Saint Louis Author: Fedora Amis
The Saint Louis Author blog highlights the unique and surprising authors who live and write in Mound City.
I spied Fedora Amis for the first time at a Missouri Writers Guild Conference. She stood out among the state-wide, prize-winning authors due to her inventive personal style; a fedora, tie, and a suit coat. Her style is a gender bending nod to the main characters in her mysteries—female investigative reporters of the past. Her 2025 publication, Vanderbilt in Peoria, the fifth in the Jemmy McBustle Mysteries Series, is available from Amazon and local independent bookstores.
Blogger with Fedora Amis at the Missouri Writers’ Conference, September 2024.
When Mary Ross retired from her teaching career, she took on the pen name Fedora Amis for publishing ficiton. Already a published author in education, she wanted a more unique moniker, and to distinguish her fiction from her non-fiction.
“I always wanted to be a writer. When I went to college, I thought I’d be a writer if not a teacher. At 18, I realized I didn’t have a damn thing to say, so teacher it was. I taught English, speech, debate, theater,” Amis says, declining to say for how many years she taught in Parkway Schools in St. Louis County, Missouri.
Her pen name reflects her identity and is symbolic—but also fun. “Since my real name is common, I decided to come up with something unique. I had worn a fedora for years to high school forensics and debate contests, so the first name was easy. AMIS is an acronym.”
I was delighted to be treated to a women’s history lesson as Fedora explained her invented surname.
“The ‘A’ is for a very well-known feminist. Surely you can guess it,” she said, giving me a moment. The moment was not enough. “Susan B. Anthony,” she said, kindly.
The “M” represents Virginia Minor, Amis’ personal local hero, and a Missouri suffragist who famously took the case for a woman’s right to vote to the Supreme Court in 1875. The “I” stands for the Iroquois indigenous society, which is matrilineal. “S” is for her favorite feminist, Elizabeth Cady Stanton. This alterego is critical to her writing. “Every character I write is my alterego,” she said.
Fedora Amis’ fifth book in the Jemmy McBustle Mysteries series, published in 2025.
Amis was born in Sedalia, where most of her family still resides, and finds St. Louis a great place to write.
“At one time, writers believed they had to move to New York to become successful. With modern communication, a place like St. Louis can be a wonderful center for writers. We have a huge community of writers,” she said.
As President of the Greater St. Louis Chapter of the Sisters in Crime, a mystery writing organization made up of both men and women, Amis points out the value of community. “There are almost 30 of us, we meet by zoom or in person, and you have people there who understand what life is like for you,” she said. Sisters in Crime also offers writing resources, events and news to its members.
Amis’ writing process appears to be deceptively straightforward. “There are three things I have to know before I start a new novel. I must have a precipitating incident in mind—the mystery, often a murder, it could be attempted murder. That goes along with when and where--I must have a good feeling for the place, which with my current projects is Europe.”
I never let things go in the straight direction that would be logical. Instead of London, they go to Portugal. From there they might go to Paris where they might find a scandalous real writer, like Collete,” she said. Amis has traveled and continues to visits the places that appear as characters in her novels. “Then they might go to Croatia!”
Once her novel is written, Amis takes it to a critique group, then beta readers, then to development, line and copy editors. “I work with a traditional publisher sometimes, but I did Vanderbilt on my own,” she said. “I did that partly because the system of traditional publishing takes a very long time, the royalties are tiny, and you can do better financially yourself. There are, of course, also advantages to going with a traditional publisher.”
As a reader, I love that Amis’ stages her books in locations that ask questions, sometimes the Midwest, that they offer interesting facts about history, and the strong female protagonists. I’m looking forward to reading where she goes next!
