Beverly Barton was born in Alabama in 1946. She attended the University of North Alabama, but left to marry her husband, who was in the military. Before becoming a romance novelist, she was a stay-at-home mom. Her first romance novel, Yankee Lover, was published in 1990. She wrote more than 70 books during her lifetime including The Protectors series and the Dead By trilogy. She won several awards including the Romance Writers of America's Maggie Award, the RWA's National Reader's Choice Award, and the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award. She died of heart failure on April 21, 2011 at the age of 64.
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Shirley Jump spends her days writing romance and women's fiction to feed her shoe addiction and avoid cleaning the toilets. She cleverly finds writing time by feeding her kids junk food, allowing them to dress in the clothes they find on the floor and encouraging the dogs to double as vacuum cleaners. Visit her website at www.shirleyjump.com or read recipes and life adventures at www.shirleyjump.blogspot.com.
Fern Michaels, who is originally known as Mary Ruth Kuczkir, grew up in Hasting, Pennsylvania. She was born on April 9, 1933. Michaels is an American author of romance and thriller novels, including nearly 50 bestselling books with more than 70 million copies in print. Her USA Today and New York Times bestselling books include Family Blessings, Pretty Woman, and Crown Jewel, and Take down. She writes the Texas quartet and the Captive series.
Joanne Fluke was born in Swanville, Minnesota in 1943. While pursuing her writing career, she worked as a public school teacher, a psychologist, a musician, a private detective's assistant, a secretary, a short order cook, a florist's assistant, a caterer and party planner, a computer consultant, a production assistant on a TV quiz show, and half of a screenwriting team with her husband. She writes the Hannah Swensen Mystery series which includes original family recipes for baking. Her other works include The Stepchild, Vengeance Is Mine, Video Kill, Dead Giveaway, and Deadly Memories. In 2014, her title Blackberry Pie Murder made The New York Times Best Seller List.