About the Author

Mary Jo Campbell is married to her charming cowboy and together they are raising two bright, funny, rowdy, sweet, curious little boys, without too many trips to the ER.

Mary Jo has been a writer since her 3rd grade teacher, Sister Mary Donald, weaved the love of words into her being. Sentence diagrams, Haiku poetry and short stories formed from the spelling word list were all exciting and tentative attempts at being a “real writer.”

She is a former student of the Creative Writing courses of Morton College, Cicero, IL; College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, IL; Columbia College Chicago; Institute of Children’s Literature (correspondence school); and Christina Katz’s Writing and Publishing the Short Stuff.

She is a current student of life, living her passion for writing by participating in local groups and international volunteer organizations:

Mary Jo is a member of the Downers Grove Public Library Writers’ Group.  She is the Secretary and an Executive Board Member of the Capitol City Young Writers, an international non-profit organization.  She is  founder of the first Young Writers’ Group at the Downers Grove Public Library, now being held at the Bolingbrook Promenade Barnes & Noble Booksellers once a month.  Mary Jo appeared in The Downers Grove Reporter (March 25, 2009 issue)  for her work with young writers in the community.

She founded and taught the first Young Writers’ Summer Studio in August 2009 and continues to teach 5-week creative writing workshops for young writers through FRoG (Friends of the Gifted and Talented) in the fall and winter. And was the key note speaker for Chick Chat to a group of 130 young girls of HGNA (HelpingGirlsNavigateAdolescence) in March 2009.

Check out the Events Page on writelikeCRAZY.wordpress.com for her schedule.

Mary Jo recently won First Place in the 100 Words or Fewer Fiction Writing Contest, which was quite a feat for this long-winded writer (she blames her Italian background for her gift of gab!) Her writing portfolio also includes articles and/or fiction published in Underwired, coloredchalk.com, WritingKid, MOMSense Magazine and Simple Joyand all of the author interviews published on this blog.

Her goals include: being an inspiration in the writing community; helping young writers find their voice; continuing to publish articles and short stories until her first novel is complete, then of course rise to the top of the New York Times’ Best Sellers list and live the American Dream!

Realistically, she hopes to grow as a writer as she helps others grow, always have a hand around a good cup of coffee and be in the presence of loved ones.

Post a comment here or email her at: mjcwriter@comcast.net