Media Information

About Mary Beth Magee

Author/speaker/trainer Mary Beth Magee was born and reared in New Orleans, LA, a natural-born ‘YAT. Like so many of the locations of her youth, Mary Beth “ain’t dere no more.” She currently resides in southern Mississippi.

As the daughter of a father from Mississippi and a mother from New Orleans, she grew up spending time in both worlds, and enjoys the country life as well as city life. Time spent in Texas, Illinois and California helped to give her perspective on a wider world and she loves to travel.

Over the years, she’s held a wide variety of jobs. Somehow she always seems to arrive at a point of teaching others, a position she thoroughly enjoys. Mary Beth has worked as a long distance and mobile/marine operator for the telephone company (in the pre-cell phone days when you actually needed an operator); in retail sales in several types of establishments; in a department store credit office; as an office manager; a REALTOR®; as a stand-up trainer and online trainer. Her time spent in home health care prepared her for the tasks of caring for her grandmother and parents in their last years. All of these careers can turn up in her writing at any time.

Mary Beth began writing as a child and hasn’t stopped since. Her first published work came about as a book review for the children’s page of the local newspaper. Once she discovered that she could get books for writing about books, her course was set.

As a staff member of her high school newspaper, Mary Beth fell in love with writing features rather than hard news. From there, she started writing for Christian and regional magazines. Her work has appeared in such venues as Real Estate Today, Illinois REALTOR® and DuPage REALTOR®. As publicity chair for several organizations over the years, she’s written press releases for newspapers and magazines across the country. Her career included writing features for several internet sites over the years, including Gather.com, Yahoo Voices, Demand Studios and Examiner.com.

Throughout the years, her mother (her biggest cheerleader) urged her to write a book. Although she had contributed to several anthologies, she hadn’t written a complete book on her own. That changed shortly after her mother’s death. Her debut novel, Death in the Daylilies, finally put her name on the binding of a book.

The cozy mystery introduced the fictional Pearl River County, MS town of Cypress Point and protagonists Mercy Bellini McKay, her sister Hope Bellini Appleton and their friend Susannah Greenley Bowles. The three ladies returned for Ambush at the Arboretum and the current work in progress, Blood on the Bottletree. They are among the Cypress Point citizens who show up in the short stories of Mary Beth’s Cypress Point Chronicles, collections of stories written over the years. Some have accompanied newsletters while others are originals written especially for the anthologies.

She has made two appearances in the Chicken Soup for the Soul™ series, with a third to come in early 2020.

Mary Beth is also an award winning poet, with appearances in national and state level anthologies as well as collections of her own. Devotions form a large part of her writing, with articles in several magazines and anthologies, as well as two volumes of her own. Children’s books have joined her book list and led to her involvement in several library reading programs, where she shares her characters with young readers. In season, she appears as Mrs. Claus to read to them.

As a member of the Poplarville Storytellers Guild, she shares stories from her ancestors as well as her own adventures at two annual events. The Blueberry Jubilee in Poplarville features storytelling sessions by the Guild over a two day event in July. November brings participation in TellABration, the international day of storytelling. She is honored to be a part of both, as well as a solo storyteller at various venues throughout the year.

Most recently, she has partnered with puppeteer Laura Anne Ewald to produce The Everyman Puppet Theatre. Mary Beth narrates the stories while Laura operates the puppets. In the tradition of the medieval Everyman Theatre, the duo deliver morality plays adapted from such sources as Aesop’s Fables, and original stories written by one or both of them. Their offerings include puppetry workshops for all ages. Books based on some of their plays are available.

When she isn’t running around with her writing and storytelling, Mary Beth loves to spend time with her family. She has one handsome son of her own, a beautiful daughter-in-law and fabulous granddaughter. Her siblings include a brother and three sisters and beaucoup cousins. In addition, she has extended “adopted” family all over the country. She loves them all!

Her hobbies include reading (of course!), crochet, crafts, making jewelry, sewing and gardening. She soon plans to take up time travel so she can find time to indulge in them.

Contact her at: MaryBethMageeWrites@gmail.com

Connect with her on Facebook: MaryBethMageeWrites