M. L. Doyle aimed to prove her brother wrong when she joined the Army on his dare. A few decades later, she not only confirmed that she could, contrary to his warning, make it through basic training, her combat boots took her to the butt-end of nowhere and back countless times and she lived to tell about it … or write about it as it turned out.
Unafraid of genre jumping, Mary has co-authored two memoirs, a three-book mystery series, a four-novella erotic romance series, and has just published the first book in a planned urban fantasy series.
A native Minnesotan, Mary lives in Columbia, Maryland where her evil cats force her to feed and care for them including cleaning up their poo. To escape from her torture, Mary loves to hear from readers and to escape into the stories she tells.
Mary’s mystery series features Master Sergeant Lauren Harper, an Army public affairs specialist who travels the world on Army business only to find herself embroiled in one dangerous situation after another. The first book of the series, The Peacekeeper’s Photograph, takes place on a small Army outpost during the Bosnian peacekeeping mission. The Peacekeeper’s Photograph was the winner of the Carey McCray Memorial Literary Award for best unpublished novel from the South Carolina Writer’s Workshop. Since it’s publication, the novel has received consistent five star reviews, and was recognized by Rebecca Reads Choice Awards and the Independent Publisher Book Awards.
The second book in the series, The Sapper’s Plot, sends Master Sergeant Harper on a humanitarian mission in the jungles of Honduras. When a National Guard unit is tasked with building a schoolhouse in a remote mountain village surrounded by jungle, the treacherous terrain is the least of her worries. Harper faces a mystery filled with twists, turns, dangerous characters and worse, a confrontation no woman wants to face – when an old and a new lover meet for the first time.
The third book in the series, the book which was meant to be the final in a trilogy, is out now. The General’s Ambition, takes place in Hohenfels, Germany, where Harper attempts to sort out yet another mystery that puts her in danger. With the completion of The General’s Ambition, it is clear that Mary isn’t done writing about Master Sergeant Harper and her British companion, Sergeant Major Harry Fogg. A fourth and perhaps fifth book are sure to follow. In the meantime, Mary’s companion short, The Ceremony, should help tide readers over until the next novels in the series are ready.
Mary is the co-author of the book, I’m Still Standing: From Captive Soldier to free citizen—my journey home (2010, Touchstone) which chronicles the story of Spec. (Ret.) Shoshana Johnson, a member of the 507th Maintenance Company who was captured during an ambush and held prisoner in the early days of the Iraq War. The book was nominated for a 2011 NAACP Image Award in the literary category for best Autobiography/biography, a year in which the category included books about Nelson Mandela, Jay Z and Ray Charles.
Since the publication of I’m Still Standing, Mary has been approached by people from across the country with important stories to tell. Some want to write their story themselves but feel intimidated by the prospect.
Others want help in the form of a ghost writer but don’t know where to look. According to Doyle, what is important is that the stories are told.
“We live tomorrow’s history today,” said Doyle. “The digital age combined with the ability to self publish could mean that we have the ability to ensure important parts of our history are told in ways never known before. The challenge is to empower people to tell their stories and to share them with the world.”
One of the people who needed to tell their story is Brigadier General (retired) Julia Cleckley. The co-authored memoir, A Promise Fulfilled, My life as a Wife and Mother, Soldier and General Officer, tells the compelling story of Cleckley, the first African-American female general of the line in the U.S. Army National Guard. A Promise Fulfilled, chronicles Cleckley’s journey from joining the Women’s Army Corps, to a position of power wearing the star of a military general. The story details her journey to success while facing the most devastating losses a woman can endure; the loss of a husband and of a child.
A Promise Fulfilled was published in January, 2014 and is available at all online retailers.
Mary has also publishing an adult romance series of four novellas. Limited Partnerships Part I – Charlie, Part II – Luke, Part III – Wolf and Part IV – Derek are available as individual novellas in ebook format and available in the Limited Partnerships Omnibus in ebook and paperback.
Mary served almost two decades in the Army Reserve and spent much of her civilian career telling the Army story as an Army broadcaster through stories, documentaries, public service announcements and training videos. Stationed in Germany, Korea and the U.S., her work has taken her to the far corners of the world from Central America to the Middle East and all across Western and Eastern Europe.
Mary has a Bachelor of Arts in broadcast communications from Metropolitan State University and a Master of Arts from the University of Oklahoma in International Relations.
Mary loves to hear from readers. Check her out on Facebook.com/mldoyleauthor, or Twitter @mldoyleauthor, and you can read excerpts of all of her work on her website at www.mldoyleauthor.com.