"I was a member of another national organization and had signed my first contract when I decided to join STAR. My writing life was in desperate need of face-to-face fellowship. STAR's monthly meetings are invaluable for encouragement, support and craft instruction. I can honestly say the workshops have made a huge difference in my writing. If any writer has aspirations to publish, start where it counts: join STAR." Rachel Hauck, Multi-published Author, STAR Member

Previously a competitive athlete and coach, Kresley Cole now concentrates on her dream of writing romance. Her first book, THE CAPTAIN OF ALL PLEASURES (Pocket Books, July 2003) was a 2003 Romantic Times Magazine Reviewers’ Choice Award Winner and her second release, THE PRICE OF PLEASURE (Pocket, July 2004), was an RT Top Pick.

2004 was a busy year for Cole as she sold a Highland historical trilogy to Pocket Books in the spring, rounded out the summer with another two-book sale to PB for a new paranormal romance series, and in the fall sold a story for a Pocket anthology. IF YOU DARE, the first book in the MacCarrick historical trilogy will be released in May 2005, with IF YOU DESIRE and IF YOU DECEIVE to follow in 2006. The paranormal romances, as yet untitled, will be released between the historicals with the first to come in April 2006.

Laurie Cooper writes paranormal and historical romances, screenplays, children’s books, and poetry.  She credits STAR, RWA, and her terrific critique partners over the years for helping her earn PRO status, finish 5 manuscripts and win and final in numerous writing contests.  Laurie is a past President of STAR and has served as Contest Coordinator and Conference Co-chair.

On the home front she wears a dozen or so hats.  Life is never dull with two grown children and three granddaughters to keep her laughing.  She’s worked with children for more than thirty years as a reading teacher, a coach for state champion baton twirling and dance teams, and as a Special Olympic softball, basketball and cycling coach.  Her husband, Quentin, is her rock, her hero, and the guy who taught her how to water-ski.

She recently earned a Bachelors of Arts in English.  And although she can’t wait for “the call”…she’s totally enjoying the journey.    

Patricia Giagiacumo Clay (Pat) grew up in Schenectady, New York. Her parents, Italian immigrants, raised a family of seven daughters of which she was last.  After a B.S. in Speech from SUNY at Geneseo, she taught English on Long Island.

Later she moved to Dayton, Ohio, received an M.A. from the University of Cincinnati and spent the next twenty-five years as Speech Pathologist in the public school system, wrote research and design units for the state, and pushed all those story ideas to the back of her brain.

Then -- retirement and paradise! She moved to Merritt Island with her husband of thirty-seven years. Her son and daughter are nearby - they found paradise earlier in life than she. 

A life-long baseball fan, and not to be outdone by Heather Harper, she’s been kissed by Johnny Bench and hugged by Pete Rose and would like to give Derek Jeter a shot. She’s been on stage with clown Emmett Kelly Jr. and delivered a birthday cake to jazz-man Woody Herman.

Pat has completed five contemporary novels (with a few false starts thrown in), some with elements of suspense, some without. Currently she is a free-lance correspondent for Communities Section of Florida Today.

At STAR she’s worked on hospitality, been contest coordinator and secretary. Currently she has dusted off her high school cheerleading pom-poms to serve as  STAR “rewarder-for-good-member-deeds.”

JoMarie DeGioia has an interesting work history.  She’s flown the Star Tours ride at Disney MGM, shrunk herself to fit into the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground and gotten to know Mickey Mouse from the “inside.”  She’s been a bookseller at Barnes & Noble, and still leads a romance reading group in her local B & N.  A professional copy editor for her town’s newspaper, Harmony Notes, she also offers a critique service to fellow writers. 

JoMarie writes sensual Romances, both Historical and Contemporary.  Her first Historical, Raven’s Flight, was published by Denlinger’s Publishers, Ltd. in 2001.  She lives in Harmony, Florida with her husband, two daughters, two calico cats and one oddly endearing half-Dachshund/half-Lab dog.  And after five years spent in Indiana, even three hurricanes could not blow her out of the Sunshine State!  

She is a member of RWA and Space Coast Authors of Romance.  She is active both locally and nationally, is a member of PRO and has served on several committees. 

Rachel Hauck is a multi-published author living in sunny, though sometimes hurricane plagued, central Florida with her husband, Tony, a youth pastor. They have three ornery pets. She graduated from Ohio State University and is a huge Buckeyes football fan. Rachel is a past President of American Christian Fiction Writers. Visit her blog and web site at www.rachelhauck.com.

Catherine Kean penned her first novella at age twelve and first full-length manuscript at sixteen.  After completing a B.A., Double Major (First Class), in English and History from the University of Victoria , B.C., Canada , she was accepted into the post-graduate Works of Art Course run by Sotheby’s auctioneers in London , England , where she studied centuries of history, antiques and fine art. She worked in Canada for several years as an antique and fine art appraiser, which inspired unique ideas for novels.

Prior to her first publishing contract, Catherine’s manuscripts finaled in thirty contests, including Georgia Romance Writers’ Unpublished Maggie Awards. Her debut medieval historical romance, Dance of Desire, was the launch title of Medallion Press’s Sapphire Jewel Imprint and is published with two different cover designs.  Dance of Desire won two Reviewer’s Choice Awards.  It also finaled in Smoky Mountain Romance Writers’ 2005 Readers and Booksellers’ Best Laurie for Published Authors Contest and the Debut Novel Category of Reviewers’ International Organization’s 2005 RIO Awards of Excellence.

Catherine lives in Central Florida with her husband, daughter, and two spoiled cats.

Since selling her first book to Harlequin in 1999, Leslie Kelly  has quickly become known for writing sassy, sexy, and sometimes irreverent stories filled with strong heroines and playful heroes. But when she set out to combine that sexy irreverence with her love of horror novels and scary movies, she really found her niche writing slightly twisted contemporary single title romances full of heat, humor and the occasional murder victim. 

A National Reader’s Choice Award winning author, Leslie has twice been nominated for the highest award in romance, the RWA Rita Award, and is a six-time nominee for the RT Bookclub Award.

A former government worker in Maryland, Kelly now resides in Florida with her husband, three daughters, and a fuzzy little dog who hasn’t yet been informed she’s not a human.
 

Leslie loves to hear from readers and can be easily reached through her website: www.lesliekelly.com or at PO Box 410787, Melbourne, FL 32941-0787

In 1996, Julie Elizabeth Leto retired from teaching, joined her family's manufacturing business and gave herself more time to write. "The call" from Harlequin came in March of 1997 with an offer to publish SEDUCING SULLIVAN, her fourth completed novel.

Julie discovered her niche with Temptation's sensuous, sexy tone and character-driven stories. Her desire to "push the envelope" worked even better when Harlequin launched the new Blaze series, longer books that gave her the freedom to explore sensual stories with a more intricate plot. She now writes for both lines, with most of her releases in Blaze.

Sixteen years after she made that first sale, Debbie Macomber finds her name is recognized not only in households across the country but in countries around the world. Sixty million copies of her books are in print. Because of her success, Debbie's husband was able to retire to pursue his love of flying. They live in a lovely Tudor-style home overlooking Puget Sound, a house paid for with her writing dollars. In the spacious basement of that home, Wayne is building an airplane. In the past few years, Debbie has traveled to places she could only dream about 16 years ago — Hawaii, Alaska, England, Italy, France, Bangkok, Hong Kong. Debbie earned her faithful readership by writing heartwarming, wholesome stories of love and commitment. Today, however, her literary focus has broadened to the emerging field of women's fiction, which includes stories of all kinds that bear universal appeal for women.

Cindy Miles is a national best selling author for New American Library. Growing up on Georgia's haunted coast, she has forged her love of storytelling with tales of restless spirits. With inspiration from Charles Dickens, she adds a touch of whimsy to her ghostly romances. Once she discovered centuries-old castle ruins in the blustery north of England and Scotland, fierce warriors from bygone years--who may still be lingering–-came to life. And every chance she gets, she crosses The Pond to explore crumbly castles and eerie moors, and with any luck, uncover a mischievous spirit or two!

Terry Odell was born in Los Angeles and now makes her home in central Florida. An avid reader (her parents tell everyone they had to move from their first home because she finished the local library), she always wanted to "fix" stories so the characters did what she wanted, in books, television and the movies. Once she began writing, she found this wasn't always possible, as evidenced when the mystery she intended to write rapidly became a romance.

Terry has published three novels with Cerridwen Press, and numerous short stories with The Wild Rose Press. She used to do a lot of needlepoint, but ran out of wall space in the house, which undoubtedly steered her toward writing as a necessary creative outlet. She attributes much of her growth as a writer to her first critique group, the Pregnant Pigs.

Kristen Painter is published in poetry, short stories and non-fiction. Besides being a 2005 and 2007 Golden Heart finalist, the co-founder of an award-winning website for romance writers, Romance Divas, she's also the webmistress for STAR. She writes fantasy romance, contemporary paranormals and young adult and hopes to soon change her RWA PRO status to RWA PAN, with the help of her fabulous agent. If the writing doesn't work out, she hopes to compete in Olympic Shopping and bring home the gold (just as soon as shopping becomes an Olympic event).

Kristen lives in Rockledge with her retired AF husband, their three furry feline children and three classic muscle cars her husband calls a "hobby".

Sandy Moffett Parks love of geology, science, the outdoors, and adventure drew her into an eclectic list of jobs ranging from a government computer project to designing hydraulic structures. She found her creative side while attempting to keep university students interested in her classes. From teenage days when she took creative writing and wrote high school sports news for the county paper, she knew a book lay in her future.

Sandy lives a romantic life in Florida with her test pilot husband, Scott (yes, discussion of material stress/strain and aerodynamics can be sexy), a keyboard lounging cat, and two active teenagers. Attempting to keep up with her boys, she has learned to fly, dive and has been surviving bodily torture in karate for the last six years.

Writing is a family affair for the Moffetts. Sandy and her sister Julie have been critique partners for years and they finally decided to write a series together. Brother, Brad, heard about it and challenged them to do one in Salem, Massachusetts. Sandy and Julie decided to add a touch of paranormal and the MacInness Legacy was born.

Rhonda Pollero sold her first romantic suspense, LEGAL TENDER, in 1993 under the pen name Kelsey Roberts.  Rhonda has penned more than 30 novels; won numerous awards and nominations; landed on best-seller lists including USA Today , Waldenbooks, BookScan, and the Ingrams Top 50 List.  Her holiday novella, KILLER CHRISTMAS, was excerpted in the December, 2005 issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine.  

2007 will see her hardcover debut, KNOCK-OFF, a F.A.T. Mystery, from Kensington Books.

Rhonda is a sought-after lecturer and workshop presenter as well as a much-requested media guest.  She has been featured in The New York Times and The Washington Post, among others and makes frequent appearances on both radio and television.  She founded The Writers Workshop at Anne Arundel College in Maryland and was the lead instructor in their craft and genre writing courses for three years.  She is considered an expert in why women read and write crime fiction as well as an excellent authority on plotting and structuring the novel.

Rhonda is a member of The Author’s Guild, Mystery Writers of America, Florida Mystery Writers, Romance Writers of America as well as four other chapters.  She resides in south Florida with her family. For more information, visit www.RhondaPollero.com or www.KelseyRoberts.net.

Lara Santiago always loved to write, however her pragmatic analytical side got the upper hand at an early age and informed her she would be getting a ‘real’ job, and not pursuing a creative writing career.

She joined the Air Force and spent her entire four years of service in Blytheville Arkansas, working nights in Supply issuing aircraft parts to guys working on the flight line. Her husband discovered her there and married her to continue getting his aircraft parts quicker than all the others.

After the military, she spent many practical years working at a ‘real’ job allowing her analytical side total free rein. Until one day the characters banging incessantly about her brain simply wouldn’t be silenced any longer. She bought her own lap top with the sole purpose of writing a book to allow her creative side to express itself and to let all those characters out. Her motto…so many characters…so little time.

She’s published on-line with Siren Publishing with several books throughout 2006 and later in the year she’ll have two compilation books coming out in trade paperback with them.