I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long I can remember. I wrote my first story when I was eight years old, and have been writing ever since. I started out with typical preteen and teen ‘first-love’ stories, then graduated to writing screenplays for some of my favorite television shows (especially when the writers created storylines I didn’t like!). Then when I was seventeen, I read Kathleen Woodiwiss’s The Flame and the Flower and Johanna Lindsey’s Tender Rebel, and I knew then that I wanted to write historical romances. Inspiration struck and, muse humming in my ear, I sat down and pounded out my very first historical on an ancient typewriter. I don’t recall doing any real research, but hey, it was a good story, right? So, I bought a copy of The Writer’s Market, looked up the major New York publishers, and sent it off. I’m pretty sure the only rule I didn’t break was that I included the obligatory SASE. Perfect for each and every ‘Dear Author’ rejection letter I received on that story. Okay, maybe it wasn’t the smartest way to approach my writing career, but it did have one advantage – I learned at an early age how to deal with rejection.

In the meantime, I graduated high school, attended college, working in a variety of odd places to pay for it, and eventually went to work in corporate America. Nights and weekends were spent at the keyboard instead of the typewriter. Then, one afternoon, I was in a local bookstore and there were two women doing a book signing. I bought both books and then proceeded to question both of them endlessly about what it was like to be a Real Live Writer. Both of them told me about New Jersey Romance Writers, the local chapter of Romance Writers of America, and how much it helped them become Real Live Writers.

It took me a few months of working up the nerve to go to a meeting (walking into a roomful of people I didn’t know??? I knew I’d stick out like a sore thumb, pardon the cliché.) but when I did… It was amazing! Not only was I surrounded by Real Live Writers, I found out I had almost no clue about what it took to become one of Them. Seems there was a lot more to it than submitting that SASE with my manuscript. While I learned, I kept writing and submitting and, in 2004, I sold my first book, which was released this past February. My second book, also an historical, will be released next January. Hopefully, this is only the beginning….

Currently, I live in central New Jersey, in the town where I was born and raised, with my husband Tom and our two children – Samantha and Jason. When I’m not writing or researching, I love to read just about any genre. I love all kinds of music, but Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, and Elton John are always somewhere in the CD player. I also do crosswords and Sudoku puzzles – no matter how crazy they make me. Since I have two young children, there is always some cartoon or other on, but when I get a hold of the remote, I love classic television shows like The Twilight Zone and The Honeymooners. I’m also addicted to both Survivor and CSI. When it comes to sports, I live and die with the Yankees, the Giants (New York, not San Francisco), and now that hockey’s back – the Rangers.

Whatever happened to that first manuscript? I still have it. I dug it out of the bottom-most desk drawer, blew off the dust, and reread it. When I finished cringing over the fact that I actually sent it to a publisher, I sat down and tore it apart. I think it can actually be resuscitated so right now, it’s being gutted and rewritten into what I’m sure will be a much better book. Who knows? It might just find a home yet – I’ve learned quite a bit since those early days!