| I credit my husband Joe and my love of travel with starting my career as a romance novelist; it was his comments on a letter describing a trip to New Orleans that made me realize I might actually have the talent necessary to write something more than office memos and computer manuals. |
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| My
first book was published by Harlequin Temptation in October, 1984.
When it made #7 on Waldenbooks' Romance Bestseller List at about the
same time my second novel was being contracted for, I decided to chuck
the 9-to-5 business world in favor of a full-time writing career.
It turned out to be the best decision I'd made since marrying Joe.
On a more personal note, I was born in Santa Cruz, California, but spent most of my growing-up years on a farm in Hayward, a little town across the Bay from San Francisco. Since meeting and marrying Joe, however, I have lived in almost every corner of the country, from a schooner anchored in Hawaii's Ala Wai Harbor, to a loft in New York's Greenwich Village, to a cabin at the foot of Mt. Bachelor in Oregon, to deep in the heart of Dallas, Texas, to the Maryland suburbs outside of Washington D.C., to the home of Thoroughbreds and blue grass in Louisville, Kentucky, to southern New Jersey, to the heart of California's wine country in the beautiful Sonoma valley, to the frequently frozen tundra of Minnesota, to perpetually sunny San Diego, to the great state of Indiana, where we currently reside with two gorgeous Dobermans who think it is their job to keep the world safe from squirrels. I have also been fortunate enough to have traveled extensively, visiting many foreign locales including Canada, Panama, Singapore, Malaysia, the British Isles, France, Italy and Austria. In between packing and unpacking, I've written twenty-seven contemporary romance novels, numerous grant proposals, user's guides and manuals of various types, and lots of reports, marketing material, and press releases. Most recently, I wrote a cookbook based on my father's fifty-plus years of experience in the restaurant business. When I'm not writing, traveling or cooking, I enjoy reading, hosting dinner parties and going to plays, concerts and movies. I also like to attend educational classes and seminars, the more off-beat, the better, because you never know when some interesting bit of information will come in handy for a new book. Among my more interesting classes have been courses in How To Be A Private Detective, Limousine Driver Training, Handgun Use and Safety, Belly Dancing, Modern Witchcraft, Chinese cooking and Past Life Regression and Welding; all subjects which have—or will—come up in one of my books. For me, research (along with not having to wear panty hose every day!) is one of the special perks of a writing career. |
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