I’ve been making up stories most of my life. Growing up in a neighborhood with only boys and a big brother who was usually trying to ditch me, I spent a lot of time reading. When I wasn’t reading, I was imagining my own books. After college and several years in the P.R. field, I decided to try my hand at a novel. I was pregnant at the time, and I think there must have been something in those pregnancy hormones. Two years after that decision, I had a finished book and a contract with Silhouette Romance. (Okay, I’ve glossed over the hair-pulling struggle of actually writing that first book, but all the pain vanished when I got the “call”.)
I wrote several books for Silhouette under a pen name, Kristina Logan, and then moved on to single title romance, writing books for Avon and NAL and most recently for Pocket Books where I’ve launched my Angel’s Bay Series. It’s the first time I’ve written a series of connected books, and while it’s quite a challenge, I love being able to develop continuing characters and storylines and create an entire town complete with a rich and fascinating history. SUDDENLY ONE SUMMER, ON SHADOW BEACH, IN SHELTER COVE, AT HIDDEN FALLS and the latest release, GARDEN OF SECRETS, can be enjoyed in any order. The release of GARDEN OF SECRETS on September 20th, 2011 will bring my total of published books to 29.
As you can imagine, it’s taken me a few years to write that many books. I no longer have babies or little kids running around, but I continue to have the support of my family as I live the crazy life of a writer, one foot in the real world, the other in the world of my imagination.
I first got my love of reading from my mother, who was an avid reader and filled our home with overflowing shelves of books. She was also the one who first came up with the idea of writing a romance and completed her first novel a few years before me. When I first started writing, we traveled to writers’ conferences together and learned the craft, but mostly we just had a lot of fun. It was wonderful to have her support and encouragement. She was in the audience when I won the RITA for Daniel’s Gift, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget the expression on her face. While, she never fulfilled her own publishing dreams, she kept on writing, as much for the joy of it as anything. And some days when the writing seems “hard” or when the ever changing publishing business takes another spin, I think of her and remember that it’s always about the story. And the next best thing to reading is writing.
I hope to continue on for many more books, because the ideas just keep coming. When I’m not writing, I’m enjoying my family and the usually good California weather. A native Californian, I’ve lived at both ends of the state, and while I sometimes miss the hot summer nights of Southern California, I love the beautiful bays and hillsides of Northern California and the intriguing city of San Francisco, one of my favorite settings.
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