Perseverance pays off for a retired Sacramento State professor, formerly titled a professional writer-in-residence.

Mary Mackey taught at Sac State where she was a professor and author-in-residence for 36 years in the English department. She retired in 2008. Writers in residence are resources for students interested in novels or poetry.

Born and raised in Indianapolis, Ind., Mackey knew at a very young age that she wanted to be a storyteller.

Mackey, 64, who is related to Mark Twain through her father’s side of the family, was read “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” as a little girl.

“At around age 5 or 6, I knew I wanted to be a storyteller and write books, but I got serious about it at age 11,” she said. “I love telling a great story.”

Mackey has written 11 novels and five books of poetry and has sold over a million and a half copies worldwide. These publications have been translated into 11 foreign languages, according to the biography on her official website marymackey.com.

She said her inspiration for writing comes from the most random places.

“I’m always thinking about ideas; I get mugged by them, and they come out of nowhere,” Mackey said.

She said she reads the newspaper often and keeps lists of her ideas, but admits she also gets her inspiration from other people.

In addition to these inspirations, she said she is fascinated by the Civil War era and the idea of women in combat. Her latest work, “The Widow’s War,” released Tuesday, reflects both of these concepts.

“I was really fascinated with this Afro-Brazilian religion called Candomble and it’s reflected in ‘The Widow’s War,'” Mackey said. “Part of the novel involves these religious traditions and then my heroin takes this background and sees it reflected in the slaves, free and oppressed.”

Fellow novelist Dorothy Hearst said Mackey is a well-rounded, gifted writer.

“She reaches a lot of audiences. She reaches the literal fiction widely. She reaches historical fiction,” she said. “She also has this wonderful female, strong and brave, which reaches a lot of women as well.”

The strong female protagonist in Mackey’s novel is a reflection of her own unique life experiences.

“I’ve dedicated my whole adult life to social justice and it’s something I truly believe in,” she said.

Her desire for justice is displayed through her female character Carolyn Vinton in the novel. Mackey said she expects her readers to be entertained.

“I want my readers to be moved. I want it to be exciting for them. I want to take them out of their everyday life into another world,” she said. “I don’t want them to have to fight their way through it; I think it’s got something for both women and men.”

Hearst, who was one of the first to read the novel, said there are a lot of surprises in the book.

“I was surprised by the roles she had women playing. I was also surprised by the role the African American free slaves played,” she said.

Friends of Mackey call her passionate, funny, perky and an overall joy to be around.

Colleague Brad Buchanan, who has known her for eight years, said she is very cordial and upbeat.

“She is unfailingly delightful,” he said.

As far as her writing abilities go, Buchanan looks to Mackey as a mentor.

“She is amazingly accomplished. Her poems are my first love,” he said. “I’ve often told her she’s what I want to grow up to be.”

Andrew Williamson, a former student of Mackey’s creative writing class, said her real masterpieces are her short stories because she has such great insight into characters and she is very good with language.

“She can be very supportive and enthusiastic about people’s creativity,” he said. “She takes a lot of anxiety out of writing.”

For Mackey, meeting her fans is a lot of fun. She is surprised at how big her fan base is overseas.

“I have a lot of fans in Europe, oddly enough, particularly in Germany. I love communicating with my fans and hearing their stories,” she said.

For those interested in picking up a copy of her novel “The Widow’s War,” Mackey will be signing books at 7:00 p.m. Thursday at Time Tested Books, located 1114 21st St. in midtown Sacramento.

Amber Wertman can be reached at [email protected]