Hayes, Mary-Rose 1939–

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Hayes, Mary-Rose 1939–

PERSONAL: Born April 24, 1939, in Kent, England; immigrated to the United States in 1956; daughter of Kenneth J.R. (a naval officer and writer) and Enid (Sutcliff) Langmaid; married Patrick Robert Hayes (a management consultant), January 14, 1961; children: Juliette Sarah, Nicholas Desmond. Education: Attended College of Marin, 1971–72, and San Francisco State University, 1979.

ADDRESSES: Home—San Francisco, CA. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Chronicle Books, 85 2nd St., 6th Fl., San Francisco, CA 94105.

CAREER: Writer. Worked as in-hospital teacher in Bath, England; production assistant for Medical Radio and Television Institute, Inc., in New York, NY; medical secretary at Peter Brent Grigham Hospital in Boston, MA; production assistant for Associated Television Ltd., in London, England; freelance fashion model in London and San Francisco, CA; social secretary at dude ranch in Tucson, AZ; freelance graphic designer in San Francisco; and deckhand.

AWARDS, HONORS: Silver medal for literature from Royal Society of Arts, 1956, for collegiate creative writing.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

The Neighbors, Pinnacle Books (New York, NY), 1977.

The Caller, Pinnacle Books (New York, NY), 1979.

The Yacht People, Pinnacle Books (New York, NY), 1979.

The Winter Woman, Dutton (New York, NY), 1987.

Amethyst, Dutton (New York, NY), 1989.

Paper Star, Dutton (New York, NY), 1991.

(With Barbara Boxer) A Time to Run, Chronicle Books (San Francisco, CA), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Mary-Rose Hayes is a novelist whose resume includes stints at jobs as varied as television production assistant, teacher, social secretary for a dude ranch, and a freelance fashion model. She is the author of numerous novels, the first of which, The Neighbors, was published in 1977. In Paper Star, withdrawn and unhappy teen Vera Brown finds respite from her unpleasant home life by creating and drawing the adventures of her own superheroine, Diana Starfire. When Vera takes a job as an au pair for a television star in New York, she becomes the catalyst for a social group that includes teen film star Arnie Blaize, writer Sloane St. John Treadwell, Jr., and prostitute and actress Jo-Beth Feeny. Vera sees increased success with her Starfire strip as it evolves from a syndicated comic strip to the subject of a Hollywood feature film. Far from the windfall it appears to be, the Hollywood adaptation of Starfire puts Vera and her friends under the influence of brutal film mogul Victor Diamond, who inflicts some harsh lessons in life and business on the motley group. In reviewing the book, Sybil Steinberg, writing in Publishers Weekly, remarked that "readers will no doubt enjoy another view of the seedy side of Tinseltown."

A Time to Run, written in collaboration with California senator Barbara Boxer, is a story of brutal Washington and California politics folded in with a politically charged story involving two men of opposite ideals and the woman of their mutual attraction. The story opens with democratic California senator Ellen Fisher, a longtime liberal children's advocate in the midst of her freshman year in the senate, facing the political dilemma of blocking a conservative judicial nominee to the Supreme Court. When Greg Hunter, a journalist of dubious credibility and longtime connection to Ellen, produces documents that would torpedo Frida Hernandez's Supreme Court bid, Ellen's dilemma deepens: the documents would prevent the nomination, but they are forgeries. While Ellen struggles with her conscience, the story flashes back to Berkeley in 1974, when left-leaning political activist Josh Fisher and right-leaning journalism student Greg Hunter are roommates who meet tenacious and socially conscious Ellen Downey. The three wend their way through a love triangle until Josh's marriage proposal changes the tone of the relationship among the three. After graduation, Ellen and Josh get married. Greg pursues a muckraking journalism career, Josh serves as a public defender, and Ellen struggles as a children's advocate. Josh decides to run for office, but when he unexpectedly dies during his campaign, Ellen steps in to take his place. She wins her senate seat easily, but now that Greg has resurfaced in her life, her political career is headed toward a confrontation that could end it as easily as it started. "All of this is by-the-numbers stuff, but Boxer brings been-there nuance" to the infighting and power-brokering endemic to Washington politics, observed a Publishers Weekly contributor. Booklist reviewer Vanessa Bush called the novel a "compelling novel of friendship, idealism, and corruption and the behind-the-scenes machinations that go into political deals."

Hayes once told CA: "I gravitated into writing, after pursuing an enormous number of career blind alleys, because logically writing is about the only thing I am qualified for. I don't mind in the least working on my own and doing it every day, as I can't imagine what else I would do. Since I have worked in all kinds of widely different jobs, I know a little about quite a lot of things. I frequently find myself in bizarre situations. I am invariably confided in by total strangers. It's amazing what comes in useful from all of this rat-pack of unrelated information. I never take notes, and I never write plot outlines. If the book is going to be any good at all, the characters themselves dictate to me how the story will develop."