I've been published by Mills & Boon since 2007..but I'd been making up stories in my head for as long as I can remember. It was a long walk home from school, and there were no ipods in those days to keep you amused! When I wasn't daydreaming, I had my nose stuck in a book. My parents used to take me to the library every Saturday, until I was old enough to get there on my own, and my house was always full of books. During school holidays, the whole family loved to visit stately homes and castles. As soon as we got home, my older sister and I would either dress up as lords and ladies, and romp around the garden, or, if it was raining, retreat to our bedroom where we would draw intricately detailed plans of our very own imaginary stately home, complete with secret tunnels, dungeons, and usually, a maze in the extensive grounds. When I was old enough to go to university, I studied English literature, with Philosophy. I was not sure what I wanted to do after that, but meeting a handsome student of maths, who was the owner of a very powerful motorbike helped me make up my mind. Reader, I married him. For many years I felt it was important to stay at home to raise our two children, but one day, when the youngest had gone to senior school, I began to wonder if all those stories I made up to occupy my mind whilst attending to mundane chores, would interest anyone else. I started to write some of them down, and eventually decided that one of them was "deep" enough to merit attention from publishers. It took me almost two years to complete, mainly because I kept tearing it up and starting all over again. And having to keep going out to work to help pay for school fees, then university tuition, slowed progress down as well. Needless to say, this masterpiece was rejected by every single publisher I sent it to, but by this time, writing had become an addiction. Four more stories got rejected, before Mills & Boon bought "His Cinderella Bride", a regency romance. I do have some other interests, besides writing! I love spending time pottering in my garden. And recently I've taken up ballroom dancing as a way to try and keep fit (and keep the romance alive in my marriage!)

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information. This author also writes under the name Francesca Shaw. I have had my nose buried in a history book - fact or fiction - for as long as I can remember, but even more important to me are the places and the objects that conjure up the past. My first attempt at historical fiction at the age of eight was three pages of improbable medieval drama set in the local castle. With a degree in geography and archaeology I love to try and 'read' the landscape and the buildings in it for clues about the past. Virtually any place can trigger ideas for plots, but I am particularly inspired by Venice, Burgundy, Mediterranean islands and the Hertfordshire and Norfolk countryside. I live in England in a village in Bedfordshire with my long-suffering husband. He is not sure whether to be flattered or alarmed to be told he is the inspiration for all my romantic heroes! Whenever possible we escape to our cottage on the North Norfolk coast where Percy, the bossy pheasant, allows us to share the garden. My resolution every time I start on a new plot is to plan it carefully, make copious notes first and write lots of drafts in a disciplined and orderly manner. What inevitably happens is that the story starts to write itself in my head until it gets completely out of control - meanwhile my study floor becomes a sea of open books, prints and maps and I am found sitting in the car at traffic lights, muttering dialogue. At that point I have to start writing, knowing full well that the hero and heroine are going to take over and sabotage all my attempts at discipline. It is, after all, their story.

Sarah Mallory is the pen name for Melinda Hammond. Born in Bristol, England, UK, she grew up telling stories. She would make up adventures to relate to her school friends during break times and lunch hours, and she was once caught scribbling a story instead of listening to the French lesson. As a punishment, her teacher made her translate the story into French! She left school at sixteen and worked in offices as varied as stockbrokers, marine engineers, insurance brokers, biscuit manufacturers and even a quarrying company. She married at nineteen, but continued to work until the birth of her first child. It was at that time that she decided to try her hand at her first love—writing, and shortly after the birth of her daughter she had her first book, Fortune's Lady, published under the pen name of Melinda Hammond. This was quickly followed by two more historical novels, Summer Charade and Autumn Bride, but with the birth of her twin sons the demands of family life meant that writing had to take a backseat for a few years. A compulsive scribbler, she never stopped writing and continued to work on research for her novels, experimenting with contemporary scenarios as well as writing pantomimes for her children's school. In 1989 the family moved to an isolated Pennine farmhouse in West Yorkshire, not far from Brontë country, where the family expanded to include a dog, two gerbils and a dozen chickens. The growing family needed funding and she went back to work full-time. The writing had to be put on hold. Then, in March 2000, Sarah stepped off a curb and landed in hospital with one ankle broken and one badly sprained. This laid her up on a sofa for twelve weeks and gave her the time she needed to finish a novel. She wrote as Melinda Hammond and Maid of Honour was published the same year. Since then she has never looked back. She's published more than a dozen books under this pen name and has won the Reviewers' Choice Award in 2005 from Singletitles.com for Dance for a Diamond. Her novel Gentlemen in Question was a Historical Novel Society Editors' Choice Title in November 2006. In 2012 her novel The Dangerous Lord Darrington won the Love Story of the Year by the Romantic Novelists' Association. She is now concentrating on writing romantic historical adventures for Mills & Boon.