Years after receiving my Criminal Justice degree from the University of Oklahoma , I discovered the historical romance genre. True legends like M.M Kaye, Kathleen Woodiwiss, Judith McNaught, and Penelope Williamson, sparked my love for writing and convinced me I wanted only to do one thing in my life and that was to create great stories alive with grit and passion.In the past, I've written westerns for Leisure under Lori Morgan and Pirate adventure books for Berkley under Laura Renken. My books have been five times reviewer nominated by Romantic Times Bookclub for Best Adventure and Best Historical Suspense and Gothic categories. They have won the Holt Medallion twice, the WISRWA Writer's Choice Award, the Affaire de Couer reader's Choice award and will be published in five foreign languages worldwide. My Lord Pirate, was a 1999 Golden Heart Finalist, which launched my publishing career with Berkley.I live in the Chicago area where I am also the former president for the Windy City RWA chapter. Currently, I pen stories for AVON/HarperCollins under my name, Melody Thomas. Wild and Wicked in Scotland, the first book in my new Charmed and Dangerous series appeared on shelves January 2007. The second book, Sin and Scandal in England, was an Avon October 2007 release. Passion and Pleasure in London came out August 26, 2008. For more information on my books check out my Author pages on this site. Happy Reading.Have you ever wanted to be a romance writer? Consider joining: Romance Writers of AmericaIf you live near Chicago, check out: www.windycityrwa.com