I grew up outside a tiny town in southern Iowa, where the winters were long and the library was mercifully well stocked. After progressing through all the usual suspects (Laura Ingalls Wilder, Anne of Green Gables, Nancy Drew, etc.),  I read my first romance novel at the age of twelve.

This was back when romance novels had all the subtlety of a sledgehammer — when there were so many kidnappings and rapes and pregnancies in every book that a single 1980s novel could yield enough drama for half a dozen more recent publications. My first taste of the romance world wasBrave the Wild Winds by Johanna Lindsey, which was relatively tame even if the main characters did have sex on a horse. Needless to say, after I regained facial expressions beyond open-mouthed shock, I started reading every other romance I could get my hands on.

I eventually left Iowa, graduating from Stanford University in 2003 with a degree in Symbolic Systems (aka cognitive science), a minor in history, and absolutely no idea what to do with my life. I fell into a job with an advertising company that let me travel extensively, including six months in India and three more in Ireland — but my mind kept straying back to the romance world. Finally, I took the plunge and started writing Regencies, taking way too much pleasure in tormenting my characters before giving them their ultimate happily-ever-afters.

I currently live in the San Francisco Bay Area, although I still return to my Iowan roots a few times a year. I’m finishing my second manuscript, One Night to Scandal, and beginning to plan the next book in the series. My first manuscript, One Night to Seduction (formerly titled An Inconvenient Marriage), won a 2009 Golden Heart® award for best unpublished manuscript in the Regency category. I am represented by Jennifer Schober of Spencerhill Associates.