Rita Gerlach lives with her husband and two sons in a historical town nestled along the Catoctin Mountains, amid Civil War battlefields and Revolutionary War outposts in central Maryland. She was born in Washington D.C. and grew up in a large family in the Maryland suburbs. "Romantic historical fiction that has an inspirational bent, is one way people can escape the cares of life and be transported back to a time of raw courage and ideal love," she says. "The goal of my writing is to give readers a respite from a stressful world and give them hope."In many of her stories, she writes about the struggles endured by early colonists, with a sprinkling of both American and English history. Her genre - Inspirational Historical Romance / Drama.Rita is a breast cancer survivor, and incorporates into her newer fiction what she learned through her journey --- courage, faith, and the precious gift of family and friendship.Currently she is writing an Edwardian era novel set in Chevy Chase, Maryland, a historical community on the outskirts of Washington DC, leading to a fictional village in the western Maryland mountains. She is also co-authoring a historical series with bestselling Christian author Gilbert Morris.Visit Rita's website at http://ritagerlach.blogspot.com/Her Blog 'Inspire' http://inspire-writer.blogspot.com/