I'M DANCING ON SUNSHINE because you have dropped by my part of
paradise ~ reading and writing. We have some things in common ~ that
we believe love triumphs over everything, even death, that we love a
tension-packed story, and that we feel the best romance books sweeten
our lives. I feel as if I was born with the romantic gene, as romance
has been a vital part of my life since early childhood.
I remember
watching on our television set (our family got our
first one when I was five) the old (they were old even then) Jeanette McDonald/Nelson
Eddy musicals. But other than those, TV never became a part of my
life (still isn't). I'd head to the library on the bus every week and
load up an armful of books. I especially loved swashbuckling
historical romances (written way back then by mostly men, such as
Frank Yerby, Rafael Sabatini, James Fennimore Cooper, and Dale Van
Every). Later, I came to love Edna Ferber, Sergeanne Golon, Daphne Du
Maurier, Jan Wescott, Annie Seaton, and oh so many more. But it was
the plight of the Native American as described in the novel Romana by
Helen Hunt Jackson, which influenced the theme of many of my novels.
I am by nature a hopeful romantic and am trusting the Paradise to come
includes, still, romance (and chocolate)! Meanwhile, I hope I am able
to provide your part of paradise with romantic entertainment.
* * *
The mother of five sons and the author of thirty–eight published novels, Parris Afton Bonds is the cofounder of Southwest Writers Workshop and cofounder and first vice president of Romance Writers of America.
Although she wrote her first novel at the early age of five (The Blackhawk Women Ride Again), she didn't publish professionally until she began freelancing while living outside the United States. When she moved back to the States, with more than a dozen articles and short stories to her credit, she decided to tackle novel writing again. Because of the explosion of the romance novel at that time, she wrote and sold her first submission, the historical romance Sweet Golden Sun, to Popular Library. Her editor was Kate Duffy who went on to establish a stellar name for herself in the publishing industry.
Declared by ABC's Nightline as one of the three best-selling authors of romantic fiction, the award-winning Parris Afton Bonds has been interviewed by such luminaries as Charlie Rose and featured in major newspapers as well as published in more than a dozen languages. She donates her time to teaching creative writing to both grade school children and female inmates. The Parris Award was established in her name by the Southwest Writers Workshop to honor a published writer who has given outstandingly of time and talent to other writers. Prestigious recipients of the Parris Award include Tony Hillerman and the Pulitzer nominee Norman Zollinger.