As far back as I can remember, I've had a love affair with books. I loved to live vicariously through each character, and dreamed of the day when I'd write my own books. I loved to write and make up stories, a talent which was both loved and hated by many of my English teachers. As I got older, I had teachers encourage me to write, but they admonished me to 'stop writing the weird stuff and tone down the sarcasm!' But what fun is that?However, my other love was music, and playing clarinet and saxophone ended up paying my way through college by way of a scholarship. As is often the case, life happened and I didn't get back to writing until 2003, when my husband and son encouraged me to 'stop talking about it, and go do it!' So, I joined my local Romance Writers of America chapter and poured myself into learning everything I could about writing and publishing, and both the business and creative side of being a writer.I worked hard, and in ten months wrote INTO A DANGEROUS MIND, and set about the business of submitting and entering contests while I moved on to writing STONE MAIDEN. I entered dozens of contests and rewrote and revised that book several dozen times. I also received tons of great rejections from both agents and editors. Yes - you read right - GREAT rejections. Most of them saying, "we really liked your story, but it has the following weaknesses..." With every one, I refined and rewrote and learned everything I could. Then in October 2004, I received the fateful 'call.' Okay, it was an email, but thus began one of the best chapters in my life. Since then, I've hit the ground running and never looked back. I also write under the pen name Cassie Ryan.I currently live in sunny Arizona with my two favorite men-my husband and my son-and our two cats.