I grew up in cowboy country in western Nebraska. In my early years, my parents owned a town. It had a population of four and it’s own zip code. When I was a young teen we moved to my grandmother’s ranch where I learned to work cattle, ride a horse, and drive a tractor.
After high school, I attended college where I met the love of my life. I promptly quit college, got married, and started working. In the ensuing years, we had a daughter and moved from Nebraska to Texas, later to New Mexico, and then on to Colorado. Eventually I decided to go back to college and finish my degree. I graduated with a BA in English Writing in 2012.
I started writing a community news column for a very small county paper while I was in high school. If I remember correctly, I earned $8 a month for calling the neighbors and asking them what they had done or who had visited them that week. It was a little like being a gossip columnist. During high school and my first attempt at college I learned to love writing argumentative essays and research papers. Later, I wrote a mental health column for another small rural newspaper. During my second time in college I learned the joys of writing creative nonfiction.
I wrote my first romance novel on a portable typewriter while living in West Texas. At the time I was reading a romance a day and thought I should give it a try. That manuscript is neatly packaged and resides in my desk drawer to this day. I didn’t write again until years later, when I wrote The Blackmailed Beauty. I have since written the sequel, To Release and Earl, and the third book in the series, Injured Sensibilities.
My first contemporary, The Family Plan, was recently published. Having accomplished that I am in the process of rewriting a contemporary romantic suspense. Dangerous Revelations will be published in 2018.
I am a member of Romance Writers of America.
Warmest wishes,
Ilene
