M. Kate Quinn
Born to a feisty Italian mother and a gentle blue-eyed Irishman, I was given the name “Marykate,” inspired by Maureen O’Hara’s character in the movie, The Quiet Man, an old-time favorite love story that co-starred John Wayne. With a grandmother Catherine and an Aunt Mary the name was an obvious choice.
I've been writing stories all my life. There's an old Macy’s box in my attic filled with my writings from childhood, now smudgy-looking pages produced on my portable Olivetti Underwood typewriter, an eighth-grade gift from my Grandmother Catherine.
Always a writer, my career began a million years ago when my kids were babies. I sold greeting card ideas to a card publisher in Ohio. My first payment for words I'd written was $60 and it felt like a million. Life got crazy with family needs and the day job and my writing aspirations stalled.
Then one day I entered a writing contest where I was named First Place Winner for a short story sponsored by Reader’s Digest Magazine.. That win with a whopping prize of $100 put me on the path to taking seriously my writing talent. A die-hard romantic, I always wanted to write love stories. My first book, Summer Iris, was published in 2010 and since then I have released 9 books with book 10 due to hit the shelves soon.
My husband and I are our own love story. We are a second marriage with a total of six children. We have two granddaughters and one grandson who are our delights. We live in Central New Jersey where we enjoy big, raucous gathering with our tribe and we eat and drink and play intense competitions like corn hole and the like.
Thank you for stopping by!!