Actually, I started out wanting to be a famous singer. And upon realizing I was not a particularly good singer, I decided I'd be a famous songwriter. This lasted for some time - I even moved to Nashville and had some of my music published. But I had a tendency to write very long songs - stories set to music. Imagine my frustration, trying to fit a single title novel into three verses, a bridge and a chorus.

Finally, in a moment of restless frustration, being confined to my home with three little children, and having just spent a solid week typing legal motions, I decided I was going to write a book (I was too tired to put the typewriter away, and writing a book seemed like a good enough excuse to leave it out on the kitchen table for a while longer). So I sat down at my trusty electric typewriter, and wrote a chapter.  By the end of the first paragraph, I was hooked. By the end of the first chapter I realized, being that I'm not a particularly good typist, I needed a computer to have any hope of finishing my saga of epic proportions.

I put the typewriter away, and bought a used 486. I wrote my fingers bloody, and reveled in my progress. I got online, and happened upon the writers area, where I met author Emma Jensen (the woman responsible for making sense of this writing business for me, also the author of some wonderful Regencies and Regency Historicals). Emma made me realize that the novel I was well into by then was not romance (oh, horrors), so I put that book away, and started my real first manuscript, The Briar and the Rose.

The Briar and the Rose, a Historical with a touch of paranormal, is based loosely on the ballad Barbara Allen, and was selected as the Story of the Month by St Rose Press.

Beyond my writing, I have three lovely children (Jared, Jordan and Jacob), two dogs and too many cats (a lesson in getting your cat fixed young! ), most of which I tried to find homes with loving families, but nobody wanted them (the cats, not the kids).

I (and my work) have been featured in Romantic Times, on the Talk America Radio Network, NBC.com, MSN.com, and last year, I was asked to act as consultant with the producers of NBC's talk show, The Other Half, for a romance novel segment ("Why Women Read Romance Novels").

 

I live in NE Ohio, and am in the midst of remodeling a 1955 Cape Cod (which is a book in itself, but it has not been decided if it will be classified as non-fiction or horror).

What about the music? I still love it and listen to it endlessly. I play the guitar, piano, French horn, sax, trumpet and have been known to pick out a tune or two on the five-string banjo. I recently purchased a violin and fully intend to teach myself to play it... someday. Occasionally, I'll sit down and write music.

But my books have become my songs.

 

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Laura's favorite charity is the IMAGINATION LIBRARY, a literacy program that helps bring FREE books to children each month, from birth to 5 years. Read more about this wonderful program and the woman who started it! Donate any amount and receive a free book!