Neely Powell

Neely Powell is the pseudonym for co-writers and friends Leigh Neely and Jan Hamilton Powell. They met while working at a rock 'n roll radio in Chattanooga, Tenn., where Leigh was a DJ and Jan was creative director and both yearned to be published writers. When they discovered their husbands were good friends in high school, it seemed fated they become friends.

They tried writing fiction together, but life intervened before they found publication. Writing as Celeste Hamilton, Jan went on to publish 24 romance novels before leaving fiction for corporate communications. Leigh became a successful nonfiction writer and editor, though she was still interested in fiction. Something clicked for Leigh when she focused her talents on the paranormal. Her short story "A Vampire in Brooklyn" was published in the anthology, MURDER NEW YORK STYLE: FRESH SLICES, in 2011.

Around that time, the friends started collaborating on a paranormal mystery. The result was TRUE NATURE, novel about a shape shifting attorney and a dysfunctional psychic PI who are partners and best friends. TRUE NATURE found a publishing home with The Wild Rose Press. Neely Powell is contracted with Harlequin E for a paranormal romance ebook trilogy about a family of Southern witches. The first book in the series will be released in 2014.