Mary Jean PramikMJ (Mary Jean) Pramik has hitch-hiked across the United States, fended off bill collectors in tropical San Francisco, and counted sharp-taloned bird carcasses along the Pacific's Point Reyes sands. She earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in bioogical sciences and completed an MFA in Writing. She moonlights as a science/medical writer, penning such scientific thrillers as Norenthindrone, The First Three Decades, the fast-paced history of the first birth control pill extracted from a Mexican yam. She honed her journalism skills as a biotechnology reporter for 18 years at Genetic Engineering News. Her articles and essays have appeared in Nature Biotechnology, Nature Medicine, and Cosmetic Surgery News, as well as in mainstream publications such as Good Housekeeping, the San Francisco Chronicle, Odyssey Magazine, and the National Enquirer. She's contributed to the Travelers' Tales "Venturing in" travel series on the Canal du Midi, Southern Greece, Southern Ireland, and Puglia, Italy, and has won several Solas Travel Writing awards for her travel memoir essays. Currently, she's completing a novel, Coal, a family saga of immigration, strip mining, and the birth of the United Mine Workers Union. She's a member of the Community of Writers, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, and the American Academy of Poets, and has taught graduate writing skills at San Francisco State University. Read More Read Less