Lissa Michaels

This has to be the hardest part of writing, for me anyway, deciding what to say about myself. (Yes, I cringed in job interviews when my potential boss would smile and say, "So, tell me a little about yourself.")

I was born and raised in a small town in the suburbs of Chicago. Other times and places were always more interesting to me than boring old now, so instead of watching The Brady Bunch like the other kids I grew up with, I was glued to the TV watching Buck Rogers and Battlestar Gallactica, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Excalibur, and anything else steeped in fantasy.

I loved to read, and since Mom had a closet full of books, I raided those shelves constantly—of course, they were romances. My favorites were always the ones with the pirate heroes. I tried writing one when I was a teenager, but quickly discovered that I had no clue about what I was doing, so I locked away that dream of becoming a writer and concentrated my studies on a normal job. In the process, I met my husband Mike. Instead of going to my senior prom, we walked down the aisle.

It wasn't until after the birth of my second child, and we'd decided that it would be best if I stayed home with the girls, that I was able to act on my dream of becoming a writer. This time though, I decided that I was going to do it right. I took correspondence courses, read every writing "How To" I could get my hands on (I still do), and joined the Romance Writers of America. Captive Hearts is my dream finally realized. I hope you enjoy it.