Are you a full-time or part-time writer and how does that affect your writing?
At the moment, I write part-time.  It does tend to cause projects I’m working on to go at a much slower pace than I’d like, but there is that whole pesky need to work to be able to eat and live sort of thing, so I just adjust.  Who knows?  Maybe I’ll win the lottery one day.

 What are some day jobs you have held?
I work as a veterinary technician now, but I’ve held a couple of factory jobs in the past as well as retail. 
 
Do you have a special time to write, or how is your day structured to accommodate your writing?
Most all of my writing takes place in the early morning hours, usually starting at 3am.  That habit stemmed from having four children.  If you didn’t do what you needed to do before they awoke, well, you wouldn’t be doing it for the rest of the day.
 
What have you written so far?
I have several poems and short stories on AuthorsDen which is really where I started sharing my writing.  Link Detonator and Detonator Time’s Up were my first two novels, penned under the name Mary E. Rose.  They’re still available out there somewhere, but are no longer being under contract.  Dark Deliverance was my third novel and still in print.  My two newest releases are Sheldon’s Diary (which follows the blogs for both Sir Sheldon and Sir Cheddar) and Fairview (which is a compilation of short stories I’ve written over the past fifteen years).
 
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
Keep trying and, above all, read.  Read everything you can, even if it’s outside the genre that you write. 
 
Can you share with readers a little bit about your latest book?
Sheldon’s Diary is a story that really is focused on the question “What do they really do while you’re away?”  Written in diary form, it follows two cats who are knighted members of a secret animal society whose job is not only to govern the animal world but to help the helpless.  Sir Sheldon is a house cat in a small town, and Sir Cheddar is a clinic cat stationed in an animal hospital, since keeping a diary is one of their duties their adventures are shared for the readers.
 
What made you decide to sit down and actually start writing this book?
I started writing the Sheldon’s Diary blog on Facebook to try and answer the question of what he really was doing while I was away.  Since he has such a unique personality, it was easy.  I could see him as hero in training.  When my boss at the animal hospital saw what I was writing, he asked if I’d be willing to write about our clinic cat Cheddar. From there, Cheddar became a knight with his own blog on the hospital’s page.  The cats have their separate adventures, but occasionally I will write a crossover that brings them together. 
 
Who is your least favorite character and why?
My least favorite character to write would have to be The Wheezer.  She’s really my fifteen-year-old ball python.  It’s not her that makes it difficult per say it’s just all SSSsss before what she says.  She is a snake, after all.
 
What is your next project?
The Sheldon and Cheddar blogs and books are ongoing, so I try to work in a few other projects along the way.  I have a detective series in the works as well as a paranormal thriller and a lighthearted novel involving a female assassin.
           
Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
For me, the most challenging scene to write is a romantic one.  I’ve developed an aversion to it, not because I’m a prude or anything, but because it is extremely difficult for me to write a scene like that without it seeming tacky and tasteless.  It continues to be my nemesis.
 
If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
Stephen King, without a doubt. It’s not so much what he writes, but how he writes it.  I love the way he just spouts out about his characters and what they are thinking, and as you’re reading it you think, “Oh my gosh, this is just too much.” Then, as you go on, it hits you that it was just the perfect amount of information and everything clicks together. The guy is a genius.

How can you discover more about Mary’s work?

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