A Moment With… Mary Wood

Published June 2, 2026 | By Laura

I am pleased to be welcoming Mary Wood to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her novel, To Find My Mother.

A HARROWING AND YET UPLIFTING STORY OF SURVIVAL AND LOVE

Best friends Jana and Eva are carefree eight-year-olds in Prague-until Nazi occupation tears their lives apart.

As their mothers are taken away and the girls face the horrors of war, survival becomes all that matters

In Theresienstadt, two desperate women make unimaginable sacrifices to one day find their children.

But will love and hope be enough to help them reunite?

To chat about her writing and experience in both the self and traditional publishing world, it’s over to you, Mary.

Coming Full Circle.

Hello, everyone, it’s great to be here on this lovely blog.

I am the author of THIRTY-SIX published books: My latest being: ‘TO FIND MY MOTHER’ a story set in the holocaust.

After twenty years of trying, my career began with Amazon offering a lifeline to wannabee authors to self-publish, and sell, their books.

I was nervous at first. Self-publishing had previously been known as vanity publishing, and it was said publishers wouldn’t consider your book if you had indulged in this practice.

But I took the plunge when a fellow wannabee author and friend, published on Amazon. One day she contacted and told me I must join; that it was wonderful to be published, and she had just earned £400 for a month’s sales! Wow, did my ears prick up! We were rock-bottom and this was a fortune.

A book is like a child to an author, so on the day of An Unbreakable Bond’s release, the same feelings of anxiety visited me as it had as I had watched each of my children stepping through the school gates for the first time years before! That has never left me, I’m still a nervous wreck as each of my books goes out into the world.

But An Unbreakable Bond went to the top of Amazon charts, as did four others I published and soon, I had publishers knocking on my door after years of rejections. I jumped at the chance of traditional publishing when an editor from Pan Macmillan offered me a contract! This is when my life changed, I had deadlines to meet, lots of edits to contend with – often changing my best bits, but all for the good. And all giving me a wonderful feeling of achievement that lasted for thirteen years and only ended recently as I retired with the accolade of a revamped Unbreakable Bond reaching the top twenty of the Sunday Times Top Twenty Charts!

To take a step backwards – A short time into my Pan Macmillan career I was approached by Sphere, a subsidiary of Litte Brown Books, and asked if I could write for them too. And so, my pseudonym, Maggie Mason, was born. My Maggie books are also Historical Fiction, and my remit is to set them in Blackpool, with war taking the characters to far off places if I am writing about that era in history. Whereas my Mary Wood stories can begin in another country, but London must be featured somewhere in the book, as a base for my characters, or a place they come to be.

Known as a gritty writer who takes you there to live the scene – not leaving a lot to the imagination, I also turned my hand to writing a Gangland Thriller entitled: THE SWEET TASTE OF REVENGE, under the pseudonym of Molly Kent. For this, I called on all my knowledge from my experience of working with The Probation Service for many years. I self-published this one and did very well. It is now having a revamp and will be available on Amazon later this year.

And now once again, I am back in the exciting and challenging world of self-publishing!

This came about with the devastating news that my darling hubby has Vascular Dementia. I wanted to devote most of my life to taking care of him. And so, I am gradually retiring from all traditional publishing due to being unable to keep to those deadlines which are so important.

With self-publishing, I can set my own pace. I have the help of my wonderful son James who edits, designs the books cover and formats my work as well as doing loads of publicity for my book. I couldn’t do without him.

I hope that my readership, who are used to picking up my books in bookshops and supermarkets, will continue to support me and that I will also find new readers on Amazon.

Life is a journey, it has its twists and turns, ups and downs, it is how we face up to it all that counts.

Much love to all, I hope you enjoyed this insight to how the life of an author like me can evolve, and eventually, come full circle. Mary x

About Mary Wood–

Mary was brought up in Leicestershire where her family settled when she was six months old, Mary now lives in Blackpool with her beloved husband Roy. Their children have long flown the nest and are living happily with their partners and have extended Mary and Roy’s happiness by giving them eight wonderful grandchildren, and umpteen great grandchildren, all of whom are a joy to them.

Mary began writing in the 1980’s but didn’t find success until she self-published on amazon in 2011. Soon after she was thrilled to be spotted by Pan Macmillan who have since published 24 of her books, including the bestselling Jam Factory Girls series. Her latest being ‘A Lasting Promise’ and ‘Her Hidden courage’.

Soon after being published by Pan Macmillan, Mary was approached by Sphere, a subsidiary of Little Brown Books. Joining them she wrote 12 novels under the pseudonym of Maggie Mason. Including the bestselling, The Half Penny Girls. Her latest Maggie Mason is: A Daughter’s Dream, with one more to come in 2027 yet, untitled.

Mary has now come full circle and is returning to publishing herself with the help of her son, James Wood, as she now cares for her beloved husband and needs to set her own, achievable deadlines, but remains ever grateful to both of her publishers and for all they did for her.

Say hello to Mary via her website, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.

To Find My Mother was released in April 2026 and is currently on a Kindle Countdown deal of 99p until 8th June 2026. Click to buy on Amazon.