Kathie writes at night with country tunes playing from a local radio station while the rest of the world sleeps. It's the quiet time of the night that inspires her to craft her stories with a unique style of sensuality, interspersed with a little humor. Kathie has been a Romance Writers of America Golden Heart finalist twice. Her June 2001 release, His Baby Surprise, received the National Readers' Choice Award for Best Short Contemporary Romance of 2001. All of her books have been listed on the Waldenbooks Category Romance Bestsellers list. Kathie lives in the Illinois area her family settled in the early 1800's when they moved from North Carolina. Besides writing, Kathie loves to read romances, travel to historic locales, and delights in trying to rid the world of chocolate—one bite at a time! She also enjoys meeting readers and writers at the numerous conferences, workshops, and booksignings she attends.

New York Times bestselling author Christine Rimmer has written more than one hundred contemporary romances for Harlequin Books. She has won Romantic Times BOOKreview’s Reviewer’s Choice Award for best Silhouette Special Edition. She has been nominated seven times for the Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA award and five times for Romantic Times Series Storyteller of the Year. A California native who first longed to be an actress, Christine earned her theater degree from California State, Sacramento and then went to New York to study acting. Later, she moved to Southern California, where she began her writing career with short stories, plays, and poems. Her poems and short stories were published in a number of small literary journals. Her plays were produced at The Back Alley and Group Theaters in Southern California and have been published by Dramatists Play Service and West Coast Plays. She now lives in Oregon with her family and two very contented cats named Tom and Ed.

Maggie Price turned to crime at the age of twenty-two. That's when she went to work at the Oklahoma City Police Department. As a civilian crime analyst, she evaluated suspects' methods of operation during the commission of robberies and sex crimes, and developed profiles on those suspects. During her tenure at OCPD, Maggie stood in lineups, snagged assignments to homicide task forces, established procedures for evidence submittal, even posed as the wife of an undercover officer in the investigation of a fortune teller. Drawing on her twelve years experience in law enforcement, Maggie Price penned her debut novel, PRIME SUSPECT. One week after Silhouette Books acquired the novel of romance and intrigue, the Romance Writers of America awarded PRIME SUSPECT its prestigious Golden Heart Award for Best Romantic Suspense. A RITA award finalist, Maggie is the winner of Romantic Times Magazine's career achievement award in series romantic suspense, a Booksellers' Best Award for romantic suspense and a National Readers Choice Award for romantic suspense.

After a 23-year AF career, Colonel Merline Lovelace launched a second career as a writer, basing many of her tales on her own experiences in uniform and on her travels all around the globe. The USA Today best-selling author now has more than 11 million copies of her books in print. Her works have won numerous awards, including the Romance Writers of America's prestigious RITA. Merline is especially proud to have been named the University of Oklahoma's Writer of the Year and the Oklahoma Female Veteran of the Year.

Judy Russell Christenberry was born in Dallas, Texas, USA, where she raised in a family of four children with a stay-at-home mom who was a terrific cook and an excellent teacher, where family tradition was concerned. As a child, Judy was surrounded by animals. Her father raised a few head of cattle to keep meat on the table. At one time or another, there were sheep, Thanksgiving turkeys, ducks and dogs, and there were always chickens. Judy learned the importance of family at an early age. But, Judith's marriage ended in divorce. Yet, with support from her mother and siblings, she and her two daughters discovered their own definition of family. The family comes in all shapes and flavors. What's important isn't the two parents and the 2.5 children, it's love and support. She raised her children, taught during the day, wrote at night, and pursued her dream. Judy, hasn't always been a writer, but she's always been a dreamer. As a child, for entertainment while doing chores, she told herself stories-she was always the heroine. However, she didn't start writing until she turned thirty-eight, just one year after her father's unexpected death. After this, she realized life promised no guarantees about how much time you have. Why wait to pursue your dreams? She had begun reading Harlequin Romance novels about ten years earlier, so romance writing came naturally. She signs her novels as Judy Christenberry, Judith Christenberry and Judith Stafford. Over time, Judy realized two central themes dominating her writing: family and small town/country life. Many of her books have cowboy heroes, partly because she read all Zane Grey's romantic versions of the Old West as a teenager, and partly because her parents grew up on farms. The last element that frequently appears in Judy's stories is a dash of humor, just enough to bring a smile to your face. She believes laughter is good medicine and it definitely makes a six-foot hunk even more attractive! Now, with her daughters pursuing their own dreams, Judy writes full-time and is wrapped up in her storytelling. She lives each new adventure with the vigor of a young girl, still dreaming up tales while washing dishes. She hopes to entertain her readers as much as she entertains herself!

Laurie Paige grew up on a farm in Kentucky, four miles from the Tennessee border, with four older brothers and two older sisters. Before she started school her family moved to town. That is when she discovered the library. She met her husband, Bob, in the Sweet Shop. She has a degree in mathematics and works as a computer engineer. Laurie loves to hear from readers so email her: LauriePaige@AOL.com.

Dixie Burrus was born on September 09, 1930 in North Carolina's Outer Banks, U.S.A, where her family had lived for generations, to sea captain Dozier Burrus and Achsah Williams. Her father was the professional baseball player Maurice Lennon "Dick" Burrus, she has two sisters, Mary and Sarah Burrus. Dixie is an artist and romance writer. She began writting contemporany romance novels as Zoe Dozier, now she writes her contemporary romances with her married name, Dixie Browning, and historical romances with her sister, Mary Burrus Williams as Bronwyn Williams, one combination of their married names. She has been awarded a Romance Writers of America RITA Award, and been a five-time RITA finalist. She has also won three Maggies, and numerous awards from the National Federation of Press Women and the NC Press Club.

Metsy Hingle is the national #1 best-selling author of more than twenty novels. Known for creating powerful and passionate stories, Metsy’s own life reads like the plot of a romance novel–from her early years in a New Orleans’ orphanage and foster care to her long, happy marriage to her husband Jim and the rearing of their four children. With more than three million copies of her books in print, Metsy’s novels frequently appear on national bestseller lists and have been published in twenty-four foreign countries. Her novels have also garnered a number of awards–including the R.W.A.’s Golden Heart Award, the Texas Gold Award, the Golden Quill Award, two Beacon Awards and two W.I.S.H. Awards from Romantic Times Magazine, as well as multiple Reviewer’s Choice and Career Achievement nominations from Romantic Times. Despite the destruction of Hurricane Katrina and the devastating personal losses in the Hingle family, Metsy’s home in Louisiana is safe and sound. Metsy says there was never any question that she would return and be a part of the rebirth of her beloved city. To that end, Metsy has pledged 10% of her earnings from “BLACK SILK” to the New Orleans area Habitat for Humanity. To learn more about Metsy’s pledge, visit her website at www.metsyhingle.com. Metsy resides across the lake from New Orleans with her husband and a bossy toy poodle named Molly Brown. She is currently hard at work on her next novel.

Marie Rydzynski-Ferrarella aka Marie Charles, Marie Michael, Marie Nicole, Marie Ferrarella Marie Rydzynski was born on March 28 in West Germany to Polish parents. She moved to America at the age of four. For an entire year, Marie and her family explored the eastern half of the country before finally settling in New York. Marie swears she was born writing, "which must have made the delivery especially hard for my mother." From an early age, Marie's parents would find her watching television or tucked away in some private place, writing at a furious pace. "Initially, I began writing myself into my favourite shows. I was a detective on '77 Sunset Strip,' the missing Cartwright sibling they never talked about on 'Bonanza' and the 'Girl from U.N.C.L.E.' before there was a 'Girl from U.N.C.L.E.,' not to mention an active participant in the serialized stories of 'The Mickey Mouse Club.'" Marie began to write her first romance novel when she was 11 years old, although she claims that, at the time, she didn't even realize it was a romance! She scribbled off and on, while dreaming of a career as an actress. Marie was only 14 when she first laid eyes on the man she would marry, truly her first love, Charles Ferrarella. During her days at Queens College, New York, acting started to lose its glamour as Marie spent more and more time writing. After receiving her English degree, specialising in Shakespearean comedy, Marie and her family moved to Southern California, where she still resides today. After an interminable seven weeks apart, Charles decided he couldn't live without her and came out to California to marry his childhood sweetheart. Ever practical, Marie was married in a wash-and-wear wedding dress that she sewed herself, appliqués and all. "'Be prepared' has always been my motto,"the author jokes. This motto has been stretched considerably by her two children, Nikky and Jessi, "but basically, it still applies," she says. In November of 1981, she sold her first novel for Harlequin. Marie, who now has written over 150 novels, has one goal: to entertain, to make people laugh and feel good. "That's what makes me happy," she confesses. "That, and a really good romantic evening with my husband." She's keeping her fingers crossed that her reader's enjoy reading her books as much as she enjoyed writing them.