RITA Award-winner Anne McAllister was born in California,
spent formative summer vacations on the beach near her
home and on her grandparents’ small ranch in Colorado and
visiting relatives in Montana. Studying the cowboys, the
surfers and the beach volleyball players, she spent long
hours developing her concept of "the perfect hero." (Have
you noticed a lack of hard-driving Type A businessmen
among them? Well, she promises to do one soon, just for a
change!).
One thing she did do, early on, was develop a weakness for
lean, dark-haired, handsome lone-wolf type guys. When she
finally found one, he was in the university library where
she was working at the time. It didn’t matter. She knew a
good man when she saw one.
And they've now been sharing "happily ever afters" for 32
years. They presently have four children, four dogs, and
one bionic cat who, contrary to all expectations, is
working on his second millennium.
Quite a few years ago they moved to the Midwest, but they
spend more and more time in Montana. And as Anne says, she
lives there in her head most of the time anyway. She
wishes a small town like her very own Elmer, Montana,
existed. She’d move there in a minute.
Before she started writing romances, Anne taught Spanish,
capped deodorant bottles copyedited textbooks, got a
master’s degree in theology, and ghostwrote sermons.
It all became grist for the fictional mill — as has the
family history she likes to learn more about every chance
she gets. She might have to try her hand at that
historical, after all — especially now that she's learned
more about that second great-grandfather who claims to
have shot 40 men!