Maria V. Snyder's Website

Read The Eternal Night Interview with Maria V. Snyder (October 2007)

Maria V. Snyder has been writing fiction and nonfiction since 1995. Her adult fantasy novel, Poison Study, is scheduled to be published by Harlequin's Luna Books in October 2005. She has also published numerous freelance articles in regional magazines and in local newspapers. Teaching fiction writing classes at the local college gives her the enjoyable opportunity to encourage novice writers and to keep improving her craft.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Maria attended 12 years of catholic school before going to Penn State University to study Meteorology. Earning a Bachelors of Science degree in Meteorology, Maria discovered, much to her chagrin, that forecasting the weather wasn't one of her skills. She found employment in the environmental field as an air quality scientist, and it was during those years that she started writing. After writing many science fiction short stories, Maria started Poison Study, her first novel about a food taster.

Her research on food tasting methods with an expert chocolate taster, her husband, turned out to be a delicious bonus while writing Poison Study. Maria has a brown belt in Issinryu Karate, and has enjoyed "acting out" the complex fight scenes in the book. Playing volleyball and the cello are her other hobbies.

Traveling with her family is another wonderful distraction from writing. Maria loves cruising in general and the Caribbean in particular, and is planning a trip to the Southern Caribbean in January 2006. She has also been to Europe, Canada, Mexico, and spent a week in Beijing, China during the summer of 2004.

Though still a weather nut at heart, Maria also wrote a middle grade reader titled, Storm Watcher, about a 13-year-old boy who is both fascinated and terrified of storms.

Maria lives with her family in Pennsylvania where she is at work on her third Luna novel, the final "Study" book. Her next Luna novel, Magic Study, is due out in October 2006. She's working on earning a Masters of Art degree in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University.

Maria would recommend this writing program to anyone interested in publishing a novel. A link for Seton Hill can be found in the Links section on her website.