Jocelyn KelleyIn spite of being raised to play well with others, Jocelyn Kelley has always believed every woman needs to kick some butt sometimes. She learned this in third grade when the boys played soldiers and tried to relegate her to a non-combatant role. Soonshe was taking the hill (or at least the playground tree) with them. Her assumption that women could stand shoulder to shoulder with men continued when she was offered a direct commission to the U.S. Army and served as the first and only female officer in her unit.

Jocelyn's been writing "stories" all her life, and, when she decided to write for publication, she decided she wanted to write what she read-romance, especially historicals and fantasies. Why? She explains it: "I want my heroine to be able to pick up a weapon and use it without having to fill out reams of paperwork as she would in the real, contemporary world. She might not use that weapon, but I want to give her the option to do so."

She's been instructed by a fight choreographer who worked for projects in Hollywood and on Broadway and attended the British School of Falconry to learn about handling hunting hawks.

Jocelyn was awarded a Massachusetts Arts Grant to teach creative writing, and she established several genre writing courses at Brown University. She has been active in Romance Writers of America, both at the chapter and national levels.

In her non-writing life, Jocelyn loves knitting, animated movies, traveling, and she enjoys music in almost every form. She was a soloist with a local group of Up with People, but limits her singing now to when nobody else is around. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and three children.

Jocelyn loves to hear from readers via her email: jocelyn@jocelynkelley.com Read More Read Less