Jennifer Blake

Jennifer Blake has been called the Steel Magnolia of women's fiction and a "legend of the genre." She is a seventh generation Louisianian who married at 15, began writing at 21, sold her first book at 27 in 1970, and gained her first New York Times Best Seller with LOVE'S WILD DESIRE in 1977. She has written over 50 books, including ROYAL SEDUCTION, FIERCE EDEN, SHAMELESS, TIGRESS, and GARDEN OF SCANDAL. A writer of international best-seller status as well, her books have been published in 17 languages for worldwide sales approaching 22 million. She was honored with the position as Writer-in-Residence for the University of Northeastern Louisiana, and is a charter and honorary member of Romance Writers of America. She has received numerous awards for her work, but among those she values most are the Golden Treasure Award for Lifetime Achievement from Romance Writers of America, induction into the Affaire de Coeur Romance Hall of Fame, and the Frank Waters Award for Excellence in Fiction. Jennifer and her husband of over 40 years live at Sweet Briar, the home they designed and built in 1980 as an energy efficient replica of an old Southern Planter's Cottage. On acreage crossed by a spring-fed creek and enhanced by tall pines, beeches, dogwoods, wild azaleas, and Jennifer's garden of antique roses, they entertain friends and family, especially their four grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Here, as Jennifer says in her own words, "I write my fantasies of love and adventure in the romantic South. And sometimes, when I sit on the porch with the sunlight falling across the lawn and the smells of magnolia, sweet olive, honeysuckle and roses wafting on the warm air, I live them." Fictionwise

Patricia Anne Ponder Maxwell is a best-selling American author of over fifty novels. She has published books under five different names. Using her real name, Patricia Maxwell, she writes Gothic mystery-suspense romances; she wrote one book in collaboration that was published under Elizabeth Trehearne, under her maiden name, Patricia Ponder, she wrote a murder mystery and a romantic suspense story, as Maxine Patrick, she wrote contemporary romances and as Jennifer Blake she writes historical romances.