Biography

When I was a corporate drone and cubicle dweller living in a fabric-covered cage, the creative energy of writing romance allowed my mind to escape the reality of my everyday world, at least for a while. No longer a corporate drone, I still need to give voice to the characters who inhabit my head. My larger-than-life heroines and heroes demand release, and I’m happy to oblige. I read and write romance to satisfy my craving for good love stories with happy endings.

Reading opened a whole new wonderful world to me as a child. I read anything and everything I could get my hands on, even cereal boxes. When I got older I haunted the main library in downtown Wilmington, Delaware. I can still feel the rush of excitement every time I walked through the large doors and inhaled the scent of thousands of books.

There is a classic episode from the old TV show Twilight Zone that fills me with horror to this day. A bookworm survives a nuclear attack while he's in a library, only to have his glasses break. He's surrounded by all those books and can't see to read them. This is the stuff of my nightmares.

As a preteen and teen I loved the young adult romance novels of Elizabeth Howard. When I was twelve I wrote Ms. Howard a fan letter and told her I wanted to be a writer, but I didn't have a typewriter. She wrote back that I didn't need a typewriter to be an author. Ms. Howard's heroines were always feisty and smart.
I wanted to be like them. I also loved the Judy Bolton books written by Margaret Sutton. I still have all thirty-three of my beloved Judy books. Judy was feisty and smart and solved mysteries.

For as long as I can remember I've made up stories in my head. Most were love stories. The Thirties and Forties romantic comedies that played on late-night TV when I was growing up helped shape my love of romance. I went through my “mystery reading” phase, my “Zane Grey western" phase, my "spy" phase. But romances have always been my favorites. Romance novels are life affirming and deliver happy endings. And what's wrong with that? We get enough unhappiness and mayhem on the evening news. Why not escape for a while with a good romance?

I’d always dreamed of being a published author. I worked in the corporate world all my adult life, but the dream of seeing my name on a book wouldn't die. One day in 1992 my friend Gwen and I, heavily into reading Harlequin romances, looked at each other and said, “We can write these." We figured they were easy enough to write and we could pound out a few a year. Hah! We soon learned that it takes lots of talent and hard work to write an emotional and satisfying story others want to read.

I joined Romance Writers of America and absorbed all I could about the craft of writing. I met many published authors who helped and encouraged me. I entered contests and studied all aspects of the publishing business. After ten long years of hard work, rejections and disappointments, I sold my first book, A CATERED AFFAIR, to Avalon Books. Writing is the hardest work I've ever done, but the most rewarding.

Authors are often asked where we get our ideas. I drew on a very small incident from my school days as inspiration for A CATERED AFFAIR. I used the emotions I felt then to give my characters depth and make their plight realistic. A little of me is in my heroine Mary Beth. The story is set in my hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. See my article here, titled “She Can’t Cook,” for more about inspiration and writing what you know.

LOGAN’S REDEMPTION, my romantic suspense from The Wild Rose Press, has garnered top reviews. Click onto the Reviews link here to read them all. One of the most exciting recognitions I’ve had as a writer was when I was named an up and coming author in the 2003 Affaire de Coeur magazine's readers' poll.

My latest from The Wild Rose Press, a romantic suspense novella titled MURDER, MI AMORE, is set almost entirely in Rome, Italy. I used the places we visited during our 2006 trip to Italy as the setting for my story.

In addition to my books, I have sold a number of short stories. Please click on the My Short Stories link to read about them. The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper published a travel article I wrote (see it on this site under Articles). I've written numerous opinion letters that were published in local papers and national magazines. I’ve also joined a blog group, Shades of Suspense. The link to the blog is on my welcome page. I hope you enjoy my blogs and the blogs of the others in the group.

My husband and I love to travel and I love writing about the places we’ve visited. We share our home with a fat, black cat named Killer. Thank you for visiting my website and please visit again for news of more sales.