Mary Widdicks

Author of the Mermaid Asylum series: A Mutual Addiction, Folie a Deux, and A Sole Redemption.

Mary Widdicks was born and raised near Portland, Oregon, and so far all of her books have been set in the Pacific Northwest. They say to write about what you know, and apparently Mary is an expert in anti-heroes, aphantasia, and avicide. (It's a word. Look it up!) Not to mention gratuitous alliteration.

At the moment, however, she live in central Illinois where the tallest things for miles are cows, corn, and the tales people have to make up to convince anyone to live here in the winter.

Mary shares a perpetually shrinking house with her three growing kids, two dogs who refuse to urinate outside, and two bat-shit-crazy cats, aptly named Jinx and Cressida, who insist on staring at her at all times. (It gets old really fast.)

She is a former cognitive psychologist (which basically means she paid a lot of money for a degree she’s never used), a freelance writer (It still amazes her that anyone outside her family cares what she think about anything), and newly-minted suspense novelist.

Mary is a firm believer in strong, twisted female characters and unhappy endings. She also refuse to write a "good" sex scene. So if that's your jam, this is probably going to be a little uncomfortable (much like the sex in her books). She is also an avid purveyor of a well-timed "that's what she said" joke.

Mary’s internet search history is definitely not safe for the faint of heart...or the government.

She has also appeared on several radio programs discussing everything from the psychology of parenting to the fallibility of science.

Turns out, Mary does not perform well at 5:30am.

Follow her at: http://marywiddicks.com or on Twitter @MaryWiddicks