I'm an Army brat who has lived in Virginia most of my adult life. I received my BA and MA in history from the College of William and Mary and taught American history and museum studies at Virginia Commonwealth University for thirteen years. I am the author of 200 magazine articles, most on history, travel, and business topics, and a dozen nonfiction books. The Impersonator (2013) was my first foray into fiction--and it won the national Mystery Writers of America award for Best First Crime Novel! Three others in the series followed: Silent Murders (2014), Renting Silence (2016), and Murder in Disguise (2017). More recently, my new Roaring Twenties series debuted in the U.S. in 2021. The Mystic's Accomplice is set in Chicago and features violent gangsters, fraudulent Spiritualists, and a single mom with a new baby. Its sequel, Spirits and Smoke, was released early in 2022 and the third, Deadly Spirits, came nine months later, like a new baby! For me, the Roaring Twenties is the America's most fascinating decade and the perfect setting for both my mystery series.

When I'm not writing or plotting, I spend a good deal of time at Valley Road Vineyards in Afton, VA, a winery that my husband and I own with 4 other couples. Last year we planted another 6 1/2 acres of vines and introduced several new wines--my favorite is the viognier. Already this year I've spent 3 days on the bottling assembly line, doing strenuous intellectual work like loading full bottles into cases and standing on a ladder to feed corks into the hopper. Visit us at Valley Road there in person or at www.valleyroadwines.com.

I was always good at Show and Tell. It was my best subject in elementary school, and I managed to continue the practice through junior high and high school by bringing stuff to my history classes, things like my grandfather's old Army helmet when we studied the Battle of the Bulge and my family's letters from Helen Keller when we studied her life.

I can't stop. After years working at Colonial Williamsburg making eighteenth-century history come alive through antiques and other objects, I spent 13 years teaching American history and museum studies at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, still schlepping stuff into every class: antiques and reproductions, song recordings, period foods, whatever would capture the students' attention and jolt them awake at 8AM.

So now I'm a writer with 15 nonfiction books and 200 magazine articles (most on history, museum, or travel topics) to my name. About ten years ago, I started writing fiction. Historical fiction, of course, set in the Roaring Twenties. To keep it separate from my nonfiction work, I use my maiden name, Mary Miley, for fiction. It sometimes surprises people that fiction and nonfiction require equal amounts of research, imagination, and agony. Happily, both let me visit the past while still living in the comforts of the modern world. Find me at marymileytheobald.com.

For fun, I volunteer at our local jail, teaching a writing class for inmates. I haven't been able to go since the pandemic closed the jail to outsiders, but I'm hoping to start up again after vaccines are available. Another of my interests is good wine--my husband and I, along with several others, own a terrific vineyard/winery in the mountains of Virginia called Valley Road Vineyard. Something is always happening there, whether it's a wedding, a party, regular tastings, or planting new vines. See the pictures at www.valleyroadwines.com