More about Lynda O'Connor
Lynda O’Connor is a principal of O’Connor Communications and takes the lead in book publicity activities. She and Jim O'Connor represent 23 authors, organizing national and regional book campaigns, book tours, media interviews, speaking engagements, media training, special events, and press materials. The couple won three national awards for the best book publicity in the country. Authors Lynda has represented describe her as knowledgeable, professional, tireless, tenacious, creative, enthusiastic and dedicated.  Both O'Connors work closely with their clients and makes sure they get the attention that they deserve. Lynda and Jim go across the country speaking at writers’ conferences on How to Launch your Book through Powerful Publicity and Marketing. Visit OConnorPR.com for information on the books O'Connor Communications have publicized and for the endorsements from their authors.

More about Mary Hutchings Reed
Mary Hutchings Reed is an attorney with more than 30 years of experience who remembers the way it was in large male-dominated law firms and businesses, and wonders whether things have changed that much. 

Ever since turning 40 a few years ago, Mary has been trying to become harder to introduce, and, at 58, she finds she’s been succeeding. Her conventional resume includes thirty three years of practicing law, first with Sidley & Austin and then with Winston & Strawn, two of the largest firms in Chicago. She was a partner at both in the advertising, trademark, copyright, entertainment and sports law areas, and now is Of counsel to Winston, which gives her time to write, do community service and pursue hobbies such as golf, sailing, tennis and bridge.

Mary is a graduate of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where she received both her bachelors (in public policymaking, an interdisciplinary program) and her masters (in economics) in four years, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1973. She graduated from Yale Law School and joined Sidley & Austin in 1976, where she was elected to  partner in 1983. Winston & Strawn recruited her in 1989 to help start their intellectual property department. For more info on Mary the Lawyer, go to Winston.com.

Mary married William R. Reed, an internist, in 1982. It's his fault she's now a writer. In 1992, Mary took a leave of absence from law to sail from Norfolk, VA. to St. Thomas, U.S.V.I. with Bill in a 32 foot boat, which took 22 days and nights. After three storms at sea and a few weeks of recovery at anchor in the Caribbean, Mary resigned her partnership in order to reduce her workload and refocus some of her energy on writing. She began to write every day and to study with Enid Powell in Chicago and Fred Shafer in Evanston. She has attended numerous writing conferences around the country, including Breadloaf (Middlebury, Vermont), Tin House (Portland, Oregon) and Words and Music (New Orleans).

Mary’s work has been published in ARS Medica, The Liguorian, and elsewhere.  Her novel One for the Ark was a Short List Finalist for the William Wisdom/William Faulkner Award for the Novel (2007 and 2009) and was one of 6 Finalists for the international Paris Prize.  Her novels The City Girls (2002), Saluting the Sun (2004) and Warming Up (2009) were semifinalists for the same Wisdom/Faulkner award.  Her musical, Fairways, was produced at Steel Beam Theatre in 2006 to 12 consecutive sell-outs.

Mary also believes in community service, and for many years has served on the boards of various nonprofit organizations, including American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago, Off the Street Club and the Chicago Bar Foundation. She currently serves on the board of the Legal  Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago (and chair of its fundraising committee); Steel Beam Theatre, the Yale Law School Executive Committee and her longest-standing service involvement, Lawyers for the Creative Arts.

Mary is represented by April Eberhardt of Kimberly Cameron & Associates