Dear Readers, The love stories in my family have always been fodder for romance novels. My maternal grandmother and grandfather simultaneously ran a business together and raised four daughters, long before it was an accepted thing to do. Grandpa O’Dell ran the gas station and the barber shop; Grandma O’Dell managed the grocery and cooked for customers. They were true partners and madly in love and parted, tragically, way too soon when he succumbed to cancer when he was in his early fifties. Grandma grieved deeply but eventually picked herself up, started a new career as a cafeteria chef, and eventually found deep romantic love and happiness again, in the form of a second marriage. Read more here...

See also Linda Wisdom When I sold to Silhouette books on my wedding anniversary in 1979 I didn't expect to get this far. I love what I do and can't imagine doing anything else. I'm married living with Katie, a white mini Schnauzer who considers herself the center of our world, Hunter, a Yorkie mix who's a real mama's boy, Olivia my darling diva chihuahua, Dutch, our easy going happy go lucky terrier mix, Syd, our Panama Nape parrot, and Florence, our demented tortoise. We live in Southern California near San Diego in a town that's provided fodder for some of my stories. Once upon a time, I could say that when we moved here there were three romance writers. Now there is only me and to date I have not been considered a suspect. More romance authors have moved in and are safe and sound...so far. A lot of my backlist books are now available for your Kindle and in print along with new novellas featuring the first witches in the Hex series along with my second love, romantic suspense books. And more books coming! My Hex series are the books of my heart. The ones I've wanted to write for a long time and so glad to see out there. Many readers are confused by the two Demon titles and different cover looks. They're a part of the Hex series, still the disgraced witches from the Witches Academy, just with a different look. And yes, more Hex books will be coming! There are times I think I enjoy writing the creatures more than the characters. And probably why my Fluff and Puff bunny slippers tend to never be where I left them! That's more than easy to do since they're tattooed on one ankle and Horace is tattooed on the other. I'm very thankful for my readers for sticking to me. I can also be found at www.lindawisdom.com, www.facebook.com/lindawisdom with a Facebook street team called Hexy Haven and http://linda-wisdom.blogspot.com

Barbara Bretton is the USA Today bestselling, award-winning author of more than 40 books. She currently has over ten million copies in print around the world. Her works have been translated into twelve languages in over twenty countries. Barbara has been featured in articles in The New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Romantic Times, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Herald News, Home News, Somerset Gazette,among others, and has been interviewed by Independent Network News Television, appeared on the Susan Stamberg Show on NPR, and been featured in an interview with Charles Osgood of WCBS, among others. Her awards include both Reviewer's Choice and Career Achievement Awards from Romantic Times; Gold and Silver certificates from Affaire de Coeur; the RWA Region 1 Golden Leaf; and several sales awards from Bookrak. Ms. Bretton was included in a recent edition of Contemporary Authors. Barbara loves to spend as much time as possible in Maine with her husband, walking the rocky beaches and dreaming up plots for upcoming books.

Barbara Keiler aka Ariel Berk, Thea Frederick, Judith Arnold Barbara Keiler was born on April 7th. She started telling stories before shecould write. She was four when her sister, Carolyn, stuffed a crayon intoher hand and taught her the alphabet, and she's been writing ever since. Barbara is a graduate of Smith College, where she learned to aim for thestars, and she received a master's degree in creative writing from BrownUniversity, where she took aim at a good-looking graduate student in thechemistry department and wound up marrying him. She says: "Before myhusband and I were married, I had a job in California and he was working onhis Ph.D. in Rhode Island. I became ill, and he hopped on a plane and flewacross the country to be with me. Neither of us had any money, but he saidhe simply couldn't concentrate on his research, knowing I was three thousandmiles away and facing a serious health problem all by myself. He stayed fortwo weeks, until I was pretty well recovered. That he would just drop whathe was doing, put his life on hold and race to my side told me how much heloved me. After that, I knew this was the man I wanted to marry." Barbara has received writing fellowships from the Shubert Foundation and theNational Endowment for the Arts, and has taught at colleges and universitiesaround the country. She has also written several plays that have beenprofessionally staged at regional theaters in San Francisco, Washington, D.C.,Connecticut and off-off-Broadway. Since her first romance novel's publication in 1983 as Ariel Berk. Shewrote one novel as Thea Frederick, and since 1985 she writes asJudith Arnold. Barbara has sold more than 70 novels, with eight millioncopies in print worldwide. She has recently signed a contract with MIRABooks. Her first MIRA novel will appear in 2001. She has received severalawards from Romantic Times Magazine, including awards for the Best HarlequinAmerican Romance of the Year, Best Harlequin Superromance of the Year, BestSeries Romantic Novel of the Year and a Lifetime Achievement Certificate ofMerit for Innovative Series Romance. She has also been a finalist for theGolden Medallion Award and the RITA Award for Romance Writer of America. Hernovel Barefoot in the Grass has appeared on the recommended reading listsdistributed by cancer support services at several hospitals. Barbara lives in a small town not far from Boston, Massachusetts, New England with her husband, two teenage sons, and a guinea pig named Wilbur. Her sister Carolyn died of breast cancer in 1998.

Maggie Osborne aka Margaret St. George Maggie Osborne is the author of I Do, I Do, I Do and Silver Lining, as well as more than forty contemporary and historical romance novels written as Maggie Osborne and Margaret St. George. She has won numerous awards from Romantic Times, Affaire de Coeur, BookraK, the Colorado Romance Writers, and Coeur du Bois, among others. Osborne won the RITA for long historical from the Romance Writers of America in 1998. Maggie lives in a resort town in the Colorado mountains with her husband, one mule, two horses, one cat, and one dog, all of whom are a lot of aggravation, but she loves them anyway.

Julie Kistler is the author of 30 romance novels and five shorter works, including one Cat Crime, two chapters for charity projects, an online serial and a novella. Julie won the Madcap Award for the best romantic comedy of 2001 for JUST A LITTLE FLING, a Harlequin Temptation, and she was nominated for Romance Writers of America's Rita Award for BLACK JACK BROGAN, a Harlequin American Romance. Several of her books have hit the Waldenbooks Best-Seller Lists. She and her husband, Scott Johnson, co-authored ONCE THERE WERE GIANTS, the story of how tiny Hebron High School won the Illinois High School basketball tournament in 1952. That book came out in 2002 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Hebron's amazing run to the state championship. Julie was born and raised in Peoria, Illinois (yes, she "played in Peoria") but moved to the Chicago area for high school, where she met her husband Scott in 10th grade. (He sat in front of her in math class and she was attracted to his tall, dark, handsome and very smart ways.) Scott and Julie both attended the University of Illinois, and Julie graduated with a BA in history (Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude) in 1978. She married Scott in 1980, and then 1) got a law degree (cum laude) from the University of Illinois, 2) passed the Minnesota bar exam, 3) ran off with Scott for a two-month trip to Europe, and 4) moved to Minnesota to be a lawyer (in that order). But law didn't suit her very well, and Julie left the legal world to be a full-time writer in 1985. She also sold her first book in 1985 (nine days after quitting her job.) That book was THE VAN RENN LEGACY, a madcap treasure hunt with a quote-acrostic for readers to solve, and it also earned Julie her second Golden Heart nomination. Julie and Scott moved back home to Illinois in 1989, and have lived in Central Illinois ever since. A lifetime movie and theater lover, Julie began a side career as a theater critic for the Champaign News-Gazette in 1990. She has now joined the Board of Directors of Heartland Theatre, in Bloomington, Illinois, and she initiated an annual ten-minute play contest there which has proved to be very popular. Julie's play, "Hopeless Romantics," was performed in the first year of Heartland's Ten-Minute Playfest. In her life, Julie has been a student, front desk clerk, room service waiter, switchboard operator, pizza chef, criminal prosecutor, singing and dancing law book (see photo below), prose reader, legal research expert, member of the Board of Directors of Romance Writers of America, president of Novelists Inc, marketing manager, romance writer, sportswriter, reporter, critic, Fred Astaire fanatic, cat lover, White Sox fan, daughter, sister, wife and friend.