Years after receiving her Criminal Justice degree, award winning author and a former Golden Heart finalist Melody Thomas aka Laura Renken discovered the historical romance genre. True legends like M.M Kaye, Kathleen Woodiwiss, Judith McNaught, and Penelope Williamson, sparked her love for writing and convinced her she wanted only to do one thing in her life and that was to create great stories alive with grit and passion. She has written westerns for Leisure under Lori Morgan and Pirate adventure books for Berkley under Laura Renken. Her books have been five times reviewer nominated by Romantic Times Bookclub for Best Adventure and Best Historical Suspense, Scottish-set historicals, and Gothic categories. They have won the Holt Medallion three times, the Beacon, WISRWA Writer's Choice Award, the Affaire de Couer reader's Choice award and are published in foreign languages worldwide. Melody lives in the Chicago area where she is also the former president for the Windy City Romance Writer's of America chapter. Currently, she pens stories for AVON/HarperCollins. Her next release, Beauty and the Duke (July 28- 09) will begin her brand new mystical bliss Scottish series. These books will take place 18th & 19th century Scotland. She is looking forward to meeting readers at the Buns & Roses Tea this October 09 and wishes everyone Happy Reading until then...
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