AITonya Washington

AlTonya Washington is a South Carolina native and graduate of Winston Salem State University in North Carolina. She released her first contemporary romance with BET Books in 2003. Remember Love was nominated as Best First Multicultural Romance by Romantic Times magazine. In 2004 she was named Best New Romance Author by the readers of Shades of Romance magazine. Her second novel, Guarded Love, was labeled a Top Pick by Romantic Times magazine. Her third novel, Finding Love Again, won the Romantic Times magazine Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best Multicultural Romance of 2004.

2005 marked the release of her first Historical Romance, Wild Ravens, released by Genesis Press. In 2006, her fourth novel, Love Scheme, was nominated for the annual Romance Slam Jam Emma Award as Favorite Steamy Romance. She released her sixth novel in January 2006 (A Lover’s Dream) for the Harlequin/Kimani Press label. The sequel, A Lover’s Pretense, was released in August 2006. Also in August, she released her eighth novel, In The Midst of Passion, with Dafina Books. In March 2007 she released the third title in the Ramsey series, A Lover’s Mask, which has been nominated for the Romance Slam Jam Emma Award. In November 2007, AlTonya released her tenth novel, Pride and Consequence, with Harlequin/Kimani. The title was rated a Top Pick by Romantic Times magazine.

AlTonya currently resides in North Carolina where she and her long time love Derric raise their son. AlTonya works for an academic library as a senior library assistant. She will soon begin teaching the third semester of her course, Writing the Romance Novel, for Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, NC. She released the fourth installment in the Ramsey series, A Lover’s Regret, in winter 2008, and her second Historical romance, Passion’s Furies, in August 2008, along with Rival’s Desire with Harlequin/Kimani. This will mark AlTonya’s thirteenth novel.