"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

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 been making up stories for as long as she can remember and has spent a lot of years giving voice to the characters in her head.  She writes sensual Historical Romances and also spicy Contemporaries under the name Josie Dennis.  In her world outside of writing she’s known Mickey Mouse from the “inside” at Walt Disney World, has been a copy-editor for her town’s newspaper, and is currently a bookseller at Barnes & Noble.  She makes her home in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia but spends part of the year in Harmony, Florida.  She’s married with two daughters, both bitten by the writing bug.

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 is an award-winning author of medieval historical romances.  Her debut novel, Dance of Desire, was the launch title of Medallion Press's Sapphire Jewel Imprint.  Dance of  Desire won two Reviewer’s Choice Awards, Best Medieval in industry review magazine Affaire de Coeur’s 2006 Reader-Writers’ Poll, and finaled in four contests for published romance novelists.

Her other medieval romances have also garnered accolades.  Among them, My Lady's Treasure won the historical category of the 2008 Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence Contest and was a finalist in the 2008 Next Generation Indie Book Awards.  A Knight's Reward, Book 2 of her Knight's Series, finaled in the 2009 National Readers' Choice Awards.  Busy writing her next book, 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.

Kristen Painter is published in poetry, short stories and non-fiction. Besides being a 2005 and 2007 Golden Heart finalist and 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, urban fantasy 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). She also sells her own handmade jewelry through an online store.

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

Her first book comes out in September from Samhain Publishing.

Rachel McNeely has wanted to write for as long as she can remember.  Her first career was Nursing. During her mid-life crisis, she went back to school and earned her Master's degree in Social Work. These were good choices, but in the back of her mind, those characters kept knocking on the door and reminding her of her dream job, writing. 

Her first two books will be out with BookStrand Publishing in 2009.

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 is the bestselling author of over fifteen books. She's an Ecataromance award winner, a 2007 Passionate Plume finalist for The Lawman’s Wife, and has garnered a coveted four and half stars from Romantic Times Book Reviews for her novel, The Blonde Bomb Tech.

From her futuristic novels to her contemporary romantic suspense, she's known for her independent heroines and those compelling alpha males we all adore.

After turning in her twelfth manuscript, she came to the realization that this writing gig might just work out after all. She continues to dream up stories, keeping no less than ten book ideas circulating at any given time.

Roxanne St. Claire is a bestselling, RITA-Award winning author of more than twenty novels for Pocket Books, Silhouette Desire and HQN. She currently writes a popular romantic suspense series called “The Bullet Catchers” that features a cadre of elite, fearless bodyguards and security professionals. In addition to the RITA, her books have won numerous industry awards, including the National Reader’s Choice Award, the Daphne du Maurier, the HOLT Medallion, the Maggie, Booksellers Best, Book Buyers Best, several Awards of Excellence, the Aspen Gold and the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence. In addition, one of her novels, The Sins of His Past, was selected by Borders Group buyers as the overall “Borders Top Pick” in the Book Buyers contest.

Her titles have been selected by Doubleday and Rhapsody Book Clubs as featured selections, and routinely reside on the Waldenbooks Top Ten lists, including two weeks at number one. In 2008, readers are enjoying the first “Bullet Catcher Trilogy” featuring three connected stories titled First You Run, Then You Hide and Now You Die. Next year, Bullet Catcher fans can enjoy back-to-back excitement when Hunt Her Down and Make Her Pay are released in September and October, 2009.

Prior to launching a full time career as a romance novelist with her first release from Pocket Books in 2003, Roxanne spent nearly two decades as a marketing executive and public relations consultant. She is a graduate of UCLA, an active member of RWA, and lives in Florida with her husband and two children. Visit her web site at www.roxannestclaire.com