Newton author of volumes finally in print

Mary E. Mitchell was a dedicated writer who had real promise and a knack for impressing literary agents. For 18 years, she was also a master of the near miss.

A best-selling author who was impressed by Mitchell's work sent one of her novels to his agent. No luck. Another agent told her that her nonfiction book would be a "shoo-in." It wasn't.

She even won a prestigious literary prize for one of her novels. Still, no one stepped forward to publish her.

Now, the Newton writer finally has a contract from St. Martin's Press -- not for one book, but for two. And her debut novel is winning over readers.

"Starting Out Sideways" was released last month, and readers and fellow authors, as well as parents of the mentally challenged, are raving about the tale of an unlikely heroine -- the portly, recently dumped, witty Roseanna Plow, who struggles as hard to make sense of her life as the special-needs adults she trains to enter the workforce.

The Seattle Times put the book on

its short list of worthy new "chick - lit" novels, awarding the book a high rating of 3 1/2 "chicks" (stars) out of four. The Charlotte Observer put the book on its "Best Books of Summer" list as well, in the category of "suited for poolside."

Meanwhile, Mitchell is at work on the next novel. But getting to this comfortable place as an author was a long, long haul.

While she was growing up on Long Island, N.Y., Mitchell wrote Nancy Drew-inspired mysteries for her father. Illustrated with crayon and bound with shoelaces she nicked from her brother's sneakers, the series was a way of jostling for her father's attention, and it worked.

"I grew up in a family of nine, so my main motivation in writing was to get as a reward all the same cool bikes and Hula-Hoops that my best friend, who was an only child, got," said Mitchell, 55. "Yet, once I started, I'd just become absorbed in the project of creating this little world."

Whipping up characters and plots was a habit Mitchell never broke, not even when divorce left her a single mother working days in Chicago's hardscrabble city schools and nights at the Gaslight Club, which she describes as "like the Playboy Club, only the bunnies sing."

Nor did she fail to make time for writing once she remarried, moved to Boston, and began work as a clinical and vocational counselor.

But as her manuscripts piled up, she always seemed to be hovering on the edge of success. Magazines and newspapers loved her essays, but none of her books made it into print.

When she signed up for a workshop with the late, best-selling crime novelist George V. Higgins, who became her mentor, he was so impressed with her first novel that he sent it off to his own agent. Nothing came of it.

Her brutally honest look at her years teaching in the inner city so excited her agent that she assured Mitchell it was "a shoo-in" for getting published in the No Child Left Behind era, but there were no buyers for that, either.

Success again seemed only inches away when yet another novel won her a PEN New England Discovery Award. It was the story of a young man dying of AIDS when the disease was so new it was still called GRID, for gay-related immunodeficiency disease.

"I had the honor of reading from the book for the whole PEN community," she said, "and then [not one publisher] bought it. But it always garnered beautiful rejection letters -- very nice rejection letters.

"Finally, my agent said to me, 'Mary, I have an idea. Why don't you write the kind of book that people buy?' " Mitchell said with a laugh. So that's what she set out to do. But on her own terms.

"I told myself I'll write a book that people want to read, but it's not going to have a beautiful blonde in a corner office with lots of glass, and really great shoes. I want its characters and its issues to be real.

"So, almost in a passive-aggressive mood, I created Roseanna. I made her chubby, I gave her office plywood walls, and I made her job far from glamorous. And that was so much more fun for me to write about."

It also turned out that Plow, a sort of American Bridget Jones without the ditziness but with all the hilarious embarrassment that comes from having a meddling mother, is also more fun to read about.

That's why Mitchell got the call of a lifetime from her agent last year.

"She told me to sit down," Mitchell said. "I thought I was either in trouble or that something amazing was going to happen. Then she told me that at St. Martin's Press Thomas Dunne Books, a young, wonderful editor named Erin Brown really liked the book and wanted to offer a two-book contract, which was the reason I was seated."

Mitchell considers the key to finding her mass-market appeal to be threefold. First, she found inspiration in an author who was "classically readable" -- Jane Austen.

"I took my cues from her. I introduced a lovers' quarrel right up front. I disclose family secrets. I have a bothersome mom."

Next, she took to heart advice from the authors in her local writers group, Angela Gerst of Newton and Mike Scott of Cambridge.

"For 10 years, those two have really molded me to a new place around storytelling," Mitchell said. "I've always been able to write a pretty scene that went nowhere, but these two writers have really pushed me around plot.

"They constantly asked me, 'What's your narrative arc?' and 'Why would I want to turn the page?' And that's so important these days, because we live in a culture where we want our stimulation right now. I figured if people were laughing and looking voyeuristically at Roseanna's failed marriage right on the first page, I'd have a better chance at competing with 'Grey's Anatomy.' "

And, finally, she let her wry humor loose, while still delivering her usual sharp observations about human character, life, families, and relationships.

"Her writing is hilarious but also poignant, and I think it's rare when a writer can tap into the funny bone and still get you thinking," said author Tracy McArdle of Carlisle, who credits Mitchell with helping her shape her own books, "Real Women Eat Beef" and "Confessions of a Nervous Shiksa."

But it's the vividness of her characters that also appeals, especially those of the mentally challenged young adults that Plow works with. Some of the book's most moving and warmly humorous scenes occur as she helps charming Walter learn to fit in at the SaveWay supermarket, and when another client, Eleanor, starts showing up for work at a dentist's office in increasingly risqué pajamas.

It's material drawn from Mitchell's own experience working with special-needs people, but her clear-eyed glimpse into their lives is delivered via well-honed writer's craft.

Biographer Susan Quinn, who nominated Mitchell for the PEN Award, calls it Mitchell's "wonderful ability to inhabit her characters."

"I've always felt," Mitchell said, "that a writer isn't someone who's published, but it's someone who has the urge to check in every day with the characters and the world they create, and to understand them, whether an editor is waiting for the text or not."

Mitchell has received numerous e-mails and letters from parents of mentally challenged people who have rallied to the book.

"They've been so grateful to see something about this," Mitchell said, "because it's a big issue in these children's lives when they age out of the system and start going to work."

But how does Mitchell feel about finally breaking through herself?

"It's been 18 years since I've been hoping to be published, so this feels very sweet to me. I don't feel the way I might have at 25 trying to build my empire. I'm just enjoying each day of it and feeling grateful."

Mary E. Mitchell will read from "Starting Out Sideways" at 7 tonight at the Wellesley Booksmith at 82 Central St. in Wellesley. Call 781-431-1160 or visit maryemitchell.com or wellesleybooksmith.com.

MUCH ADO ABOUT WWII: Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" gets a 1940s twist in the Wellesley Summer Theatre's production of the light-hearted romantic comedy.

"We asked ourselves, 'When was a time when we all felt great?' And the answer was easy: Right after World War II, the time of the greatest generation. So, we set the play then," said the troupe's artistic director, Nora Hussey.

"This is a bouquet for our audiences," she said. "This is saying, 'Here, here, let's be joyous. Let's celebrate love. Let's celebrate a sense of purpose. Let's celebrate people, for this summer of 2007 when most of the headlines are pretty grim.' "

But the bard's sharp wit won't be the only thing lifting your spirits. The era's buoyant tunes form the musical backdrop, and the show opens with some spirited choreography for a dance-hall scene.

"Much Ado About Nothing" will run through June 30 at the Ruth Nagel Jones Theatre in Alumnae Hall at Wellesley College at 106 Central St. in Wellesley. Tickets are $20; $10 for students and seniors. Call 781-283-2000 or visit wellesleysummertheatre.com.