not attend college or any writing classes, but taught herself how to write and started writing short stories around the age of four. She spent the first part of her life in Alabama and Ohio, and moved to Richmond, California, in 1973. She has lived in Oakland since 1984.

Her first novel, The Upper Room, was published by St. Martin’s Press in 1985, and was widely reviewed throughout the U.S. and in Great Britain. She endured fifteen years and hundreds of rejection letters before she landed a contract for her second novel, God Don’t Like Ugly. It was published in October 2000, by Kensington Books. God Don’t Play was her seventh novel to be published, and it landed her a spot on the prestigious New York Times bestsellers list for the first time!

Mary is divorced, loves to travel, loves to mingle with other authors, and she’ll read anything by Ernest Gaines, Stephen King, Alice Walker, and James Patterson. She still writes seven days a week and gets most of her ideas from current events, and the people around her, but most of her material is autobiographical.

New York Times Bestselling author Mary Monroe created fabulous books such as: God Don’t Make No Mistakes, Mama Ruby, The Upper Room and the God Don’t Like Ugly series for readers with a sense of humor and adventure. When The Upper Room was published, Monroe had this to say: “This is my story — these characters are people I know, it’s my life!”

Meet author Mary Monroe as she travels across the nation discussing Mama Ruby and her literary journey. View more book details and her tour schedule at her website: http://www.marymonroe.org

Join Author Mary Monroe on Twitter: @marymonroebooks

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