Ava Miles

Ava Miles has always known what she appreciates the most about romance novels. It's the affirmation of romantic love and the guarantee of a ""happily ever after."" Which made it all the more incomprehensible when her sister Michelle's ex-husband concluded that Michelle reading Nora Roberts' books was to blame for their divorce. It was only later that Ava realized she had the hook for a new story and her first contemporary romance, NORA ROBERTS LAND, was born. Ava and Nora share membership in their local Romance Writers of America chapter, Washington Romance Writers, but had never met. Regardless, Ava considered it common courtesy to let Nora know about her work-in-progress, especially ""Nora Roberts Land,"" her metaphor for the happily ever after at the heart of the romance genre. It's also the phrase she planned to use for her title. She reached out to Nora, shared her vision for the story and the tentative title, and soon NORA ROBERTS LAND was on its way to publication. Far from the first in her family to embrace writing, Ava comes from a long line of journalists. Ever since her great-great-grandfather won ownership of a newspaper in a poker game in 1892, her family has had something to do with telling stories, whether to share news or, in her case, fiction. Her clan is still reporting on local events more than one hundred years later at their family newspaper, much like the Hale family in her book. Ava, who's been scribbling down ideas and writing since childhood, says it wasn't until her characters ""wouldn't stop talking"" that she completed the first of several novels she had written. Born and raised in the Midwest, where her family's newspaper is located, Ava went on to earn an undergraduate degree in writing and advance degrees in political science and conflict management. She is a member of the Romance Writers of America and Washington Romance Writers. She is also part of an unofficial group that regularly convenes a writing retreat at Nora Roberts' restored Inn Boonsboro in western Maryland. Now writing full-time in the peace and quiet of her northern Virginia porch-swinging-friendly community, she is putting the finishing touches on the two upcoming books in her Dare Valley Trilogy and plotting her next series.