"I've always felt a little quirky . . ."

I wrote my first book when I was ten years old.  Fifty hand written pages with really horrible illustrations (I've never had a talent for drawing).  The Littlest Green Man.  The story starred a curious Martian who decided to visit Earth and ended up feeling like an 'alien.'   He just didn't fit in.  My next book came in my high school years.  It was children's story about an octopus with an identity crisis.  He felt different from the other 'fish in the sea' and set off on a journey to find out how he fit in.   It didn't occur to me at the time, but of course it's obvious--I have always felt a little quirky and out of the normal loop of life.  It's not surprising that I gravitated toward the arts.  But rather than nurturing my writing, I pursued a career as a singer.  That passion burned strong and sustained me for more than twenty-five years before ebbing to a dull flicker.  An artist without passion is a frightening thing (for the artist anyway.)  Then out of the blue I started reading romance novels and experienced an epiphany. This was what I was supposed to be doing!

That was in 1994 and I have never looked back. I started typing my first manuscript, and quickly realized that I didn't have a clue as how to construct a novel.  I attended my first Romantic Times Convention that year hoping to glean some wisdom from the writing workshops.  What I learned was that I was doing everything wrong!  Conflict? Point of View? Pacing? Characterization?  I had an innate talent for storytelling, but I didn't know jack about the craft of writing.  Luckily, another writer turned me onto Romance Writers of America which I joined soon after along with my amazing local chapter, New Jersey Romance Writers.  I attended monthly workshops, national writer's conventions, read several "How To" books as well as books within the genre, and continued to write under the guidance of my mentor, published author  Sandra Chastain (to whom I am forever grateful.)

In 1996 I joined forces with my critique partner (and good friend), Cynthia Valero and CB Scott was born.  Together we wrote two paranormal manuscripts. In 2000 we finaled in RWA's Golden Heart, a contest for unpublished authors. Soon after we signed with ImaJinn Books, a leading publisher in paranormal romance. Since then we have published three novels with ImaJinn Books and one short story which appears in an anthology (Dream Quest) for LTD Books.