About MJ O’Neill

Award Winning Author

MJ O’Neill is an award-winning author, entrepreneur, and literacy advocate.

Her debut novel, The Corpse Wore Stilettos, won Chanticleer Book’s first place in their Mystery and Mayhem category. Her most recent manuscript, The Promises We Keep, was a finalist for the Claymore Award for Best Suspense.

MJ’s love of mysteries started as a dyslexic child who relied on Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden to get through the dread book report. Now she is a fierce advocate for literacy and stands firm against literary censorship.

Her professional writing adventure began when she owned a chocolate factory, where she humorously notes writing mysteries was a safer bet than “murdering customers”. A serial entrepreneur, MJ has owned everything from handbag business to a video game development company. Today, she helps others tell their stories spearheading Vivid Voices Copywriting and championing productivity with The Creative Clock. She has a B.A., M.F.A, P.M.P.

Currently, you might spot MJ journeying around the Pacific Northwest in her jeep, alongside her teenager and Yorkie, concocting her next captivating tale: a suspenseful story set in the picturesque town of Moses Rock, where a retired schoolteacher and her DIY warrior sidekick are thrust into a whirlwind of pawnshops, murder investigations, and intrigue.

her story

A Note From MJ

My writing journey began when I snagged my first writing award in the hallowed halls of middle school. My moment of glory was short lived when a boy in my class hijacked my celebration, with a smirk and a quip that, “Girls only churn out lovey-dovey, kissy-kissy books,” complete with theatrical kissing noises. Unfazed, I rose to the challenge the next day, making sure my stack of female fiction powerhouses—Shelley, Christie, and Harper Lee—were displayed front and center, dishing out a literary mic drop that left him speechless and me on a new quest.

But life happened and I chose a different career path. Just as I was finally finding my writing again, the universe intervened. Within the same year, my family experienced the deaths of both my nephew and my husband. Covid hit three months later.

I don’t think it’s possible to live through tragedy and it not change a person. Among other things, it helps you clarify who you are.

Whether I’m penning a fun cozy or a thoughtful YA, I write about families, the ones we have and the ones we choose, our most important gifts. In deference to that kissy-kissy boy, my stories come with strong women. The women in my stories are all on a journey of incorporating their own clarity.

This is a chronicle of my writer journey and a reflection space for some of the lessons I’ve learned through life’s ups and downs that I am now trying to live every day. 

What I hope you find here and in my books is some kinship. If you have started a writer journey of your own, are caring for sick loved one, coping with an outrageous family, dealing with grief, in the midst of a life change or just trying to be a better you, your best you – come on in.

The cork’s out of the wine and I left you out a glass.