Authors

In first grade, Michele Dunaway knew she wanted to be a teacher when she grew up. By second grade, she wanted to be an author. By third grade, she determined to be both. Michele succeeded in 1999, turning her first attempt into a first sale. Born and raised in St. Louis, she’s traveled extensively, with the cities and places she’s visited often becoming settings for her stories. The author of several nonfiction educational journal articles, Dunaway has sold over 15 titles to Harlequin Enterprises, including one for their NASCAR-licensed line. In addition to writing romance, Michele is a nationally recognized educator who teaches high school English and journalism. She shares her life with two young daughters and several lazy house cats on five acres in a Missouri river town west of St. Louis.

Visit Michele at her website at http://www.micheledunaway.com

Shirl Henke (also writing as Alexa Hunt)

Shirl enjoys gardening in her greenhouse, cooking holiday dinners and listening to jazz. When deadlines permit, she loves to travel. Her son works in telecommunications and keeps her computers running. When she can con him into it, he digs holes for new shrubs and builds bookcases for her ever-expanding “keeper” collection. In addition to helping with research and choreographing action sequences for her books, her husband is charged with the care and feeding of their very geriatric tomcat. All humans in the Henke household “live only to serve.”

She has appeared on the USA TODAY Bestseller list, been a RITA Finalist twice, received a Bookrak Bestseller Award, and won three Career Achievement Awards, an Industry Award and three Reviewers Choice Awards from ROMANTIC TIMES. In addition to Romance Writers of America and MORWA, Shirl is a member of the Authors Guild, Novelists, Inc., Sisters in Crime and International Thriller Writers.

“I wrote my first twenty-two novels in longhand with a ball-point pen. It’s hard to get good quills these days,” quips the author. Dragged into the 21^st century, she now uses those “devil machines.” Another troglodyte bites the dust.

Charlotte Hubbard (also writing as Melissa MacNeal)

Deborah Hull

Megan Kelly

Megan Kelly read her first Harlequin Romance as a teenager and became an avid reader. She dreamed of writing those exciting and moving stories she loved. After years (and years) of writing, she finally sold to Harlequin American Romance in 2007. She lives in the Midwest with her husband and two children and is well-known at her local bookstore and library. Her website is www.MeganKellyBooks.com

Kimberly Killion

Kimberly Killion found her love for all things tragic, passionate, and historic after taking a mythology course in college. The book wasn't Romeo and Juliet, as you might suspect, but Dante's Inferno, Oedipus, The Iliad, and a few other Greek tragedies. An artist by profession, she traded her paintbrush for a pen, and began to explore the realm of romance. In addition to writing Medieval romance, she teaches graphic design part-time in St. Louis where she brings her passion for words and the arts into the grueling boredom of lecture. A member of Romance Writers of America and the Heartland Writers Guild, Kimberly has won numerous awards for her writing. She is married to her high school sweetheart and lives in Illinois with two children, a dog, three cats, and two dozen chickens.

Currently, Kimberly is working on her next historical romance: HER ONE DESIRE, scheduled for release from Kensington in July 2008.

Annamarie McKenna

Carol Monk (writing as Carol Carson)

Mary Paine

After spending years as a researcher, medical writer and avid romance reader, Mary decided to try her hand at writing a novel. A dedicated horsewoman, she chose the world of Grand Prix show jumping as the setting for her first book, a romantic suspense entitled A Dangerous Dream. Two years later, she is delighted that A Dangerous Dream will be published in January, 2008. Mary is now enthusiastically working on her second novel, a paranormal romance about a beautiful witch who is being hunted by a murderer and needs to decide if she will be honest about her legacy with the man determined to help her.

With degrees in nursing from Georgetown University and epidemiology from Yale University, Mary Paine is a professional in the public health and medical communications fields. She lives in Missouri with her husband and three children.

Please visit Mary at www.marypaine.com.

Judy Raxton

Patricia Rice

With several million books in print and New York Times and USA Today's bestseller lists under her belt, former CPA Patricia Rice has won numerous awards for her emotionally-charged contemporary and historical romances, including the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice and Career Achievement Awards and the Bookrak Bestselling Paperback award. Her books have also been honored as Romance Writers of America RITA finalists in the historical, regency and contemporary categories. She was nominated in two categories by Romantic Times Book Club for 2002 Career Achievement awards and a Reviewers Choice Award for her bestselling romance, MUST BE MAGIC.

A firm believer in happily-ever-after, Patricia Rice is married to her high school sweetheart and has two children. A native of Kentucky, she resides in St. Louis, Missouri, and now does accounting only for herself. She is a member of Romance Writers of America, the Authors Guild, and Novelists, Inc., as well as numerous professional accounting organizations and local charities.

Barbara Scott

Barbara Scott has always believed the Blarney Stone is in Ireland for good reason and she thanks her strong Irish heritage for her own story-telling abilities. her first two books, Golden Heart winner, TUG OF WAR, and HAUNTS OF THE HEART, a reader's choice winner, are in the collection of the State Historical Society Library in Columbia, Missouri. Before retiring after 29 years in a special education classroom, Barbara found teaching and writing to be compatible careers. But there were days when both students and characters refused to cooperate. Now she can pursue her dream as a fulltime writer as long as she can avoid distraction and procrastination!

Karen Witmer-Gow (also writing as Elizabeth Grayson)

Karyn/Elizabeth was published for the first time when she was in the fourth grade. She finished a historical novel at fifteen. After a successful career teaching art in elementary schools and at the St. Louis Art Museum, she began to dabble in writing again. In 1986 her Waldenbook Award-winning novel LOVE, HONOR AND BETRAY was published under the name Elizabeth Kary.

In 1995 she began to write stories set on the advancing American frontier under the name Elizabeth Grayson. Her eleventh book, MOON IN THE WATER, was set on aboard a riverboat and garnered recognition as both a finalist for the Romance Writers RITA award and for the prestigious Willa Cather Literary Award.

A SIMPLE GIFT, her first contemporary novel written as Karyn Witmer, was a Literary Guild exclusive in 2005. The paperback will be in bookstores in September 2006.

Karyn/Elizabeth still enjoys teaching. She occasionally teaches a course on Popular Fiction at a local college, and is a frequent speaker at writers' conferences around the country. She collects miniature English cottages, enjoys needlework, and has a weakness for antique jewelry. She is happily married to a former advertising executive and devotes much of her time to playing "Auntie Mame" to two her nieces.

Authors

Joyce Counts (Joyce Adams)

Kristine Anderson (writing as Dee S. Knight)

Cynthianna Appel (also writing as Celine Chatillon)

Lynda Burch

Eileen Dreyer (also writing as Kathleen Korbel)

Michele Dunaway