Still reading about me? Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Although I’ve been practically famous for fiction ever since I could talk (you should have heard the stories I told my Kindergarten teacher), it took me three decades and nine odd years to get around to writing a novel. In fact, it was the calendar that put me up to it. I’d always said I wanted to be an author when I grew up—and forty is pretty darn grown up by anybody’s standards. The Heart Has Its Reasons was released in 1999 and I’ve since published seven-and-a-half more books (one was a collaboration) and been included in a compilation of inspirational essays for mothers. I’ve edged from LDS romance into romantic mystery into murder-mystery-with-romantic-overtones into romantic comedy into the new Nightshade series – books one reviewer said is what you’d expect “if you watched Buffy join CSI on the Romance Channel.”

The question I’m most often asked is: “What is the best thing about being a writer?” The answer—aside from the obvious perk of being able to take my pit bull to work with me—is that I can toss all the things I love most into my books. Baseball, mummies, mythology, old movies, UFOs, bad puns, Nancy Drew, Indiana Jones, fairy tales, Hopis, powdered-sugar donuts, classic literature, vampires, the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, ghosts—it’s all in there somewhere. (Or will be if I write faster.)  

I’ve been married to my own romantic hero for more than a quarter of a century (wow!) and we have four children. Our oldest son is an Army medic recently returned from Korea . My youngest son is a Marine MP currently in his second deployment in Iraq . Our middle son teaches high school (talk about hazardous duty) and writes funny, creepy, absolutely marvelous screenplays. Our only daughter is an English/Elementary Ed major who’s been catching major mistakes in my manuscripts since she was thirteen. (I once wrote that the sun rose in the west. My editor, two professional proofreaders, and I all missed it. Hilary didn’t.)  

I live in gorgeous Chino Valley , Arizona where I spend days reading works-in-progress aloud to the aforementioned attentive (if illiterate) pit bull who grins in all the right places. (She’s my biggest fan.) My biggest critic lives here, too: a big black cat who spends most of his waking hours trying to take over the chair at my computer. I’d probably have a dozen more books to my credit if he weren’t so pushy—and if all those other people would quit writing books I find so appealing! I’d frankly rather read than eat, though you might not believe it from looking at my author photo. (Fortunately, I can read and eat at the same time. Walking and chewing gum is another matter.)  

If that isn’t more than you ever wanted to know—and never asked in the first place—check out the Frequently Asked Questions below and/or e-mail me! I promise to write back . . . if I get the e-mail. Sadly, I figure I get only about 89.68% of the e-mails sent to me in any given week. So, if you write and don’t hear back from me in a day or three, assume you were lost in cyberspace and please drop me another note. Eventually the odds are bound to be in our favor!  

Read answers to Frequently Asked Questions here.

Kerry may be contacted by e-mail here