Thrilled that actress, director and retired Founder of Steel Beam Theater, Chicago, Donna Steele, is producing a new musical, based on my third novel, Saluting the Sun, at The Edge Theater at 5451 Broadway in Chicago from November 24 to December 3. Vocal artist and voice/drama teacher Amy Steele composed the music. I understand they...Read More

Congratulations to David Robson of Robson Design and Susie Isaacs of publisher Ampersand, Inc., on Third Place in the Colorado Independent Press Association’s EVVY  Awards for Best Cover.  One for the Ark was the only fiction cover to place in this category in this twenty-five year old contest. David also designed the cover of Saluting...Read More

Three for three! Happy to announce that One for the Ark is a 2016 national #ForewordINDIES Book of the Year Awards Finalist in General Fiction. Warming Up was a finalist in 2013 and Saluting the Sun in 2015. Big winner to be announced June 24 at the American Library Association in Chicago. Hope springs eternal! ...Read More

What’s in a name? This is the 25th anniversary of the restoration of the name of Russia’s second-largest city, St. Petersburg, founded by Peter the Great in 1703.   For 67 years, the city was known as Leningrad in honor of the founder of the Soviet Union, Vladimir I. Lenin. At the beginning of WWI the...Read More

We’re a few months away from the publication of my fourth novel, ONE FOR THE ARK. I won’t use “fourth” as a segue here (that would be cheesy), but I will take this opportunity to be grateful for freedom of the press, freedom of speech and freedom of religion, all of which come into play...Read More

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE who voted for SALUTING THE SUN for Readers Choice. We had more than 80 votes, the most in my category I think (General Fiction). The winner was in the Literary Fiction category, a novel by a professor at Gonzaga, with a whopping 466 votes. The “judged” part of the contest will...Read More

Please vote for SALUTING THE SUN for the Foreword Reviews’ IndieFabFave Readers Choice Award. This is a separate award from the Book of the Year, for which STS is a national finalist. Here’s what you can do to help me when this portion of the contest:   Go to the 2015 IndieFab Foreword Reviews Finalists...Read More

 Foreword Reviews just named SALUTING THE SUN one of 16 finalists for their INDIEFAB Book of the Year Awards. (Winner announced in June.) A total of 1500 entrants, so pretty cool. If you haven’t read WARMING UP or SALUTING THE SUN, now would be a great time to read and to post a review!! Both are...Read More

The Judge in the Writers Digest Self-Published Book Contest had this to say about SALUTING THE SUN.  Very nice review; unfortunately, we didn’t place in the top ten. “Mary Hutchings Reed’s SALUTING THE SUN’s best feature is that it has two compelling women at its center: the cousins Dawn Ann McKnight, a Chicago weather forecaster,...Read More

  Happy to report the US Review of Books RECOMMENDS Saluting the Sun in its review.  RECOMMENDED is given to 10 to 20% of  the titles it reviews, and means the reviewer thinks it’s a “compelling and lasting read.” If you are looking for a lovely Christmas present, you can buy a copy of WARMING UP...Read More