BiographyClara WimberlyClara Wimberly always wanted to be a writer. When she took early retirement from the U.S. Forest Service she began writing full time to pursue the dream of becoming a published writer. The influence of Victoria Holt and Phyllis Whitney, as well as southern writers such as Borden Deal and Babs Deal, fueled her interest in atmospheric historical writing. The South is a favorite setting for Clara's novels. Her first book, The Emerald Tears of Foxfire Manor, a Gothic Romance, was set during the Civil War in North Carolina. That first book won an honorable mention in Georgia Romance Writers' Maggie Awards. Since then she has published more than 20 books in a variety of work, from gothic to historical, mainstream, suspense and southern nostalgia. She has written for publishers Kensington, Zebra, Pinnacle, HarperCollins, Silhouette, Red Rose Publishers and BelleBooks. Several of her books appeared on National Best Seller lists and two placed in Georgia Romance Writers' Maggie Awards. Wimberly's books have been published in Russian, Chinese, Spanish, Italian and German and have appeared in over a dozen different countries. She is the mother of three adult children and the grandmother of 7 - 3 boys and 4 girls. Her interests include American history, herb gardening, counted cross stitch, genealogy, traveling, collecting vintage teapots and of course reading.