Jessica Andersen

Jessica Andersen was born and raised in eastern Massachusetts. She studied at Tufts University for an undergraduate degree in biology, followed by a PhD in Genetics though she has been many other things: a doctor of molecular genetics, a patent agent, a freelance editor, a professional horse trainer and riding coach.

Andersen lives with her fiance' Brian and writes full-time on a small farm in eastern Connecticut.

Jennifer Archer

Jennifer Archer, is a fantasy and romance fiction author born in Cleburne, north central Texas. Her novels typically have strong female protagonists, and have been nominated for numerous awards.

Archer holds a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from West Texas A&M University, and after graduating she worked in the fields of oil and gas accounting, real estate management, and the pharmacy and medical equipment industries, before becomign a full-time writer. She is a frequent speaker on the topics of creative writing and pursuing dreams, and has presented numerous talks and workshops for educators, students, writers' organizations and bookstores. Her romantic comedies are published by Dorchester Publishing and Harlequin Books. She is the author of eight published novels and three novellas, with another title new title expect in early 2010.

Body and Soul, Archer's debut novel, was released in 1999. Once Upon a Dream, her second novel, spent several weeks on Borders Books' bestseller list for Paranormal Romance, and was chosen by Amazon.com as one of the 'Best New Romances' for the month of January 2001,and was a 2001 P.E.A.R.L. Finalist (Paranormal Excellence Award in Romantic Literature). Archer finished in the finals twice in Romance Writers of America's Golden Heart competition, was a 2006 finalist for the prestigious Rita Award with her mainstream women's fiction novel The Me I Used to Be, and her novel Sandwiched was a 2006 nominee for a Romantic Times Bookclub Magazine Reviewer's Choice Award.

Archer is part-owner of freelance writing company Sterling Pen, and currently resides in Amarillo, Texas.

J.R. Ward

Jessica Bird is the daughter of W. Gillette Bird, Jr. and Maxine F. Bird. She began writing as a child, penning her thoughts in diaries as well as inventing short stories. The summer before she went to college she wrote her first book , a romance novel. After that, she wrote regularly, but for herself. Bird attended Smith College where she double majored in history and art history, concentrating on medieval period.She then received a law degree from Albany Law School and worked in healthcare administration for many years, including as the Chief of Staff at Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts.

In 2001, Bird married John Neville Blakemore III. Her new husband encouraged her to try to get an agent and market her manuscripts. She found an agent, and in 2002 her first novel, a contemporary romance called Leaping Hearts, was published. Several years later, Bird invented a world populated by vampires and began writing single-title paranormal romance novels under the pen name J.R. Ward. These novels are a series, known as the Black Dagger Brotherhood.

Bird likes to write series novels which incorporate characters from her previous books. She likens the process of creating a series to "meeting friends through other friends". Her heroes are most often alpha males, "the tougher, the cockier, the more arrogant, the better", while the heroines are smart and strong.

The Romance Writers of America awarded her the RITA Award for Best Short Contemporary Romance in 2007 for her novel From the First.[4] She has also been nominated six times for Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Awards, winning once for Lover Awakened.

Heather W. MacAllister

MacAllister was born in Texas and is married to her high-school sweetheart. She became addicted to romance novels in college, yet still managed to graduate and become a music teacher. She began to write while their children grew. She sold her first novel in December 1989.

She lives with her husband and their children in Texas.

Harper Allen

Allen is of Irish ancestry and works as a court reporter for the judicial system.She is a four-time nominee for a Career Achievement Award by Romantic Times Book Reviews magazine.Her novel Dressed To Slay was named the magazine's choice for Best Silhouette Bombshell of 2006.

She is married and they have numerous pets.

Elizabeth Amber

Elizabeth Amber's interest in Greco-Roman mythology inspired this series. She is an animal lover with two cats (Biscuit and Chelsea), who volunteers at a local no-kill animal shelter. Her other hobbies include cooking, shopping, and spending time with her mom and her sister. She is now an art historian specializing in ancient Greco-Roman artifacts.

Elizabeth Amber wrote this series of erotic historical paranormal romance novels based on her interest in Greco-Roman artifacts celebrating the grape harvest. Satyrs are the carnal followers of the wine god, Bacchus in ancient Roman mythology, and are depicted on many urns and amphorae found in Roman ruins.

In her novels, three half-satyr, half-human brothers own a lavish estate and vineyard in 1800s Tuscany, Italy, where they guard ancient secrets and conduct unusual rituals. When a letter arrives instructing them to seek out three endangered half-faerie brides, they see it as an opportunity to sire heirs. She wrote her first book, Nicholas, and then went to a Romance Writers of America conference to learn where to submit her book. Kensington bought the series. Nicholas has been critically acclaimed by many reviewers and has been mentioned in Publishers Weekly.

Elissa Ambrose

Ambrose was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She obtained a degree in English literature. Divorced from her first husband, they had two adult daughters; Sarah Mlynowski, a novelist, and Aviva Mlynowski. Today, Elissa lives in Phoenix with her second husband, her cat, and her cockatoo. She has one grandchild by Sarah. It unknown if Avivia has any kids.

Ambrose started as a computer programmer, and two decades and countless programs later, she had her own first romance novel published, "Journey of the Heart". She also serves as the fiction editor at Anthology magazine, a literary journal published in Mesa, Arizona.

Charlotte Vale Allen

Charlotte Vale Allen was born in on January 19, 1941 in Toronto and lived in England (UK) from 1961 to 1964 where she worked as a television actress and singer. She returned to Toronto briefly, performing as a singer and in cabaret revues until she emigrated to the United States in 1966.

When she married in 1970 with Walter Bateman Allen Jr., she made her home in Connecticut and she began to write. Her first book, Daddy's Girl, was written in 1971, but was rejected by editors who considered the work too contentious.

Catherine Anderson

Some of Anderson's earliest memories are of hearing her mother type stories on an old typewriter, and then read the finished work aloud. With this inspiration, Anderson began writing her own stories as a child. Feeling that a career as a published writer was out of reach, however, she decided to major in accounting when she attended college so that she could help her husband Sid keep the books at his company. After realizing that numbers did not make her happy, and with her husband's full blessing, Anderson dropped out of college so that she could pursue a writing career.

Anderson's first four published books were category romance, under the Harlequin Intrigue romantic suspense line. Her subsequent single-title works have alternated between contemporary and historical romances.Many of her novels feature a character with a disability, be it physical or mental, and show the reader how those disabilities can be overcome. Animals are also a recurrent theme in her stories, with many books set on or near ranches. Romantic Times Magazine describes her novels as "moving, heartwarming,...celebrat[ing] the ideals of perfect love in an imperfect world. Her characters are complex, often conflicted individuals who triumph over substantial odds." Reader acclaims describe her books as funny, delightful, heartwrenching, beautiful, superb, and of classic proportions.

Her later novels, including SUN KISSED and MORNING LIGHT have reached the top 5 and 10 of the New York Times Bestseller List. She has been nominated nine times for Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Awards, her book Cherish was a Romantic Times award winner, and she has also been awarded one of their Career Achievement Awards.

Anderson, who is part Shoshone, and her husband, Sid, live on 160 acres (0.65 km2) in Oregon. They have two grown sons. The pair love the wildlife on their pristine mountain ridge and greatly enjoy the solitude of their wilderness lifestyle, which is, Anderson says, a writer's dream. Their estate, heavily guarded by electronic surveillance, is off limits to hunters, providing all wild creatures sanctuary. Their three dogs are allowed to run at large on the property.

In May 2008, Anderson's COMANCHE MOON was reissued and placed on the New York Times bestseller list.

Kat Martin

Martin was born in the Central Valley of California. She obtained a degree in Anthropology and History from the University of California in Santa Barbara.

She lives with her husband, writer and photographer Larry Jay Martin in Missoula, Montana. They have collaborated on a book under the pseudonym of Kathy Lawrence.

Martin in member of the Romance Writers of America. To date, she has been published in England, Spain, Italy, Greece, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Bulgaria, Russia, South Africa, China, and Korea.[citation needed]

Johanna Lindsey

Her father, was Edwin Dennis Howard, a soldier in the U.S. Army, stationed in Germany, where she was born. The family moved about a great deal when she was young. Her father always dreamed of retiring to Hawaii and after he died in 1964, Lindsey and her mother settled there to honor him.

In 1970, when she was still in school, she married Ralph Lindsey, becoming a young housewife. The marriage continued residing in Hawaii and produced three children; Alfred, Joseph and Garret, who already have made her a grandmother. After her husband's death, Lindsey moved to Maine and has not remarried.

Lindsey wrote her first book, Captive Bride in 1977 "on a whim". The book was a success, as have been the 40 plus novels which followed.

By 2006, over 58 Million copies of her books have been sold worldwide, with translations appearing in 12 languages.

Lindsey's books span the various eras of history, including books set in the Middle Ages, Regency England, the American "Old West", and the Viking era. She has even written a few sci-fi romances. By far the most popular among her books are the stories about the Malory Family (see Family Tree), a Regency saga.

Lindsey's stories are known for her feisty heroines and domineering heroes. Lindsey heroes are always Alpha-males, who are self-reliant, powerful, and overtly sexual.

Judith Krantz

Judith Krantz, known as Judy, grew up in New York City. She was the "youngest, smartest, and shortest girl" in her year.] After graduating from the upscale Birch Wathen High School at age 16, Krantz enrolled at Wellesley College.

Krantz told the Boston Globe in 1982 that she attended Wellesley with three goals: to date, to read every novel in the library, and to graduate. "Torchy", as her dormmates named her, held the dorm dating record as the only one to have 13 consecutive dates with 13 different men. Her grades, unfortunately, were not as impressive as her extracurricular activities. Krantz earned one A-plus in English, but had a B- average in her major and C average in everything else. Krantz had the opportunity to improve her marks when she took a short-story class during her sophomore year. Although the professor enjoyed her writing, he refused to give her an A because she had atrocious spelling, and he thought the B would teach her a lesson. Krantz claims to have learned the lesson well -- she did not write fiction again for 31 years.

After graduating from Wellesley in 1948, Krantz moved to Paris, where she worked in fashion public relations. She enjoyed attending elegant parties, borrowing couture gowns, and meeting famous people such as Marlene Dietrich, Orson Welles and Hubert de Givenchy.

The following year, Krantz returned to New York, where she embarked on a career in magazine journalism.She worked in the fiction department at Good Housekeeping before being promoted to fashion editor and having the opportunity to write several articles for the magazine.

In 1953 Krantz attended a Fourth of July party hosted by her high school friend Barbara Walters. There she met her future husband, future film and television producer Steve Krantz. The two were married the following year, on February 19, 1954. Three years later, she gave birth to their first son and gave up her full-time job, choosing instead to write part-time from home. She wrote many freelance articles for Macleans, McCalls, Ladies' Home Journal, and Cosmopolitan. Her best-known article by far was "The Myth of the Multiple Orgasm," which appeared in Cosmpolitan.Her magazine career gave Krantz an opportunity to interview many women about their lives, allowing her to gain an understanding of other women that was extremely useful in her later career.

In 1976, Krantz's husband decided to take flying lessons. Krantz chose to join him, despite the fact that she was deathly afraid of flying. After exorcising that demon, she determined to face her other fears. For the first time since college, she attempted to write fiction. Although her husband had been insisting for years that she was a natural storyteller, Krantz believed that she was writing the book simply to prove to him that she was not able to write good fiction.

She completed her first novel, Scruples, nine months later. The year it was published, 1978, Krantz turned 50. In an unusual turn of events for the time, the books were not copyrighted under her own name but by Steve Krantz Productions. That first novel reached the number one spot on the New York Times bestseller list. Her second novel, Princess Daisy, netted her an astounding $5 million before its publication. The paperback rights sold for a then-record $3.2 million. Princess Daisy and her next two novels also became number one bestsellers. Over 80 million copies of her books are in print in over 50 languages. Seven of her novels have also been adapted for television (as either films or mini-series), with her husband serving as executive producer for some of them. She has also written one original mini-series for television, Judith Krantz's "Secrets", in 1992.

Krantz serves on the Advisory Board of Compassion & Choices, an organization dedicated to providing choices for the dying. In 2006 she also joined the Board of the Music Center of Los Angeles County.

Krantz's husband Steve died in 2007 of complications of pneumonia. They had two sons, Tony and Nicholas, both of whom live in Los Angeles, California. She was sister-in-law to Shari Lewis, who was married to Krantz's brother, Jeremy. She has two grandchildren, Kate and Michael Krantz.

Penny Jordan

Penelope "Penny" Jones was born on November 24, 1946 in Preston, Lancashire, England, and weighed about seven pounds. She was the first child of Anthony Winn Jones, who died aged 85, and his wife, Margaret Louise Groves Jones, 86, who passed to Jones her Scots Celtic heritage. She has a brother, Anthony Jones, and a sister, Prudence "Pru" Jones.

She has been a keen reader from childhood. Her mother would leave her in the children's section of the local library while she changed her father's library books.[3] Her story-telling career began at the age of eight when she began telling original bedtime stories to her younger sister.

Her all-time favourite books are those of Jane Austen, Dorothy Dunnett, Catherine Cookson, Georgette Heyer, Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare's plays and poetry and the Bible. After reading a serialised Mills & Boon book in a woman's magazine, she fell in love with the hero. Jones was eleven and she quickly became an avid fan.

Jones left grammar school in Rochdale with O-Levels in English Language, English Literature and Geography. In her early days, she spent fourteen years working as a shorthand typist in Manchester.

Jones married Steve Halsall, an accountant and "lovely man", who smoked and drank too heavily, and suffered oral cancer with bravery and dignity. They did not have children, but she has a bakers dozen of assorted godchildren nieces and nephews.

Widowed, Jordan writes from an office in her beautiful mock Tudor house in Nantwich, Cheshire, a home that she shares with her dog, Sheba, and cat, Posh.

Jordan runs a writing group where she helps other aspiring writers to develop their craft, pointing them to agents and publishers who might be interested in their work. She is also active in women's charities in her native England.

Writing career

By her early twenties, Jordan was writing for herself, but her writing career began in earnest when she was 30, encouraged and supported by her husband. He bought her, at a time when he could ill afford it, the small electric typewriter on which she typed her first books.

She entered a competition run by the Romantic Novelists' Association. Although she did not win, an agent, who was looking for a new-style Georgette Heyer, contacted the R.N.A..

In March 1979, she published her first novel under the pseudonym Caroline Courtney, Duchess in Disguise, the same year she published other 4 books. Under this penname she published 25 regency romances until 1986. Her novels was published by different editorials: Arlington Books, Warner Books, G.K. Hall, Corgi Books, Prior...

From 1981 to 1983, she signed 3 air-hostess romps as Melinda Wright and 2 thrillers as Lydia Hitchcock, published by Columbine House.
Falcon's Prey as Penny Jordan, 1981/08

In 1981, Mills & Boon accepted her first novel for them, Falcon's Prey signed as Penny Jordan. Since then, almost 70 million copies of her 167 Mills & Boon (or Harlequin) novels have been sold worldwide.

Some of Penny Jordan's novels are part of series, created by her or in collaboration with other authors. Her favourite Penny Jordan's Series is The Perfect Crightons.[5] The surname for Crighton family came from her late mother in law as it was her family name prior to her marriage. The Crighton live in the fictional town Haslewich, inspired in Nantwich, the Hasle is a play on her own married surname.
Ellie Price as Annie Groves, 2003/08

Since 2003, she returned to writing historical novels as Annie Groves (she has adopted her mother's maiden-name). Jordan gains much of her inspiration from human interest stories in the news as well as her own family history. She adapted a story told by her grandmother Elsie Jones in Ellie Pride. This novel also begins a family saga.

Iris Johansen

Johansen began writing after her children left home for college. She first achieved success in the early 1980s writing category romances. In 1991, Johansen began writing suspense historical romance novels, starting with the publication of The Wind Dancer. In 1996 Johansen switched genres, turning to crime fiction, with which she has had great success. She had seventeen consecutive New York Times bestsellers as of November 2006.

Johansen lives in Georgia and is married. Her son, Roy Johansen, is an Edgar Award-winning screenwriter and novelist. Her daughter, Tamara, serves as her research assistant.

Linda Howard

Linda S. Howington was born on August 3, 1950 in Alabama, United States. She began to write at nine years old, and wrote for twenty years for her own enjoyment. She worked at a trucking company where she met her husband, Gary F. Howington, and then decided to try to get her work published in 1980. Her first work was published by Silhouette in 1982. She is a charter member of Romance Writers of America, joining in 1981 shortly after it was formed. She currently serves as Region 3 Director (until 31 October 2008).

Her husband is a professional bass tournament fisherman, and she travels with him to some very unglamorous locations where she works on her laptop. Linda and her husband live in a big house on a farm in Alabama, where they raise cattle and have two dogs.

Kay Hooper

Kay Hooper was born on an Air Force base in California, where her father was stationed. The family soon moved back to North Carolina, where Hooper was raised with her younger brother and sister. Her father and brother own a construction company, her sister Linda owns a business and works as Hooper's office manager and publicist. Hooper's mother was her personal assistant until her death in March 2002.

Hooper attended East Rutherford High School before enrolling in Isothermal Community College where she realized quickly that business classes were not her forte. She switched her course of study to literature and history and began indulging her long-time interest in writing. She requested a typewriter for Christmas, and after receiving it began her novel in earnest. This first novel, the Regency romance Lady Thief, was bought by Dell Publishing in 1980, when Hooper was only twenty-two. Since then she has had more than 60 novels published.

Hooper is single and lives near her family in Bostic, North Carolina. She has many cats and several dogs.

Karen Hawkins

Hawkins was raised in Tennessee, where she lived with her parents, biological brother and sister, an adopted sister, numerous foster siblings and a number of foreign exchange students. It was not uncommon for 12-15 children to be living in the house at any one time.

Hawkins has a Ph.D. in political science, and spent time teaching political science at a small college in Georgia. She studied writing by joining the Romance Writers of America and attending their workshops and conferences. Before she was published, she won RWA chapter and national contests for her work, allowing her to gain feedback and critiques from actual editors. With this feedback, she refined her craft, and sold her first book in 1998. She now publishes two books a year. Hawkins was also the driving force behind the two Lady Whistledown anthologies, developing the idea, gaining a publisher, and organizing the intertwined parts of the books..

Hawkins is divorced and currently lives in Orlando, Florida. She has two children, a son and a daughter, and is addicted to chocolate and shoes.

Lynne Graham

Lynne Graham born July 30, 1956 in Northern Ireland in an Irish-Scottish family. She met her husband when she was 14, but before marrying she completed a degree at Edinburgh University. Lynne and her husband have five children, one natural and four adopted, two from Sri Lanka and two from Guatemala. Most of her books are set in Europe

She is a popular Northern Irish author of over 60 romance novels. She published her novels in Mills & Boon since 1987.

Lindsay Armstrong

Lindsay Armstrong is a popular South African-Australian writer of over 65 romance novels. She published her novels in Mills & Boon's since 1981.

Lindsay Armstrong born in South Africa. She work in an agency and an airline, when she met a New Zealand-born man, who worked in West Africa, and six months later he was her husband. Their first three children were born in South Africa, they had other two children, one in London, England, and one in Australia. Lindsay currently lives in Australia, although she travels much and she visits Africa frequently.

Shannon Drake

Born Heather Graham on March 15, 1953 in Dade County, Florida, USA, where she grew up. She married Dennis Pozzessere shortly after her high school graduation. After high school she went on and earned a degree in theater arts from the University of South Florida. She spent several years after that working in dinner theater, singing backup vocals, and bartending. After the birth of her third child, Pozzessere decided she couldn't afford to go to work anymore. She chose to stay at home, and, to fill her time, began to write horror stories and romances. After two years, in 1982, she sold her first novel, When Next We Love.

In the years since then, Pozzessere has written over one hundred novels and novellas. These novels run the gamut of the romance genre, from historical fiction to category, from romantic suspense to time travel, and from vampire fiction to Christmas stories. She has been the launch author for Dell's Ecstasy Supreme line, Silhouette's Shadows line, and for Harlequin's mainstream brand, Mira Books. Her books have been published in twenty languages. Romance Writers of America presented her with the 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, and Novelists Inc.

Pozzessere is a founder of the Florida chapter of the Romance Writers of America, and since 1999 has hosted the annual Romantic Times Vampire Ball for charity. In 2006, she hosted the first Writers for New Orleans on Labor Day, with workshops and a dinner theater event to benefit the city and the libraries. Labor Day of 2007 made it an annual event.

Pozzessere is a certified scuba diver. She and her husband live in Florida. They have five children

Lisa Kleypas

Kleypas has always loved to read, especially within the romance genre. She began writing her own romance novels during her summer breaks from studying political science at Wellesley College, Her parents agreed to support her for a few months after her graduation so that she could finish her latest manuscript. Approximately two months later, at age 21, Kleypas sold her first novel.

At approximately the same time, the 5'2" Kleypas was named Miss Massachusetts. During her competition at the Miss America pageant, Kleypas sang a song she had written, earning her a "talented nonfinalist" award.

Kleypas has been a full-time romance writer since selling that first book. Her novels have ranked high on major best-seller lists, sold millions of copies around the globe and have been translated into fourteen different languages.

In October 1998, Kleypas's Texas home flooded within a matter of hours after heavy rains inundated their town. She and her family lost everything except the clothes they were wearing and her purse. Within days,her colleagues at Avon sent boxes of clothes and books to help the family recover. For Kleypas, though, the defining moment was the after the flood, when she and her mother (whose home had also flooded), made a quick trip to the store to purchase toothbrushes, clean clothes, and other necessities. Separately, each of them had also chosen a romance novel, a necessity to them in helping them escape the stress they were currently under. To Kleypas, this realization validated her decision to write romance novels instead of more literary works.

Though primarily known for her historical romance novels, Kleypas made an announcement in early 2006 concerning her momentary departure from historical romances to delve into the contemporary romance genre. She does plan to write historical romances again in the future.

Lisa lives in Washington with her husband, Gregory, and their two children.

Jayne Ann Krentz

Jayne Ann Castle was born March 28, 1948, in Cobb, California, USA. Her mother, Alberta Castle, raised her and her two brothers, Stephen and James in Borrego Springs during her first 10 years.

She earned a B.A in History at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1970.Fearful that she would be unable to find a job using her degree, she elected to obtain a Masters degree in Library Science from San Jose State University. Immediately after graduation she married Frank Krentz, an engineer, whom she had met at San Jose State. The couple moved to the Virgin Islands, where Krentz worked for a year as an elementary school librarian, a time she refers to as "an unmitigated career disaster." Realizing that she enjoyed being a librarian but not the aspects of teaching that working in an elementary school required, Krentz moved into the higher levels of academia, including a stint in the Duke University library system. Krentz and her husband later moved to Seattle, Washington.

Krentz has been generous in sharing her wealth with libraries. She established the Castle Humanities Fund at UCSC's University Library to allow the library to purchase additional books and has given money to 15 Seattle-area elementary schools to enhance their library budgets. She is also a member of the Advisory Board for the Writers Programs at the University of Washington extension program.

Krentz is famous for her work ethic, beginning her writing by 7 am six days a week. She is fond of vegetarian cooking.


While working at Duke, Krentz began writing stories her way, combining elements of romance novels with paranormal twists. For six years she wrote and mailed proposals for new novels, consistently receiving rejection letters. She claims to have tried to stop writing several times during that period, but that it became a "compulsion."During this time she and her family moved to Seattle, Washington to further her husband's aerospace career.

Krentz continued writing, and, in 1979, she sold her first novel, Gentle Pirate.That novel and several that followed were published within various category romance lines, as that was the only method in which contemporary romance was published. As more publishers began to release single-title contemporary romances, Krentz shifted into writing only single-title novels.

Her first novels were released under her birth name, Jayne Castle. An ill-informed Krentz signed a contract allowing one of her publishers to own the name, and, after leaving that publisher, Krentz was unable to use that name on new works for ten years. This led to the creation of several pseudonyms, including Jayne Taylor, Jayne Bentley, Stephanie James and Amanda Glass.
Uneasy Alliance as Jayne Ann Krentz, 1984

Although by the mid-1980s she had begun using only her married name, Jayne Ann Krentz, for all of her contemporary romance novels. Her 1986 novel, Sweet Starfire was the first true futuristic romance, a subgenre that combined elements of romance novels and science fiction. The novel was a "classic road trip romance" which just happened to be set in a separate galaxy. In 1987 she published a second futuristic romance, Crystal Flame, which again allowed for a "traditional romance plot unfold[ing] in an extraordinary world."
Seduction as Amanda Quick, 1990/02

The success of these books encouraged Krentz to try to write a real historical romance with a humorous twist, which she released under the pseudonym Amanda Quick.

Krentz further expanded the boundaries of the romance genre in 1996, when she began writing paranormal futuristic novels of romantic suspense. Released under her maiden name, Jayne Castle, these novels are set far in the future in a world where everyone has a psychic talent and respectable people use marriage agencies instead of choosing their own mates. As is customary in her writing, in each case the protagonists have a mystery to solve or a villain to defeat.

All of her novels, regardless of their setting, are known for containing suspense, romance, and humor, and many also dwell on family relationships. Psychic themes also appear throughout Krentz's work. In 2006 she began a new series, called The Arcane Society, which will include books written under both the Jayne Ann Krentz and Amanda Quick names. The books tells the stories of members of the Arcane Society for the psychically gifted, and each hero and heroine has his or her own psychic power. The books will feature a mystery for the protagonists to solve while they are learning to deal with their psychic abilities. The heroes of her novels are always alpha males who are as strong and determined as her heroines.


Over 122 of her novels (all of which are romances) have been published, with 32 of them placing on the New York Times Bestseller List. In total, there are over 23 million copies of her books in print. Krentz has been nominated 22 times for Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Awards, winning in 2004 for Falling Awake and in 1995 for Trust Me. She has also received a Romantic Times Career Achievement Award.

An outspoken advocate of the merits of romantic fiction, Krentz maintains that "[p]opular fiction encapsulates and reinforces many of our most fundamental cultural values. Romance is among the most enduring because it addresses the values of family and human emotional bonds." To help educate the public about the genre she became the editor of and a contributor to Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women: Romance Writers on the Appeal of the Romance, a non-fiction essay collection that won the prestigious Susan Koppelman Award for Feminist Studies.Krentz was the inspiration for, and first recipient of, the Romantic Times Jane Austen Award, created to "honor those in the romance community who have significantly impacted our genre."

Jayne Ann Krentz's novel The Waiting Game was adapted for the Harlequin Romance Series teleplay in 1998. The movie starred Chris Potter with Paula Abdul in the female supporting role, directed by Vic Sarin.

Nicole Jordan

Nicole Jordan was born in Oklahoma. Her father was in the US Army, so the family moved frequently, with Jordan actually graduating from high school in Germany. She credits her mother with instilling her love of romance novels. Her mother began reading aloud to her from Pride and Prejudice and The Scarlet Pimpernel when Jordan was ten years old. Before long, she was reading Victoria Holt and Mary Stewart romances.

Jordan earned a degree in civil engineering from Georgia Tech. She then spent eight years working as a manufacturing manager for Proctor and Gamble making disposable diapers and toilet tissue. After reading the novel Tears of Gold by Laurie McBain, Jordan began dreaming of writing her own stories. After attending a goal-setting workshop with the theme "Do it now -- don't wait until you're too old to explore your dreams," Jordan went home and began writing one of her ideas down in long-hand. After four years of part-time writing and editing and many rejections, Zebra books purchased this first story in 1985.

Jordan and her husband moved from Atlanta to Utah. She owns a horse, Irish Outlaw, which is an Irish Thoroughbred. Jordan often competes with him in shows. Jordan has no children.

Susan Krinard

Susan Krinard is an author of paranormal romance, science fiction, and fantasy.

Susan received a BFA in Illustration from the California College of Arts and Crafts. She became inspired to become an author when a close friend of hers read a romantic "Beauty and the Beast"-like excerpt she'd written and suggested she try her hand at romance novels. Prince of Wolves, her first romance novel, sold within a year as part of a three book contract. Since then she has been published by HQN, Luna Books, Bantam Books, and Berkley Books.

Susan's works often build on each other. For example, the sister of the male protagonist in her werewolf romance, "Touch Of A Wolf" is the central character in a later novel, "Once A Wolf". Her stories portray paranormal beings, including vampires, werewolves, and extraterrestrials, interacting with and becoming the love interest of human characters.

Susan is originally from the Bay area, lived in Toronto in the 1980s, and now lives in New Mexico with her husband, a dog, and two cats.

Teresa Medeiros

Teresa Medeiros (born 1962) is a United States award-winning romance novelist with more than eight million books in print. She wrote her first novel at 21 and has since gone on to publish 16 books. Before becoming a well-known author, she was a nurse. According to her official biography, she lives in Kentucky with her husband and neurotic cat.

To date all of her books have all been on the New York Times Bestsellers list. She is a two-time PRISM winner, and two-time recipient of the Waldenbooks Award for bestselling fiction. Additionally she is a charter member of the Romance Writers of America Honor Roll. She is also a member of Kentucky Romance Writers and Novelists, Inc.

Dawn Atkins

Dawn Atkins has been writing since childhood. In the early 1980s she sold the first of her work, several romance short stories which were published by True Love magazine. She then wrote her first romance novel, which was rejected by publishers. For the next 13 years, Atkins did not write. She filled her time teaching second and third graders. Eventually she began rewriting her first novel, which was rejected by several agents in its new form. Atkins kept writing, and her third completed manuscript was published by Kensington Books' Precious Gems line of contemporary category romances. Getting Zack Back was published in July 1998 under the name Daphne Atkeson. Her second novel, Baby Makes Three, was released eighteen months later. Many of her later books have been published by various Harlequin category romance lines, including Temptation and Blaze.

Atkins has been twice nominated for Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Awards, for Going to Extremes and A Perfect Life.

Atkins maintains a full-time job as a writer. She and her husband, David, have one son.

Diana Palmer

Born Susan Spaeth on December 11, 1946, in Cuthbert, Georgia, United States. She grew up reading Zane Grey and fell in love with cowboys. She is a former newspaper reporter, with sixteen years experience on both daily and weekly newspapers. She resides in Georgia, where she began to write novels seriously. Kyle has been married to James Kyle since 1972, with whom she has one son, Blayne Kyle.

Kyle went back to college at the age of forty-five. She was inspired by her husband who quit his job to pursue his diploma in computer programming. She graduated summa cum laude from Piedmont College, Demorest, Georgia, in 1995 with a major in history and a double minor in archaeology and Spanish. She was named to two honor societies (the Torch Club and Alpha Chi), and was named to the National Dean's List. In addition to her writing projects, she is currently working on her master's degree in history at California State University where she plans on specializing in Native American studies.

She is a member of the Native American Rights Fund, the American Museum of Natural History, the National Cattlemen's Association, the Archaeological Institute of Amenca, the Planetary Society, The Georgia Conservancy, the Georgia Sheriff's Association, and numerous conservation and charitable organizations. Her hobbies include gardening, archaeology, anthropology, iguanas, astronomy and music.


She began selling romance novels in 1979 to MacFadden Romance under the pseudonym Diana Palmer. In 1980, she wrote The Morcai Battalion, a science fiction novel as Susan S. Kyle, continued under the pseudonym Diana Palmer 28 years later. From 1982 to 1990, she wrote by Dell Publishing seven novels under the pseudonym Diana Blayne (her son's name). In 1984, she sold a novel by Silhouette Books under the pseudonym Katy Currie. She also used her married name, Susan Kyle, from 1988 to 1995 to sell seven romance novels to Warner Books.

Now, she only used her most popular pseudonym Diana Palmer and writes for three New York publishing houses: Mira Books (mainstream romances), Silhouette Books (contemporary series romances), and Fawcett Books (historical romances). She has over 150 books in print, more of them translated and published around the world.

Her novel Diamond Girl was made into a movie, released in 1998, for television.


Her awards include seven Waldenbooks national sales awards, four B. Dalton national sales awards, two Bookrak national sales awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award for series storytelling from Romantic Times, several Affaire de Coeur awards, and two regional Romance Writers of America awards. In 1998, a Japanese Harlequin reader poll gave her Silhouette Desire novel, The Patient Nurse, its favorite book of the year award. She is listed in numerous publications, including Contemporary Authors by Gale Research, Inc., Twentieth Century Romance and Historical Writers by St. James Press, The Writers Directory by St. James Press, the International Who's Who of Authors and Writers by Meirose Press, Ltd., and Love's Leading Ladies by Kathryn Falk. She has also been awarded the Romantic Times 1992-1993 Career Achievement Award Winner for series storyteller of the year. She has also been invited to speak at Romance conventions; Palmer presented a session topic, Moving from Series Romance to Mainstream Romance, at the 9th annual Harriet Austin Writers Conference in 2002.

Betina Krahn

Krahn, born Betina Maynard, is the second daughter of Dors Maynard and Regina Triplett. Krahn learned to read at the age of four, and began making up her own stories when she was only six. In fifth grade she won a silver "Noble Order of Bookworms" pin for her achievements in reading, and the following year she began writing down her stories.

Krane was graduated from high school in Newark, Ohio and received a B.S. in Education (Biological Sciences) at Ohio State University. After college, Krahn taught science in Newark, and studied for a graduate degree at Ohio State in the summers. It was during those summers that she met her future husband, physics graduate student Donald Krahn.

The family moved to Oklahoma, where Krahn finished the work for her Masters of Education in Counseling in 1973. In 1974, she gave birth to her first child, Nathan, with the second son Zebulun arriving in 1978. With two young children, Krahn became a stay-at-home mother for a time, also finding time to volunteer on a community board working to get funding for mental health care in part of Western Oklahoma. Once the funding was secured, Krahn worked as an HR director for a mental health center.

During her time in Oklahoma, Krahn was introduced to historical romances when a friend lent her copy of a Kathleen Woodiwiss book. Soon she had plots and characters appearing in her own head and began to write them down on a yellow legal pad. With her husband's encouragement, she sent her first finished manuscript to a publisher. In January 1983, this book was bought by Zebra. Krahn and her husband purchased a computer so that she could do her first set of revisions, and the book was published later that year.

The family moved to Minnesota, and Krahn began to write full-time. By 1995, her books were making the New York Times Besteller List and in 2007 she won her first RITA Award with The Book of True Desires. Her books have been translated into many languages including Russian and Italian.

Lori Wilde

Wilde wrote her first short story at age eight, and finished her first novel four years later. At sixteen, she submitted a story to Alfred Hitchcock Magazine. Although it was rejected, she received a handwritten note telling her to keep writing. She continued to write, finishing 60 short stories over the next 10 years, persisting even while attending nursing school. All of her short stories were rejected, and a writing teacher finally suggested, in 1990, that she try to write a novel. Wilde took the teacher's advice, and in 1994 sold her second completed work to Silhouette Romance under the pseudonym Laura Anthony. Wilde wrote 11 novels under that name, with one becoming a finalist for the Romance Writers of America RITA AWard.

Until 2004, Wilde wrote category romances for Harlequin, primarily in their Duet and Blaze lines. Her first single title, License to Thrill, was published in 2003. Wilde has been nominated three times for Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Awards, for Coaxing Cupid, Pakced With Pleasure, and Santa's Sexy Secret. She has also been nominated for a Romantic Times career achievement award in series love and laughter.

In 2007, her book You Only Love Twice won first place in The Colorado Award of Excellence, the More than Magic, The Desrt Rose Golden Quill and the Lories for best romantic suspense. In 2007 she was also honored as distinguished alumna by Weatherford College.

Judith Arnold

Barbara Keiler (born April 7), well-known as Judith Arnold

Keiler can't remember a time when she did not have stories percolating in her brain. Even before she was old enough to write, she would tell herself stories when there were no adults nearby to tell one to her. When she was six years old, she wrote down a story for the first time, telling the story of a lonely bear who made a friend and lived happily ever after.

Keiler continued writing when she entered school. She was the author of her fourth grade class's play, and in sixth grade won an award for a poem she composed for National Dental Week. In high school she was published in the school's creative writing magazine and edited the school newspaper. After winning a contest in college for writing a play, Keiler decided to become a playwright.She graduated from Smith College in 1974 and earned an A.M. in creative writing from Brown University in 1976.She then spent the next ten years writing plays for production in regional theaters around the country. Because this did not provide a large enough salary to make a living, she also taught English at several local colleges. The dual workload and frequent travel caused Keiler to burn out on theater work.

Keiler's husband challenged her to take a year off of teaching to try to write and sell a novel. She accepted his dare and began to write non-stop. By the end of the year she had sold a romance novel, Silent Beginnings, to Silhouette Books. This novel was published in October 1983, a month made even more special with the arrival of her first child.

Since then, Keiler has written over 85 romance novels. These have been published in category romance lines such as Silhouette (writing as Ariel Berk),Second Chance at Love (writing as Thea Frederick),and the Harlequin lines of Temptation, American, and Superromance, as well as single-title books published by Mira (writing as Judith Arnold). She is a three-time Romantic Times award-winner and has been nominated an additional four times, including for Career Achievement. Keiler has been a finalist for the Romance Writers of America RITA Award and the Golden Medallion Award, and was nominated for the RWA's Lifetime Achievement Award. She is also a past president of Novelists, Inc..

Keiler married after her husband obtained his Ph.D. in Rhode Island, now they have two sons. She and her family live near Boston, Massachusetts.

Victoria Alexander

Victoria Alexander is an American author of historical romance novels. She has been nominated for the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award four times, winning once, for A Visit From Sir Nicholas, which Romantic Times described as "overflowing with heart-tugging scenes, simmering sexual tension, marvelous characters and meaningful lessons about life and love. "] Alexander has also won a Romantic Times Career Achievement Award.

On September 4, 2007, Avon Books released Alexander's newest novel, Lady Amelia's Secret Lover, as an e-book original, including an embedded video with Alexander's comments about the plot and characters.

Virginia Henley

Virginia Henley is the author of eighteen historical novels, including the New York Times bestsellers Seduced and Desired, as well as three novellas. Her work has been translated into fourteen languages.

Virginia Henley first published her books under Dell Publishing. From the 1980s to 1992, all her novels were published by Dell. In 1993, Island Books, a division of Dell Books, began publishing her works. There are marked differences between Henley's books published by Dell and those published by Island Books. The novels published by Dell had illustrated cover pages, with a plot synopsis on the back cover. The books published by Island had only her name and the novel's title over a background image of a particular flower with the illustration appearing on the second page.

Virginia Syddall was born in December 5, 1935 in Bolton, England, UK. Her father, Thomas Syddall, taught her to love history, she later on obtained a university degree in History.

Sherrilyn Kenyon

Sherrilyn Kenyon was born in Columbus, Kenyon's first recognition for her writing came when she won a contest in third grade by writing an essay about her single mother for Mother's Day and it was followed a year later when she won a DAR Award for a historical story she wrote about a girl living in Colonial Virginia.

Even as a child Kenyon knew that she wanted to be a writer as it provided her an escape from an abusive childhood. She is a big advocate against child abuse and participates in fundraisers to help other victims. In kindergarten, she wrote in her Brownie manual that she wanted to be a writer and a mother when she grew up. Yet neither of those ever came easy for her. At age seven she wrote and illustrated her first novel, Sharron's Secret, a horror story about a girl who uses her psychic powers to kill her brothers and takeover her school. At fourteen Kenyon made her first professional sale, and continued to write for school newspapers, yearbooks, local papers and magazines throughout high school and college. She gained her love of horror, zombies and paranormal films and novels from her mother, who never censored what movies the young girl was allowed to watch. Her mother even took her to see Night of the Living Dead at a drive-in theater when she was only four years old.


Kenyon originally intended to major in art in college so that she could become a comic book developer. She was accepted into the Savannah College of Art and Design, but was unable to afford the tuition to attend. She entered a state college instead where she majored in English, hoping to be admitted into the Creative Writing program. Her first semester of college, she was placed in a remedial English course due to her dyslexia which resulted in a low score on the placement test. The first day of class, her professor realized the mistake and had her placed in an advanced English class that the professor taught. Kenyon spent two years as an English major and as an editor for the school paper. She applied three times for admission to the Creative Writing program, but was never admitted. After her third attempt, the professor asked her not to apply again as the program was designed for students who had a serious future in publishing. Disheartened, Kenyon tried to switch her major to journalism, but was unable to be admitted there because she couldn't pass the typing test required of all students. Kenyon's right hand is partially paralyzed, making it difficult for her to type on a typewriter. With those doors closed to her, Kenyon switched majors to history. Kenyon graduated with an interdisciplinary major that combined medieval history and language with Classical Studies. She had enough credits to also earn minors in philosophy, psychology, and French, and to earn a certificate of Medieval Studies.

When Kenyon was 20, she decided it was time to take her experience writing for magazines and parlay it into the book market. Just as she finished her manuscript and prepared to send it to publishers, her older brother who was a staunch supporter of her work died, and a devastated Kenyon lost the desire to write. That same brother had borrowed a typewriter from his roommate over the Christmas break at school so that she could type up her manuscript for submission. His last words to her about her writing were, "I know this one's a winner, baby. I can't wait to see it in print." That manuscript later become her novel, Born of Night.


Three years later, Kenyon moved to Richmond, Virginia to marry her longtime boyfriend. While moving her things in, her husband came across her old novels and writings, and asked her why she didn't write anymore. Kenyon told him her desire to write had died with her brother and packed her manuscripts away. Due to the recession, Kenyon was unable to find a job of any kind. A childhood friend mentioned that the magazine she was editing needed several articles written and offered them to Kenyon. Although Kenyon had not written a word of fiction since her brother's death, Kenyon agreed to write the articles. As soon as she began the work she once again began feeling that writing was something she had to do. Even though they had very little money, as soon as her husband found out that she was writing again he immediately bought her a Brother word processor. He set it up in a corner of their apartment on a card table and with a ten dollar steno chair.

Two years later Kenyon sold her first book, Born of Night, with five more sales coming quickly. She won several awards and made several bestseller lists, but after the publication of her sixth novel she found herself unable to get another writing contract. For a total of four and a half years (1994 - 1998), Kenyon was unable to sell any of her manuscripts.


While her career plummeted, Kenyon was in the midst of a great deal of turmoil in her personal life. Her father died in February 1995 from cancer. A very difficult pregnancy cost her her job. The baby arrived seven weeks early and was forced to spend six weeks in the neo-natal intensive care unit, and Kenyon barely survived this delivery. Because her husband was just finishing school, and with her inability to work and their high medical bills, the family "lost everything [we] had which wasn't much."As a result, the couple and their severely ill son were forced to live out of their car in the parking lot of a hotel in Columbus, MS until they were finally able to find lodging in a rundown apartment. Later that same year, her mother was diagnosed with cancer, and Kenyon became pregnant again. This second pregnancy resulted in serious medical issues as well, causing Kenyon to be hospitalized for the majority of the time. With her mother unable to visit because of her condition, her son restricted from visiting, and her husband spending most of his time taking care of their son and his medical issues, Kenyon turned again to her fiction where she wrote the two books that would ultimately relaunch her career.

Once her second baby was born and she was able to work again, Kenyon took a minimum wage job teaching computers. From there she worked as a web designer, still writing at every spare moment. Her agent, who'd stayed with her through all the years she hadn't been selling, continued to submit her work but every submission was turned down.


In 1997, Kenyon received the rejection she credits with relaunching her career and forever changing the course of her writing style. At that time, the hottest novels being published on the market were Regency-set historical romances. Since her critique partners at the time were well-known authors in the field, Kenyon sat down and wrote such a novel. Her agent and critique partners loved it, yet it was the manuscript that garnered her the worst rejection of her career. "No one at this publishing house will ever be interested in this author. Do not submit her work to us again." Kenyon was again devastated. Since they were still living in poverty, Kenyon promised her husband that she would never spend another cent on chasing a dream that obviously wasn't meant to be.

But she couldn't stop writing. That rejection spurred her to stop paying attention to what was selling to New York. She spent the next few months writing books for herself while listening to the characters and not the market reports. When it was done, Kenyon sent her latest work to her agent who did not like the manuscript at all and declined to further represent her. Believing her career was over and with no money left to pursue it on her own, Kenyon set her work aside.

A few weeks later, Kenyon saw a notice in a writing magazine that Laura Cifelli at HarperCollins was looking for manuscripts. Since Cifelli had been Kenyon's agent at the beginning of her career, Kenyon sent a single query letter to her. Kenyon offered Cifelli two books. The first in the Dark-Hunter series and the one her agent had left her over. Cifelli declined the paranormal idea because there was no market for those story lines. But she asked to see the historical. Kenyon borrowed money from a neighbor to send that manuscript to New York and Cifelli offered Kenyon a three book contract.Since the historical was very different from the paranormals and science fiction novels of her early career, Cifelli asked if Kenyon would mind using a pseudonym. Kenyon who was now superstitious over her real name since her initial foray had been so short-lived, chose Kinley MacGregor (the irony here is that even though the MacGregor name appeared on all the bestseller lists first, it would be under the Kenyon name that she would gain her greatest accolades). The MacGregor part pays tribute to Kenyon's Scottish ancestry and to her family who, there for a time, was forbidden to use their real names because of their conflict with a rival clan. The name seemed more than fitting for her to use to rebuild her career.

Even as Kenyon submitted her Kinley MacGregor manuscripts, she continued to work on her vampire stories. At the urging of her editor, she contracted with a new agent in late 1998. Even though that agent had never represented paranormal before and was reluctant to do so because there was no market for that style of novel, Kenyon convinced her to submit them. The Dark-Hunter novels were turned down by every house. Some even more than once. But by that summer the agent found a home for them at St. Martin's Press when Jennifer Enderlin bought them.[6] It was almost ten years to the day from the time Kenyon had submitted the first Dark-Hunter novel to the day one was contracted.

Kenyon is best known for her Dark-Hunter series, which comprise the Dark-Hunters, Were-Hunters and Dream-Hunters stories. The books deviate from traditional vampire stories in that the vampires, called Daimons, only live twenty-seven years due to a curse from the god Apollo who appears frequently in the series. To elongate their lives, the Daimon vampires are forced to take human souls in order to live. Apollo's sister, the goddess Artemis, set up an army of immortal warriors called the Dark-Hunters to kill the Daimons and free the human souls before the souls die. A few of the original Dark-Hunter heroes were taken out of fantasy stories Kenyon wrote in middle and high school.

During the mid-1980s, while working for a small science fiction magazine called The Cutting Edge, her boss asked her to write a long-running serial for the magazine. She brought many of her favorite characters from her previous fantasies into one larger series. This was the start of the Dark-Hunter world. In this series, which has now been percolating for over twenty years, Kenyon has created an entire universe, the rules of which are maintained solely in her head.

In addition to her successful fiction career, Kenyon has also written several non-fiction books. She wrote the Character-Naming Sourcebook, which was finally purchased and published by Writer's Digest. Writer's Digest was interested in launching a new series of books, and, because of Kenyon's background in studying the Middle Ages, she was asked to write Everyday Life in the Middle Ages. When the line was looking for a writer for their Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference, they again turned to Kenyon.

The Character Naming Source Book, has its roots in Kenyon's childhood. When Kenyon began writing her own stories as a small child, she began keeping a list of names that she liked for future use. As she aged, she continued to develop the list, eventually organizing it by origin, so that if she were writing a French character she could easily find a French name. When fellow author Cathy Maxwell saw the list, she insisted that Kenyon should submit it for publication, as other writers would find it invaluable.[6]
[edit] Graphic novels

Because of her lifelong love of comic books, graphic novels and manga (Kenyon credits her ability to read to her older brother who used Spiderman comics to teach her), in May 2006, Dabel Brothers Productions ("DB Pro"), then in partnership with Marvel Comics, announced the signing of an exclusive contract with Kinley MacGregor (a.k.a. Sherrilyn Kenyon), to adapt the novels in her Arthurian fantasy series, Lords of Avalon.

Lords of Avalon was intended to be produced as a monthly comic starting summer 2007, with a script adapted by Roynne Gillespie (The Burning Man) and artwork by Tommy Ohtsuka. A graphic novel edition of Sword of Darkness, the first novel in the series, was originally supposed to have been available in Summer 2007[8] but was delayed as Dabel Brothers and Marvel Comics ended their partnership. Lords of Avalon: Sword of Darkness was eventually published by Marvel Comics, rather than Dabel Brothers, with a cover date of November 2008.

Though Kenyon was in contract discussions with St. Martin's Press to have a Dark-Hunter manga adaptation as far back as 2003, it wasn't until 2006 when St. Martin's brought in Dabel Brothers Productions ("DB Pro") to be the packager of the books that they were able to move forward. Because Kenyon credits herself with being an Otaku (in the American sense of the word), it would be several months before an artist could be found that Kenyon approved of. Claudia Campos who is known for her work with Tokyopop was chosen. The first Dark-Hunter manga artwork appeared in Kenyon's nonfiction compendium, The Dark-Hunter Companion, in November 2007. It would take another year before Kenyon approved a writer for the adaption of her words, Joshua Hale Fialkov of Afro-Samurai, Elk's Run, Cyblade, Vampirella and Alibi fame. The Dark-Hunter manga will finally debut May 2009.


As a result of her love of technology, Kenyon had one of the first e-books published by the now defunct Dreams Unlimited. She was the first New York published author to contract in this emerging medium.

Barbara Andrews

Barbara Andrews is the author of 20 romance novels under her own name when her children were in kindergarten.

Writing team

Barbara's daughter, Pam Andrews, majored in journalism in college and later worked as a reporter. Pam married a college-professor and started a family, after the birth of her first child she teamed up with her mother to write romance novels.

They have published novels under the pseudonyms Jennifer Drew and Pam Rock. For several years their partnership was long-distance, but nowadays they share a house in West Virginia, along with Pam's husband and their two sons, Erik and Andrew Hanson. In summer of 2008 she moved to Nebraska with Pam and her family.

As Jennifer Drew, they were nominated for a Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award in 2003 for Best Harlequin Duets for her novel Desperately Seeking Sully.

Julie Garwood

Julie Garwood was raised in Kansas City, Missouri, the sixth of seven children in a large Irish family. She has six sisters: Sharon, Mary Kathleen, Marilyn, Mary, Mary Colette "Cookie", Joanne and Monica, and one brother: Tom. After having a tonsillectomy at age six, Garwood was a sickly child for years. Because she missed so much school, she did not learn to read as the other children her age did. She was eleven before her mother realized that other children had been doing her homework, and that Garwood was simply unable to read. A math teacher, Sister Elizabeth, devoted the entire summer that year to teaching Garwood how to read, and how to enjoy the stories she was reading. This teacher had such an impact on Garwood's life that she named her daughter Elizabeth.

While studying to be an R.N., Garwood took a Russian history course and became intrigued by history, choosing to pursue a double major in history and nursing. A professor, impressed by the quality of her essays, convinced Garwood to take a year off of school to write. The result was a children's book, What's a Girl to Do?, and her first historical novel, Gentle Warrior.

She married young with Gerry Garwood, they have three children: Gerry Jr., Bryan Michael and Elizabeth, the family resides in Leawood, Kansas. Although Garwood enjoyed her writing, she was not intending to pursue a career as an author. As a young wife and mother she took several freelance writing jobs, and wrote longer stories to amuse herself. After her youngest child started school, Garwood began attending local writers' conferences, where she soon met an agent. The agent sold both her children's book and her historical novel, and soon the publisher requested more historical romances.

Garwood's novels are particularly known for the quirkiness of her heroines, who tend to have an ability to get lost anywhere, clumsiness, and a "charming ability to obfuscate and change the direction of conversations to the consternation, frustration, but eventual acceptance of the other party." She is not afraid to tackle difficult issues, and one of her books deals with spousal abuse. Her novels are very historically accurate, and Garwood has been known to scour the library at the University of Kansas to find three sources confirming a fact before she includes it in one of her books.

In fifteen years of writing, by 2000 Garwood had penned 15 New York Times Bestsellers with over 30 million copies of her books in print. Despite her success in the historical romance genre, Garwood ventured into a new genre and began writing contemporary romantic suspense novels. Like her historicals, these contemporaries still focus on family relationships, whether between blood relatives or groups of friends who have styled themselves as a family.

Her first contemporary offering, Heartbreaker, has been optioned for film and was serialized in Cosmopolitan magazine.

Garwood admits that she does not read romance novels, primarily so that she does not have to worry about unintentional plagiarism. Instead, she enjoys reading general fiction and mystery novels, but looks forward to the day she retires so that she can catch up on the romance novels written by other authors.

B.D. Joyce

Brenda Joyce, a native of New York, wrote her first novella when she was sixteen[citation needed], and finished her first novel at twenty-five. She sold her novel quickly, and since that first publication in 1988 she has published thirty-four novels.

Her first novel, Innocent Fire, won the Best Western Romance award from the Romance Writers of America. She has also been awarded the Best Historical Romance Award and Romantic Times' Lifetime Achievement Award. There are currently eleven million copies of her novels in print in 12 countries. Joyce has had success in both the historical and contemporary romance genres.

Michele Albert

Michelle Jerott is a American writer of romance novels. She has written under both her real name and her pen name, Michele Albert. She won a Golden Heart Award, was nominated by Romantic Times and appeared on the Waldenbook's National Bestseller List. She is a member of the Authors Guild and Novelists, Inc.

Her first book, Absolute Trouble, won the Romance Writers of America's 1997 Golden Heart Award for best unpublished contemporary romance. She published her first four books under her name, Michelle Jerott, and later she decided used the pen name Michele Albert, to create a series "Avalon Investigations", that also are relationate with her debut book. Her Bodyguard and Getting Her Man were both nominated for Best Mainstream Novel by Romantic Times. Off Limits appeared on the Waldenbook's National Bestseller List.

Michelle Jerott obtained a degree in Classical archaeology from the University of Michigan. Before writing, she worked as archaeologist. She became mother and went to work in a research lab, which allowed her time to write.

Michelle lives with her husband, her high school-aged son, his three children, and two lazy cats in a small town outside Madison, Wisconsin.

Nancy Jean Buckingham

Nancy Jean Buckingham (born 10 August 1924) is a British writer of gothic and romance novels in collaboration with her husband, John Sawyer (4 October 1919 -- 1994). They wrote novels under her maiden name Nancy Buckingham, and under the pseudonyms Christina Abbey, Erica Quest, Nancy John and Hilary London. Their last novel was released in 1992.

From 1973 through 1975, Buckingham served as Chairman of the Romantic Novelists' Association, and now she is one of its vice-presidents.

Lynn Kurland

Lynn Kurland is an only child. Her first attempts at writing came she was five years old and living in Hawaii. Her series of short stories featured a young man who encountered all sorts of trouble. After she moved to the mainland U.S. a short time later, she put aside her interest in writing to focus on music. Kurland always loved to read, though, and in college was introduced to romance novels. She soon decided to write her own novel.

Stardust of Yesterday was published in 1996, winning two RITA awards. To date, she has published seventeen full-length novels, with her seventeenth and eighteenth due out in January and April 2010, respectively. She has also published eight novellas, one of which won a RITA. She is known for her characters and the way their lives intertwine through all of her novels. It is this skill that has kept all of her books from going out of print.

Kurland's novels have appeared on the The New York Times Bestseller List, USAToday Bestseller List, The New York Times Extended Bestseller List, the Amazon Top 100, and the Barnes and Noble, Waldenbooks, and B. Dalton Bestsellers lists. She has won three RITA awards and was a finalist for a fourth.

Kim Lawrence

Though lacking much authentic Welsh blood, Kim Lawrence comes from English-Irish stock. She was born and brought up in North Wales. She returned there when she married, and her sons were both born on Anglesey, an island off the coast. Though not isolated, Anglesey is a little off the beaten track, but lively Dublin, which Kim loves, is only a short ferry ride away. Today they live on the farm her husband was brought up on. Welsh is the first language of many people in this area and Kim's husband and sons are all bilingual she is having a lot of fun, not to mention a few headaches, trying to learn the language! She is a keen gardener and cook and enjoys running often on the beach, as living on an island the sea is never very far away. She is usually accompanied by her Jack Russell, Sprout don't ask, it's long story!

With small children, the unsocial hours of nursing didn't look attractive so encouraged by a husband who thinks she can do anything she sets her mind to, Kim tried her hand at writing. Always a keen Mills & Boon reader, it seemed natural for her to write a romance novel. In 1995, she published her first novels and now she can't imagine doing anything else.

Christina Dodd

Dodd is the youngest of three daughters (her sisters are 8 and 10 years older than she is) whose father died before she was born. Although her mother had been a housewife with few job skills, after Dodd's birth she found a job and worked diligently to support her children. Despite the hard work, she still found time every day to read to her children, instilling in Dodd a love of books.

Dodd attended college in Boise, Idaho, where she met her husband, Scott. After graduation, she worked as a draftsman in an engineering firm, designing a sawmill. During her lunch hour, Dodd would begin reading a romance novel. While working during the afternoon, she would often plot an ending for the story, and almost always eventually discovered that she liked her endings better than the ones the author intended. After her daughter was born in 1980, Dodd decided to stay at home and try to write a book. Over the next ten years, she wrote three romance novels. For five of these years, she also worked part-time at an independent bookstore. By talking to customers and watching what they purchased, Dodd was able to learn more about what people like to read. Her first two manuscripts were consistently rejected. The third, Candle in the Window, won the Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Award for unpublished authors, resulting in its publication in 1991 by HarperCollins. The book won many awards and has not gone out of print.

Her first editor was conservative, and often cut or severely trimmed the love scenes that Dodd had written. When Dodd moved from HarperCollins to Avon, her new editor chose not to interfere in the love scenes. Her first novel for Avon, A Well Pleasured Lady, was the first of her novels to include love scenes written in Dodd's "normal, unedited frankness." A Well Pleasured Lady also marked Dodd's transition to writing historical romances set in the Regency period. Regencies allowed her to continue writing historicals while including fewer details on "what the characters are wearing, what the idioms mean, and who the scions of society were."

The heroines of Dodd's historical romance novels are based on her mother, an "impoverished yet determined woman who, in spite of adversity, fights to take control of her life and always wins." Her novels have since been translated into twelve languages[citation needed] and have appeared on the New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists. Her 2003 novel, My Favorite Bride, spent 15 weeks in the top 15 of the New York Times Best Seller List. The Romance Writers of America have awarded her their RITA Award, the highest honor given to romance novelists. Dodd has even appeared as a clue in the Los Angeles Times crossword puzzle (on November 18, 2005).

In 2003 Dodd released her first contemporary romance.

Dodd and her family have lived in California and Idaho, but currently reside in Texas.

Jude Deveraux

Born Jude Gilliam in September 20, 1947 in Fairdale, Kentucky. She is the eldest child of four, and has a large extended family. In 1967, Jude married and took her husband's surname of White, and her early books had a copyright notice giving her name as "Jude White". Jude and White divorced after four years.

She attended Murray State University and received a degree in Art, and she was a 5th-grade teacher prior to her debut as a writer. She began writing in 1976 as Jude Deveraux, and her first book was published in 1977. Following the publication of her first novel, she resigned her teaching position.

Jude later married Claude Montassir, with whom she adopted a son, Sam Alexander Montassir. Her son died at the age of eight in a motorcycle accident on October 6, 2005. She and Montassir are divorced.

Deveraux has lived in several countries and all over the United States. She currently lives in North Carolina and also has a home in Italy.

Her historical romances generally have storylines centered on strong, capable heroines and how they meet and fall in love with their heroes. Deveraux has also participated in romance anthologies with collections of shorter stories along with other romance authors.

Although she is best known for her medieval romances, Deveraux has also written stories set in later time periods, including post-Revolutionary America, nineteenth century Colorado, and nineteenth century New Mexico.

She has written several time-travel romances, and her latest novels have had a contemporary setting. Many of her more recent books feature paranormal storylines.

A great many of her books follow the same family, the Montgomerys, through time and across continents, leading fans to regularly try to keep track of their family tree in the novels. Their cousins, the Taggerts, also feature prominently in her stories.

Janet Dailey

Janet Anne Haradon was born on May 21, 1944 in Storm Lake, Iowa. Dailey always wanted to be a writer and loved books. Her three elder sisters often read to her when she was good. By the age of four, she had her own library card. She graduated in 1962 from Jefferson High School in nearby Independence, Iowa. She attended secretarial school in Omaha, Nebraska, and in 1963 went to work at the construction firm owned by her future husband, Bill Dailey, who was fifteen years her senior. The two continued to work together, often spending 17 hours a day, seven days a week at work.

In 1974, after asserting yet again that she could write a better romance novel than those she had read, Dailey's husband challenged her to prove it. She sold her first manuscript to Harlequin, becoming their first American author. American writers had never written for category romances, and Harlequin was unwilling to gamble that readers would embrace American themes or American settings, and rejected other American authors, such as Nora Roberts, because they "already had their American writer."

Barbara Cartland

After a year as a gossip columnist for the Daily Express, Cartland published her first novel, Jigsaw (1923), a slightly risque society thriller that became a bestseller. She also began writing and producing somewhat racy plays, one of which, Blood Money (1926), was banned by the Lord Chamberlain's Office. In the 1920s and '30s Cartland was one of the leading young hostesses in London society, noted for her beauty, energetic charm and daring parties. Her fashion sense also had a part in launching her fame and she was one of the first clients of designer Sir Norman Hartnell, remaining a client until he died in 1979. He made her presentation and wedding dresses, the latter was made to her own design against Hartnell's wishes and she admitted it was a failure.

Barbara Cartland's image as a self-appointed "expert" on romance drew some ridicule in her later years, when her social views became more conservative. Indeed, although her first novels were considered sensational, Barbara Cartland's later (and arguably most popular) titles were comparatively tame with virginal heroines and few, if any, suggestive situations. Almost all of Cartland's later books were historical in theme, which allowed for the believability of chastity (at least, to many of her audience).

Despite their tame story lines, Barbara Cartland's later novels were highly successful. By 1983 she rated the longest entry in the British Who's Who (though most of that article was a list of her books), and was named the top-selling author in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records. In the mid-1990s, by which time she had sold over a billion books, Vogue magazine called her "the true Queen of Romance". She became a mainstay of the popular media in her trademark pink dresses and plumed hats, discoursing on matters of love, marriage, politics, religion, health and fashion. She was publicly opposed to the removal of prayer from state schools and spoke against infidelity and divorce, although she admitted to being acquainted with both of these moral failings.

Liz Carlyle

Carlyle attended college on a Scripps Howard writing scholarship and majored in journalism. She spent much of her career working in Human Resources and Labor Relations in the chemical and automotive industries however. She did not begin writing until December 1996 when she was between jobs. She finished the novel within two months and attempted to find a publisher for it. Although that work did not sell, Pocket Books was interested in seeing more of her work. In 1998 they bought two novels from her, publishing the first, My False Heart, in 1999. All of her novels are considered historical romance and they are all loosely linked by characters who are either related or acquainted.

In 2003, Carlyle contributed a novella to the anthology Big Guns, marking her first foray into contemporary romance.

She has been nominated for Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Awards five times, winning in 1999 for My False Heart. She has also been nominated for a Romantic Times Career Achievement Award, and won a Romance Writers of America RITA Award in 2006 for Best Long Historical Romance (The Devil to Pay).Several of her books have become USA Today bestsellers.

Sandra Brown

Sandra Brown was born in Waco, Texas and raised in Ft. Worth. She majored in English at Texas Christian University (TCU) in Fort Worth, Texas , but left college in 1968 to marry her husband Michael Brown who is a former television anchorman and award-winning documentarian of Dust to Dust. After her marriage, Brown worked for KLTV in Tyler as a weathercaster, then relocated to the D/FW area where she became a reporter for WFAA-TV's short-lived PM Magazine.

Brown began writing in 1981 after her husband dared her to. Since then she has published nearly 70 novels and had over 50 New York Times bestsellers. In 2008 Sandra realized her dream of a college degree when she was presented with an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from her alma mater, TCU.

Her novel French Silk was made into a movie, released in 1994, for television. Susan Lucci, Shari Belafonte, and Lee Horsley starred in it.

In 2007 she contributed to Court TV's series "Murder By The Book" in regard to the murder of Betty Gore in Wylie, Texas, on Friday, June 13, 1980.

Connie Brockway

Connie Brockway was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota but spent several years in suburban Buffalo, New York. Her family returned to Edina, Minnesota where she attended high school. In 1976, Brockway received a B.A. from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. She met her husband, David Brockway, while earning an M.A. in Creative Writing at the University of Minnesota. They have a daughter. The couple currently live in Minnesota.

Brockway decided to take a year and try to write a book once her daughter entered school. In 1994, Brockway published her first book, Promise Me Heaven. Over 1.5 million copies of her books are now in print, and they can be found in thirteen countries. Brockway has been a finalist for the Romance Writers of America's RITA Award eight times, winning twice. Although Brockway made her mark with historical romance, in 2005 she announced that she would take a hiatus from historical romance and begin writing contemporary romance novels.

Suzanne Brockmann

Brockmann attended Boston University's School of Broadcasting and Film majoring in film and minoring in creative writing. However she did not graduate as she dropped out to sing in a band. Afterwards she met her husband and started a family. It was after having her second child that Brockmann started writing, her first published novel was written along with nine other manuscripts in 1992. The book, Future Perfect, was published in 1993.

In 1996, Brockmann published the first in her Tall, Dark & Dangerous series. The series develops among a fictional group of Navy SEALs. The books following in the series, and that of the Troubleshooters, Inc. series are all classified in a sub genre known as 'military/romantic suspense'.

Brockmann has garnered the attention of magazines such as Out, which serves the gay community, with the publishing of her book Hot Target which has a subplot dealing with a romance of an openly gay recurring character in the Troubleshooters, Inc. series. Brockmann has stated that she is a PFLAG mom, supporting her gay son, Jason, and dedicating her book to him.

Jill Barnett

Jill Barnett is a best-selling American author of women's fiction and romance novels.

In 1988, Jill Barnett sold her first novel, The Heart's Haven, to Pocket Books. It was published two years later, and spent three weeks on the bestseller list. She continued to write for Pocket, and by the time her fourth book was published she had been named a lead author. Her early novels were historical romances, set in diverse times and places, ranging from medieval England to 19th-century America. Unlike many romance novels, Barnett's often include unique points of view; one novel was written from the perspective of the heroine and the hero's seven-year-old daughter; the hero's perspective was not told. Barnett uses her degree in history to ensure that her books are historically accurate.

While Barnett was working on Carried Away in 1995, her husband died. Although at first she did not feel that she would be able to write happy endings again, she completed the book and continued her career.

Barnett has written over fifteen novels. Her novels can be read in nineteen languages, and there are more than seven million copies of her books in print.

Susan Andersen

Andersen was raised in Seattle, Washington with her two older brothers. She trained as a dental assistant, although she did not like working for dentists. After she turned 30, Andersen felt that she might have the "life experience to string an entire book together." Her first novel, Shadow Dance was published in 1989.

Her novels are known for being funny as well as containing "sexy sizzle and great characterization." She has been nominated three times for Romantic Times Magazine's Reviewer's Choice Awards, winning in 1998 for Baby, I'm Yours. She has also been named a Romantic Times Career Achievement Award winner.She has appeared three times on the list of 10 novels picked as Amazon.com Editor's Choice (in 2001, 2002 and 2003).

Suzanne Robinson

Lynda Suzanne Robinson was born on July 6, 1951 in Amarillo Texas. She has a doctoral degree in anthropology with a specialty in the subdiscipline of archaeology from the University of Texas at Austin. She has done field work in both the Middle East and the United States, as well as museum research and work in exhibits of ancient art.

Robinson completed her education only to discover that she had "burned out" on academia. She was encouraged by her husband to explore a writing career, sat down at her computer to write five pages of a story, and knew that writing fiction was what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. Now she uses the knowledge gained in graduate school and fieldwork to write novels the authenticity of which has been acclaimed by critics and readers alike.

Her first published novel, "Heart of the falcon", was a historical romance set in ancient Egypt with a heavy dose of suspense and mystery. It later became the model for a mystery series set in ancient Egypt-the Lord Meren series. As Suzanne Robinson has written twelve historical romances of various settings and time periods-from ancient Egypt to the Elizabethan and Victorian periods. Published by Bantam Books, her novels are praised for their complex, intriguing plots, unique characterization and historical authenticity. Her latest undertaking is a novel of romantic suspense set in civil war Washington D.C. Robinson has been called "an author of star quality" and "spectacularly talented".

As Lynda S. Robinson is an author of critically acclaimed historical novels-the Lord Meren series of ancient Egyptian mysteries. Her first mystery was published by Walker & Company (February, '94). Set in the reign of the pharaoh Tutankhamun, Murder in the Place of Anubis received a starred review from Publishers Weekly (January 3, 1994). Called an "exceptional debut", "riveting" and "a memorable tale", Murder in the Place of Anubis also received excellent response from Kirkus Reviews, Bookline, and Mystery News, to name a few. Her second and third novels, Murder at the God's Gate (February '95) and Murder at the Feast of Rejoicing (February, '96) again received rave reviews from Publishers Weekly and the New York Times Book Review, as well as major national newspapers. The Lord Meren series is published in paperback by Ballantine. The first book is now in a fourth paperback printing. Robinson is excited at the enthusiastic response to her novels and is please that the fourth Lord Meren novel-Eater of Souls-gained her fourth starred review in a row from Publishers Weekly. Again acclaimed by the New York Times Book Review for Eater of Souls, she has continued the successful series with Drinker of Blood and Slayer of Gods. Robinson is especially gratified that her mysteries have won the acclaim of Egyptologists for their accuracy and authentic portrayal of life in ancient Egypt. Her latest Lord Meren story is "Heretic's Dagger", a short story in The Mammoth Book of Egyptian Whodunnits, released in October, 2002.

Robinson lives in Texas in the south central hill country with her husband.