Mary Saums

Mary Saums grew up in North Alabama. Her earliest memory is of her first trip to the library at age six. Both her mother and the well-meaning librarian refused to let Mary check out the book she wanted -- Madeline with the blue and green watercolor cover showing a rainy Paris and an Eiffel Tower in bold black strokes. Instead they insisted she take a book more suited to her reading level and her interest in music -- a non-fiction book on the life of Mozart. "I've hated that little weenee ever since," said Mary who later became a Debussy aficionado. Fortunately the library incident did not diminish Mary's love of books or music. A student of voice and piano for many years, she performed in countless recitals, the memories of which provide vivid nightmares to this day. After college, she worked in Muscle Shoals, Alabama as a recording engineer on gold and platinum albums by Bob Dylan, Jimmy Buffett, and many other artists. The first of three books in a mystery series, MIDNIGHT HOUR, introduces Willi Taft, a singer and fledgling private eye in Nashville. Mary has a new series set in northwest Alabama near Bankhead National Forest. It features two sixty-ish ladies, one British and one Southern. Their first adventure, THISTLE AND TWIGG, is a nominee for the 2008 SIBA Book Award for Fiction. The second in the series, MIGHTY OLD BONES, is a May 2008 release. Mary currently serves on the national board for Sisters In Crime, a non-profit organization for the advancement of women in mystery fiction, and is also vice-president of the Southeast chapter of Mystery Writers of America. Mary also writes poetry and short fiction. Her poem "The Blues Reminds Me" was chosen by Nikki Giovanni for a Tennessee Writers Alliance Award. Two other poems about the South, "She Haunts In Roses" and "The Price of Cotton" were published in the anthology Southern Voices In Every Direction. Her short story "Ai-yee, Chihuahua!" received an Editor's Choice Award from Futures Magazine as well as their 1999 award for Best Fiction.