Mary Baader Kaley earned an M.A. in Counseling Psychology, and had a job working as a counselor/guardian at a group home for emotionally/behaviorally disordered teens. As a result of this job, she gained some life-long skills: the ability to budget a week’s worth of groceries for ten people on two-hundred dollars, the ability to drive a cargo van, and the ability to pop some dance moves. She also learned how to withstand tirades, threats, and physical attacks.

Mary then worked in corporate America for fifteen years as a human resources manager. Her previous experience at the group home proved invaluable during this time.

After having her third child who has autism and other delays, Mary left her fifty-hour work week to stay at home. She started her own professional resume-writing business, and began writing short fiction to stay sane.

Some say this plan hasn’t panned out.

Nonetheless, Mary has over a dozen poetry/short fiction pieces published in print and online in literary magazines. Some pieces centering on a young narrator/main character are listed below. They are dedicated to her kids from the group home.


Giant Snowflakes, Everyday Fiction, December 2009 (http://www.everydayfiction.com/giant-snowflakes-by-mary-baader-kaley/)
I Never Cry When I Fall, Dew on the Kudzu, November 2009 (http://todaysdeepsouth.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html)
Uncle Stan, The Linnets Wings, Fall 2009 (http://www.thelinnetswings.net/?stn=73504&pageno=36&sdb=)