USA TODAY bestselling author Stephanie Bond was seven years deep into a systems engineering career and pursuing an MBA at night when an instructor remarked that she had a flair for writing and suggested that she submit to academic journals. But Stephanie, a voracious reader, was only interested in writing fiction–more specifically, romantic fiction. Upon completing her master’s degree and with no formal training in writing (her undergraduate degree is in computer programming), she started writing a romance novel in her spare time. Two years later in 1995 she sold her first manuscript, a romantic comedy, to Harlequin Books. In 1997, with ten sales under her belt to two publishers, Stephanie left her corporate job to write women’s romantic fiction full-time. In 2011, Stephanie launched a self-publishing business. Since that time, she has sold more than 1 million copies of her own books. To-date, Stephanie has published over 70 novels and has over 6 million copies of her work in worldwide distribution in numerous languages and formats.

An Oregon native, Lori Borrill moved to the San Francisco Bay Area just out of high school and has been a transplant Californian ever since. Her weekdays are spent at the insurance company where's she's been employed as a data analyst for over twenty years. The bulk of her evenings are spent at the Little League fields cheering on her son. Lori started writing in June of 2004 after her husband left his job to pursue his dream of owning a business. Not only did the move help ease their hectic schedules, but he became a solid example that those dreams that seem impossible can often come true. She proved that point herself exactly two years later when Kathryn Lye called to tell her she'd sold to the Harlequin Blaze line. Lori claims it was the eHarlequin.com community that prompted her to write her first novel. "After reading countless romances, I saw the Web address on a book and decided to check it out," she says. "At the time, I was just looking for writer's guidelines, but the moment I clicked into the Learn To Write forum, I was amazed by the volume of information available to aspiring writers. They really came across like they wanted me to try this." Since then, she's been an active member of the eHarlequin.com community, finding all of her closest writing friends through the site. "What propelled me from novice to published author were the people I've met through the Harlequin boards," she says. "I've made some treasured friendships with talented authors who not only helped me hone the craft, but have become a system of support I can't imagine writing without."