Mary Buckham is a USA Today bestselling American novelist of urban fantasy and romantic suspense, a popular writing teacher, and the author of the Writing Active Setting craft series that has become a standard reference on the role of place and physical detail in fiction. She lives in Washington State and credits decades of international travel and cross-cultural curiosity as the source of the high-concept worlds in her fiction.
The Writing Active Setting series argues that setting is not a backdrop but a load-bearing element of fiction equal to character and plot, and that what most writers think of as description is actually one of the most powerful tools available for revealing character, anchoring the reader, building emotion, and managing pace. The series is three short, exercise-driven volumes plus a complete combined edition with a bonus section on hooks. Book one covers characterization and sensory detail. Book two covers emotion, conflict, and the use of setting to deliver back story. Book three covers movement through space, setting across a series, and the common setting pitfalls that make readers skim. Each section ends with applied exercises designed for use on a manuscript in progress.
Her fiction includes the Invisible Recruits urban fantasy series, in which five women are recruited into a covert agency that confronts preternatural beings, and the young adult science fiction and fantasy Red Moon series co-written with New York Times bestseller Dianna Love. Her romantic suspense, urban fantasy, and YA work has been recognized through the USA Today bestseller list and regional writing awards.
She teaches the craft of setting and active description at writing conferences across the country, runs online workshops for writers' groups and individuals, and maintains the long-running MaryBuckhamOnWriting site. Her other reference books include Writing Active Hooks and the co-authored Break Into Fiction series with Dianna Love.
