Mia ZacharyWhen Mia was about 10 years old, her mother let her read a "grown-up" book. It was a Harlequin Romance novel about a small-town veterinarian and the family practitioner he falls in love with. That story was pretty tame by today's standards - the heroand heroine didn't even kiss until the last page - but it opened up a whole new world to a romantic little girl who loved to write.

Over the years, Mia penned really bad poetry, even worse song lyrics, adolescent short stories and overly descriptive class papers. Then one day a scene for a medieval romance emerged fully detailed in her head and she rushed to get it on paper. That scene eventually turned into eight chapters and a synopsis, but she kept getting bogged down in historical research and set the story aside. Deep in a sea of self-doubt, she set writing aside as well.

Mia met her husband in Russian 101 at the beginning of the university semester. Their first date was November 17, 1989, and they eloped one year and 13 days later. She credits her husband with encouraging her to write again and for suggesting that a contemporary time frame might help her focus more on the story than the setting.

One of her contemporary romance manuscripts won the Harlequin Books 2000 Summer Blaze Contest for bold, brash love scenes, placing second in the published category. On July 10, 2002, after four years and nine rewrites, Red Shoes & a Diary finally sold to the Harlequin Blaze line! Mia figures it was fate. Mia lives in Maryland with her wonderful husband and their beautiful little boy. In addition to being a fiction author, she's also a creativity coach and a paralegal hoping to quit the law firm to write full-time. Read More Read Less