Linda Winstead Jones is the bestselling author of more than eighty romance novels and novellas across several sub-genres. She’s easily distracted (Look! A squirrel!) and writes the stories that speak to her in the moment. Paranormal. Romantic Suspense. Twisted Fairy Tales. Cowboys. Her books are for readers who want to escape from reality for a while, who don’t mind the occasional trip into another world for a laugh, a chill, the occasional heartwarming tear. Where will we go next? More information can be found at lindawinsteadjones.com, where you can sign up for her newsletter, and at www.facebook.com/LindaWinsteadJones or www.facebook.com/LindaHowardLindaJones.

Lyn's foray into book-length fiction began in the early '90s, and she signed her first contract with Harlequin Historicals on Valentine's Day, 1996. "Flowers, candy, kisses, and a book sale, too! There will never be another day quite like that one!" she says. "I always loved to write and even got excited about doing reports and term papers. I neglected other homework just to make that short story for English class as riveting as I possibly could." Even so, she never really considered writing as a career until much later. Instead, Lyn studied art and worked in Europe while she visited the places she now writes about in her historicals. At that time, she was painting those sights and selling pictures. While working at Boeing as an illustrator, she had the idea of trying to freelance book covers. Since she liked to paint faces and figures, romance novels seemed a logical choice. However, the field of cover art is highly competitive and she discovered it would take a great deal of research and preparation. While studying the market on covers, she became firmly hooked on the contents of the books and decided to try writing instead. "Definitely one of my better decisions," she admits. She is still an avid romance reader and manages to read an average of four per week in addition to one or two books outside the genre. Lyn feels a special affinity for England and Scotland with their wonderful castles and intriguing history. The American South and Southwest are her favorite settings for contemporary adventures. She and her husband, Allen, both natives of Georgia, live in North Alabama near their two children and four grandchildren. "The family contributes to my research," Lyn says. "They buy me books, clip articles, sketch costumes, and sometimes act out scenes. Even the grandchildren serve as inspiration for the younger characters."

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.

Eileen Wilks’ first book, a Silhouette Desire published in 1996, hit the USA Today Bestseller List and was nominated for Romantic Times' Best First Short Contemporary award. Since then, her books have appeared consistently on national bestseller lists. With thirty two books in print and novellas in nine anthologies, she has been a finalist in the prestigious Rita Awards three times, as well as receiving several nominations from Romantic Times, including one for Career Achievement in Series Romantic Suspense. Each book in her World of the Lupi series gains a larger audience. It was originally sold in the Romance section of bookstores, but more and more you will be able to find copies cross-shelved under Sci-Fi and Fantasy as the popularity of the series grows! Eileen has lived in the West Texas town of Midland, TX for over 30 years—three years as a young teen, and the remaining years since she moved back here as an adult. When she first started writing over 10 years ago, it hit her like the first drink for an alcoholic . . . or the first kiss for Romeo and Juliet. She came to writing romance in a roundabout way. Having read and loved science fiction for years, that’s where she first tried her hand when the writing bug bit. Somehow her stories always ended up having a strong romantic subplot, but she hadn’t read a romance since the early 80’s and didn’t think “those little books” were her kind of stories. But when a friend in her critique group began working on a romance novel, Wilks decided she needed to give the genre another try. She asked her friend to recommend some titles—and quicker than you can say “Jayne Ann Krentz,” she fell in love. The genre had been busy growing up while she wasn’t watching. These days, with romances comprising over 50% of the mass market books published in the U.S., there are romances to appeal to almost every taste—historicals, paranormals and contemporaries that range from romantic suspense to romantic comedy, from inspirational to sizzling. Eileen covered a lot of territory before coming home to Midland, having lived in Canada and Venezuela as well as twelve U.S. cities in five states. Profile taken from the author's site with her permission.

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.

Weaver was born and raised in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. She has a degree in English literature. After her youngest child entered school in 1989 she began writing in the hopes that she could build a career that would allow her to work from home. None of her first eight manuscripts sold, but in July 1993 her ninth, True Blue, was purchased by Silhouette Books. Generally Weaver writes two to three novels per year, taking up to five months to finish each work. The novels are most often classified as romantic suspense, and the protagonists are put into life-or-death situations in order more clearly reveal their true characters and feelings. In many of her novels, the hero is either connected to law enforcement or the military. Weaver also enjoys including animals in her stories "because they're usually excellent judges of character." Weaver was awarded a Romance Writers of America RITA Award in 1998 for Best Romantic Suspense for her novel On the Way to a Wedding.[3] She is also a recipient of the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award.

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.