Lisa Ruff

Lisa Ruff was born in Montana and grew up in Idaho. The daughter of a forester, she lived in small lumber towns—some nestled so deep in the mountains that sunlight never touched the valley floor from October to April. She attended the University of Idaho and earned a degree in Interior Design. That training led her to Seattle, where she designed restaurants before starting her own interior design business. Lisa met the man of her dreams in Seattle. She married Kirk promising to love, honor and edit his rough drafts. His pursuit of writing led Lisa to the craft. A long-time reader of romance, she decided to try to create one herself. The first version of Man of the Year took three months to finish, but her business got in the way of polishing the manuscript. She stuffed it in a drawer where it languished for several years. In pursuit of time to write and freedom to explore the world, Lisa, Kirk and their cat sailed from Seattle on a thirty-seven-foot boat. They spent five years cruising in Central America and the Caribbean. Lisa wrote romance, but it took a backseat to an adventurous life. She was busy writing travel essays, learning to speak Spanish from taxi drivers and handling a small boat in gale-force winds on the ocean. When she returned to land-life, Lisa started a marine canvas business. Her summers were filled with patterning, cutting and sewing covers and biminis for boats. One winter, she finally revised Man of the Year and sent it to an agent. Within a year, she had a contract from Harlequin American Romance. That same month, Lisa sold her canvas business in order to pursue her dream of writing full time. She and her husband are cruising on a sailboat again—this one 40 feet long—somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. When not setting sail for another port, she is working on her next Harlequin romance book.