Cheryl is the author of more than fifty historical and contemporary romances. Her stories have earned numerous RITA nominations, Romantic Times awards and are published in over a dozen languages. In describing her stories of second chances and redemption, readers and reviewers use words like, “emotional punch, hometown feel, core values, believable characters and real-life situations.” With a 4.9 star rating on amazon, her bestselling non-fiction book, Writing With Emotion, Tension & Conflict by Writers Digest Books is available in print and digital.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. Diana Palmer is a pseudonym for author Susan Kyle. (1)romance author Susan Eloise Spaeth was born on 11 December 1946 in Cuthbert, Georgia, USA. She was the eldest daughter of Maggie Eloise Cliatt, a nurse and also journalist, and William Olin Spaeth, a college professor. Her mother was part of the women's liberation movement many years before it became fashionable. Her best friends are her mother and her sister, Dannis Spaeth (Cole), who now has two daughters, Amanda Belle Hofstetter and Maggie and lives in Utah. Susan grew up reading Zane Grey and fell in love with cowboys. Susan is a former newspaper reporter, with sixteen years experience on both daily and weekly newspapers. Since 1972, she has been married to James Kyle and have since settled down in Cornelia, Georgia, where she started to write romance novels. Susan and her husband have one son, Blayne Edward, born in 1980. She began selling romances in 1979 as Diana Palmer. She also used the pseudonyms Diana Blayne and Katy Currie, and her married name: Susan Kyle. Now, she has over 40 million copies of her books in print, which have been translated and published around the world. She is listed in numerous publications, including Contemporary Authors by Gale Research, Inc., Twentieth Century Romance and Historical Writers by St. James Press, The Writers Directory by St. James Press, the International Who's Who of Authors and Writers by Meirose Press, Ltd., and Love's Leading Ladies by Kathryn Falk. Her awards include seven Waldenbooks national sales awards, four B. Dalton national sales awards, two Bookrak national sales awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award for series storytelling from Romantic Times, several Affaire de Coeur awards, and two regional RWA awards. Inspired by her husband, who quit a blue-collar manufacturing job to return to school and get his diploma in computer programming, Susan herself went back to college as a day student at the age of 45. In 1995, she graduated summa cum laude from Piedmont College, Demorest, GA, with a major in history and a double minor in archaeology and Spanish. She was named to two honor societies (the Torch Club and Alpha Chi), and was named to the National Dean's List. In addition to her writing projects, she is currently working on her master's degree in history at California State University. She hopes to specialize in Native American studies. She is a member of the Native American Rights Fund, the American Museum of Natural History, the National Cattlemen's Association, the Archaeological Institute of Amenca, the Planetary Society, The Georgia Conservancy, the Georgia Sheriff's Association, and numerous conservation and charitable organizations. Her hobbies include gardening, archaeology, anthropology, iguanas, astronomy and music. In 1998, her husband retired from his own computer business and now pursues skeet shooting medals in local, state, national and international competition. They love riding around and looking at the countryside, watching sci-fi on TV and at the movies, just talking and eating out.

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.

Carolyn Davidson began writing in 1986, knowing absolutely nothing about the craft. Her first three books were rejected by Harlequin. She met Dixie Browning at a Harlequin dinner in Charleston, South Carolina, and told Dixie she was writing, but that she feared she was too old to begin such an undertaking. Dixie's response spurred Carolyn to pursue her dream. Dixie said, in her own inimitable fashion, "Well, honey, you can't start any younger!" And she was right. Having spent her life as a wife, mother, grandmother, and working woman, she's privileged to have a career that makes her dreams possible. Writing historical romance gives her the opportunity to travel, to visit all those places where our forefathers staked their claim on this country of ours. And then she goes home and writes their stories, maybe not exactly as they lived them, but as her imagination portrays them. Carolyn lives in the South, where romance thrives, and where the sun shines almost every day of the year. In fact, some days it is difficult to stay glued to her computer, especially when the birds are singing and the flowers are in full bloom. She lives not far from the ocean, close to Charleston, South Carolina, one of the most romantic cities in the world. Moreover, time at the beach is easy to come by. Does she enjoy her life? You bet! Harlequin allows her to write the books she loves, and her editor is patient with her quirks and foibles. Her family, though scattered in various states, is supportive, and her husband is a constant source of inspiration.

When life threw Judy Duarte a curve twenty years ago, she did what many newly single mothers do. She pulled herself and her four kids together, became even more determined to come out on top, and decided to start following her dreams. What better role model could she provide her children than to show them that anything is possible? So, she returned to school, graduating from UC Irvine about the same time her oldest kids hit the teen years. With her dream of getting her degree having come true, another dream presented itself by way of a new, perfect mate. Life was good again, but one dream still nagged at her: "I always knew there was a book inside me, but since English was my least favorite subject in school, I never considered myself a writer." All her life Judy has been spinning stories—telling tales to her kids as they grew up, plotting stories and creating characters to fill the time during carpool days and all those commutes back to college...and she never stopped dreaming of putting those stories on paper. Determined to follow her yearnings, she joined Romance Writers of America and met her critique partners Crystal Green and Sheri WhiteFeather (both are now multi-published award-winning authors and the trio have worked together and encouraged each other ever since). “I might not have been a born writer, but I was a storyteller. The characters and plots came easy, but I had to learn how to make the scenes in my head come alive for the reader. And that meant I had to learn how to write.” Judy's determination to become a published author grew and she began focusing on creating poignant stories designed to touch a reader's heart. As she fine-tuned her writing style and learned her craft, she found herself writing the stories she liked to read. Stories about families, second chances, and true love. In creating her own happily-ever-after stories she took ordinary characters, put them in emotionally compelling situations, and forced them to grow. They learned, as she had, that when a door is closed, they must look for that open window. “Since I love books and movies in which people must overcome insurmountable odds to win and earn their happy-ever-after, those are the kinds of tales I like to create.” Judy's unpublished stories won not only the coveted Emily (West Houston RWA Chapter) and Orange Rose (Orange County RWA Chapter) awards, but also earned her the status of a double RWA Golden Heart finalist in 2001. Then Judy's dream became a reality in March 2002 when Silhouette Special Edition released her first book, COWBOY COURAGE. Since then, she has published seventeen books and is contracted to write three more. Her stories have touched the hearts of readers around the world. Her tales of redemption and renewed trust generate many fan letters from readers who tell her of the positive impact reading her stories have had in their lives. A woman who had been shattered by her husband’s recent betrayal and desertion had not been able to read or watch anything that had a romance involved writes: I saw your book in the store, and the title caught my eye. (I have a thing for cowboys.) When I read the back cover, I bought it and couldn’t put it down. I finished it in one day. I still have my doubts about meeting a decent man and trusting again. But maybe in time I will be able to love again. I will be watching for your next book. In July 2005, Judy won the prestigious Reader's Choice Award for THE RICH MAN'S SON. “When I received the call telling me I had finaled in the Reader’s Choice, I was thrilled beyond measure. Being judged by real readers and recognized as a finalist was a joy in itself. I went to the ceremony honored to be in attendance. And when they announced me the winner, tears came to my eyes and a lump formed in my throat. It took days for my feet to touch the ground.” Judy makes her home near the beach in Southern California with her husband, their son, and a cat

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information. Rachel Lee is a New York Times best-selling author and the winner of Six Romantic Times magazine Reviewers' Choice Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, and is a five-time finalist for the Romance Writers of America's RITA® Award. She has penned a wide variety of novels in several genres including fantasy, romantic suspense, and romantic comedy. She resides in Tampa, Florida.

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.

Lisa Jackson is the number-one New York Times bestselling author of over ninety-five novels, including the Rick Bentz and Reuben Montoya Series, the Pescoli and Alvarez Series, the Savannah series, and numerous stand alone novels. She also is the co-author of One Last Breath, Last Girl Standing, and the Colony Series, written with her sister and bestselling author Nancy Bush, as well as the collaborative novels Sinister and Ominous, written with Nancy Bush and Rosalind Noonan. There are over thirty million copies of her novels in print and her writing has been translated into twenty languages. Before she became a nationally bestselling author, she was a mother struggling to keep food on the table by writing novels, hoping against hope that someone would pay her for them. Today, neck deep in murder, her books appear on The New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly national bestseller lists. With dozens of bestsellers to her name, Lisa Jackson is a master of taking readers to the edge of sanity—and back—in novels that buzz with dangerous secrets and deadly passions. She continues to be fascinated by the minds and motives of both her killers and their pursuers—the personal, the professional, and the downright twisted. As she builds the puzzle of relationships, actions, clues, lies, and personal histories that haunt her protagonists, she must also confront the fear and terror faced by her victims and the harsh and enduring truth that, in the real world, terror and madness touch far too many lives and families. Visit http://www.LisaJackson.com where you can find a Media Kit with photos and more information.

Joan moved to a sleepy little town in Arizona, situated on the Mexican border, when she was thirteen. She has 3 grown-up daughters and a grandson. When she isn't writing, she enjoys watching football, knitting, reading, gardening and attending craft shows on the town square.

Pseudonym for Chris Marie Green and Christine Cody A long time ago, in a land far, far away (Milwaukee, WI, St. Luke's Hospital), Chris Marie Green (also writing as Crystal Green) joined the world. While moving to Southern California, Kentucky, then back to California, she amused herself by writing poetry and short stories featuring the ultimate Alpha males—Superman and Indiana Jones. Later, after graduating with a B.A. in English from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Chris decided to become a professional writer. While she wrote, Chris worked as an eighth-grade teacher, but resigned in 2002 to pursue writing full time. Her critique partners, Sheri WhiteFeather and Judy Duarte are instrumental in her endeavors. Without these talented authors, writing would be a lonely road. Chris is pumped about her Vampire Babylon series for Ace, which is best described as "noir fantasy-mysteries" featuring a vamp hunter. The first five books, NIGHT RISING, MIDNIGHT REIGN, BREAK OF DAWN (which compose the first trilogy), plus A DROP OF RED and THE PATH OF RAZORS (the first two books in the second trilogy) have already been released. The sixth, DEEP IN THE WOODS, will be on shelves on March 2, 2010. A Vampire Babylon-related novella was released in an anthology entitled FIRST BLOOD. (Note: The Vampire Babylon series uses trilogy arcs to tell one basic story, much like the way JK Rowling used seven books that didn’t solve every plot thread book-by-book to tell Harry Potter’s story. While each individual novel focuses on a central mystery that’s solved by the end, the three books together build character and mythology arcs/mysteries until everything culminates in the third book. Each trilogy repeats this pattern.) Chris is also writes Silhouette Special Editions ("home and hearth" tales of redemption and community) and Harlequin Blazes (steamy fantasies), and whenever she can, she travels, including backpacking trips in Europe and road trips in America . She also enjoys yoga, hiking, and way too much movie-watching. For any press inquiries, please contact Chris’ agent Pamela Harty at http://www.knightagency.net/contact/.

Robin Wells is the USA TODAY best-selling author of nineteen critically-acclaimed novels that have been translated into nineteen languages. Her books have won RWA's Golden Heart Award, two National Readers’ Choice Awards, the Award of Excellence, the Golden Quill, and the Holt Medallion. Her next novel, She Gets That From Me, will be published by Berkley/Penguin/Random House September 22 2020. She holds a B.A. in liberal arts from the University of Oklahoma, lived in Louisiana for 27 years and now resides in Houston, Texas. She and her husband are proud parents of two daughters and a very spoiled maltipoo. Before becoming a full-time writer, Robin worked as an advertising and public relations executive for a major hotel chain.

Born in San Antonio, Texas, Linda Turner and her identical twin sister, Brenda, were known throughout the neighborhood in which they grew up simply as "Twin." No one except their parents and their older brother could tell them apart. They dressed alike, wore their hair alike, and even had the same glasses, so it wasn’t surprising that they were stared at everywhere they went. Consequently, when Linda announced at the age of 25 that she was going to start writing romance novels, she wasn’t surprised when Brenda said, "I don’t care how famous your name gets, just make sure your face doesn’t become recognizable!" Needless to say, Linda’s face isn’t known in every household in the U.S. — yet. Recently, she spent six weeks taking screenwriting classes at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, and she’s made no secret of the fact that she plans to write and—hopefully—sell a screenplay in the new millennium.

Award-winning and bestselling author, international traveler, feted at a Hollywood premiere . . . All true . . . but my regular life is a whole lot more routine. Deal with the five big puppers who share our house, babysit our grandson, battle the jungle that is our yard, pray for summer in winter and dream of winter in summer, and hunker down at the computer—that's my real life. I grew up in Oklahoma and had the fun of living in Georgia, Alabama, California and the Carolinas, thanks to my husband's Navy career. When he retired, we came home to Oklahoma and have lived in the same house for seventeen years. That's a real "Wow!" for someone used to the nomadic military life. Writing was the perfect career for all that moving. Have computer, will travel. I've set books, or part of them, in every state we've lived in and been inspired by every place I've ever been. I've now written somewhere around 80 books, and I think I've got only about 8,000 stories left to tell. My biggest hobby is starting new projects—starting. Not completing. I'm still not done with the cross-stitched Army seal I started when our son joined out of high school. He did tours in Georgia, Colorado, Korea, Italy, Iraq, Afghanistan and Louisiana, and has been out for a few years. So I'm a little slow. I like to think about getting organized, painting my living room in cool beachy colors, and turning my entire five-acre yard into a garden. I also dream about having every room in my house clean at exactly the same time, but I live by the motto of the woman who taught me to quilt: A clean house is the sign of a bored woman. And I've never been bored.

Jackie Merritt's first book was published in December of 1988, and since then she's been deeply engrossed in the writing game. While she's gone through dry spells, where she can't write a word that makes sense and every idea ends up in the trash can, for the most part she's usually working on a viable story. Jackie honestly believes that anyone with a reasonable grasp of language and grammar can write a bookif they're self-disciplined enough to put in the time and effort that writing demands. Starting a book is easy; staying with it until it is finished is the part that stops many would-be authors. Jackie believes she had an advantage that a lot of people do not have. As a former accountant, she was used to working alone and completing long projects. Oddly enough, the same principles apply to writing. Plus, of course, you have to love it. Jackie's first attempts to write fiction were so bad they were comical, but she still fell in love with writing. She had written hundreds of business letters before that, but never a word of fiction, and there, all of a sudden, was a whole new world for her to explore.

Winner of over 15 national awards, including the RWA Hall of Fame and the RWA Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award, Jennifer Greene weaves real issues, warm characters common-life humor, and page-turning romance and suspense into her stories. Jennifer sold her first book in 1980, and since then has sold over 85 books in the contemporary romance genre. She won her first professional writing award from RWA, a “Silver Medallion” in 1984, followed by over 20 nominations and awards—including achieving RWA’s HALL OF FAME status, and the most coveted Nora Roberts LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD. Jennifer has regularly been on a variety of bestseller lists, and has written for Harlequin, Avon, Berkley and Dell. Her books have sold all over the world in over 20 languages. She also accumulated a number of pseudonyms—most recognizably JENNIFER GREENE, but also JEANNE GRANT and JESSICA MASSEY. She was born in Michigan, started writing stories in 7th grade, and graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in English and Psychology. The University honored her with their “Lantern Night Award”, a tradition developed to honor fifty outstanding women graduates each year. Exploring issues and concerns for women today is what first motivated her to write, and she has long been an enthusiastic and active supporter of women’s fiction, which she believes is an unbeatable way to reach out and support other women. Jennifer lives in Michigan, just a short distance from Lake Michigan, with her husband Lar. Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. (1)romance aka Jeanne Grant