South San ISD teacher Mary Fechter recently published her second novel, ''Hot Shot.'' Courtesy photo

Special to the Southside Reporter

Mary Fechter wakes up long before her workday starts at Palo Alto Elementary School. In fact, she assumes a different identity around 4 a.m. in front of her computer.

The fourth-grade teacher in the South San Antonio Independent School District is better known by her pseudonym of M.J. Fredrick. She is a budding romance novelist who is finally having her work published.

Her first work, “Where There’s Smoke,” chronicles the story of two friends who fall in love. It is available online at www.thewildrosepress.com.  

The story will be available in print in September. Her second novel, “Hot Shot,” a steamy tale of a firefighter and journalist whose lives and hearts intertwine, will be published in October.

Excerpts of the plot can be read on www.samhainpublishing.com.  

“You don’t do it for the money,” Fechter said. “You do it because you love it.”