2007 February « eBooks! eBooks! eBooks!

Archive for February, 2007

Amanda Quick « eBooks! eBooks! eBooks!

February 14, 2007 at 6:50 am · Filed under Amanda Quick

Biography

Jayne survived six years of rejection letters before breaking into the publishing world. Before she began writing full time, Krentz worked as a librarian, including in the Duke University library system. She earned a B.A in History at University of California, Santa Cruz, and obtained a Masters degree in Library Science from San Jose State University. She is famous for her work ethic, now beginning her writing by 7 am six days a week.

With her background, it is not surprising that Krentz has been very generous in sharing her wealth with libraries. She established the Castle Humanities Fund at UCSC’s University Library, to allow the library to purchase additional books, and has given money to 15 Seattle-area elementary schools to enhance their library budgets. She is also a member of the Advisory Board for the Writers Programs at the University of Washington extension program.

Krentz and her husband of over 30 years, Frank Krentz, reside in Seattle, Washington. Krentz in fond of vegetarian cooking

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Susan Elizabeth Phillips

February 14, 2007 at 6:35 am · Filed under Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Susan Elizabeth Phillips « eBooks! eBooks! eBooks!

Biography

After receiving a B.F.A. in theater arts from Ohio University, Susan Elizabeth Phillips taught drama, speech, and English at a local high school until her first child was born, then became a stay-at-home mother. In 1976, the family moved from Ohio to New Jersey, where Phillips became best friends with her neighbor Claire Kiehl. Phillips and Claire often discussed the books they liked to read, and one day decided to write a book together. After several months, they came up with a system for collaborating on a historical romance. Their book, The Copeland Bride, was purchased by the first editor to read it, and was published in 1983under the pen name Justine Cole.

Phillips found that she really enjoyed writing. Claire and her family moved shortly thereafter, and Phillips had to learn to write a story by herself. She was successful, and her subsequent novels, published under her own name, have reached the USA Today and New York Times bestseller lists. She is the only five-time winner of the Romance Writers of America Favorite Book of the Year Award. In 2001, Phillips was inducted into the Romance Writers Hall of Fame.

Phillips and her husband, Bill, met on a blind date while in college. They have two grown sons, and currently live in Chicago, Illinois

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Paulo Coelho

February 14, 2007 at 6:12 am · Filed under Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho « eBooks! eBooks! eBooks!

Biography

Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he attended law school, but in 1970 abandoned his studies to travel throughout Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile, as well as Europe and North Africa.

Two years later he returned to Brazil and began composing popular music lyrics, working with such popular musicians as Raul Seixas. As he confesses in an interview to Juan Arias, during that time he was introduced to the work of controversial English mystic Aleister Crowley, which influenced their collaboration. The influence extended not only to music, but also to plans for the creation of the “Alternative Society,” which was to be an anarchist community in the state of Minas Gerais based on Crowley’s premise: “‘Do what thou wilt’ shall be the whole of the Law.” The project was considered subversive by members of the Brazilian military, which imprisoned all prospective members of the group. Seixas and Coelho are reported to have been tortured during their imprisonment.

After a supernatural experience, described in The Valkyries, Coelho left the society.

Later in Holland he met a person (whom he would refer to as “J” throughout The Valkyries, The Pilgrimage and his website “Warriors of Light online”) who changed his life and Coelho was driven towards Christianity. He became a member of a Catholic group known as RAM (Regnus Agnus Mundi) with “J” as his “Master”. In 1986 he walked along the Road of Santiago, an ancient Spanish pilgrimage and his book The Pilgrimage describes his final initiation.

He and his wife Christina live in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

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Nicholas Sparks

February 14, 2007 at 6:02 am · Filed under Nicholas Sparks

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Biography

Nicholas Charles Sparks (b. December 31, 1965) is an internationally bestselling American author. He writes novels with themes that include Christianity, love, tragedy and fate. He is currently author of twelve published novels and lives in New Bern, North Carolina, with his wife Catherine and their five children. His novels tend to be romantic stories where the main characters usually don’t experience a typical happy ending.

Personal

Sparks was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to Patrick Michal Sparks, a professor, and Emma Marie (née Thoene) Sparks, a homemaker and an optometrist’s assistant. He has one living sibling, brother Michael (Micah) Earl Sparks (1964 – ) and a deceased sister Danielle Sparks (1967-2000).

Because his father was pursuing graduate studies when Nicholas was a young child, Sparks lived in Minnesota, Los Angeles, and Grand Island, Nebraska, all before the age of eight. In 1974 his family eventually settled in Fair Oaks, California and remained there through Sparks’s high school career. He graduated in 1984 as valedictorian from Bella Vista High School and went straight on to college, having received a full track and field scholarship from the University of Notre Dame. As a first year student in 1985, Sparks’s relay team set a still-standing school record for the 4 x 800 meter relay. He majored in Business Finance and graduated with high honors in 1988.

Sparks met his wife Catherine (from New Hampshire) during spring break in 1988. They married in July 1989 and lived in Sacramento. Having been rejected by both publishers and law schools, Sparks chose to try his hand in various careers over the next three years, i.e. real estate appraisal, waiting tables, selling dental products by phone and starting his own manufacturing business. In 1992 Sparks began selling pharmaceuticals and in 1993 was transferred to New Bern, North Carolina, where he wrote his first published novel The Notebook.

Sparks and his wife currently reside in New Bern with their three sons Miles, Ryan, and Landon, and their twin daughters Lexie and Savannah. Sparks recently donated a track to New Bern High School and contributes to local and national charities. He also contributes to the Creative Writing Program (MFA) at the University of Notre Dame by funding/facilitating/providing scholarships, internships and annual fellowships.

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Lauren Weisberger

February 14, 2007 at 5:54 am · Filed under Lauren Weisberger

Lauren Weisberger « eBooks! eBooks! eBooks!

Biography

Weisberger’s mother was a school teacher and her father a department-store-president turned mortgage-broker. She spent her early youth in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, a small town outside Scranton. At age 11, her parents divorced and she and her younger sister, Dana, moved to Allentown, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh Valley region of the state, with their mother.

In 1995, she graduated from Allentown’s Parkland High School. During her time at Parkland, Weisberger was involved in various activities, including intramural sports, some competitive sports, extra projects, and organizations.

Following her graduation from high school, she attended Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where she was an English major and a sorority member of Alpha Chi Omega. She graduated from Cornell in 1999, with a Bachelor’s Degree in English. After college, she traveled as a backpacker through Europe, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Thailand, India, Nepal, and Hong Kong. Returning home, she moved to Manhattan and was hired as Wintour’s assistant at Vogue. After leaving the fashion magazine, she wrote 100-word reviews for Departures Magazine, an American Express publication, before writing her first novel.

Weisberger currently resides in New York City.

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Nora Roberts

February 14, 2007 at 5:41 am · Filed under Nora Roberts

Nora Roberts « eBooks! eBooks! eBooks!

Biography

Roberts was born the only daughter and the youngest of five children in Silver Spring, Maryland. Her education included some time at a Catholic school before she married and settled in Keedysville, Maryland. For a while she worked as a legal secretary but stayed at home after the birth of her two sons.

She began writing during a blizzard in February 1979, and her first novel, Irish Thoroughbred, appeared in 1981, published by Silhouette. She met her second husband, Bruce Wilder, when she hired him to build bookshelves. They were married in July 1985.

Under the pseudonym J.D. Robb, Roberts also writes the “In Death” series of futuristic science fiction police procedurals. They feature NYPSD Detective Eve Dallas and her husband Roarke and are set in a mid-21st century New York City. The initials “J.D.” were taken from her sons, Jason and Dan, while “Robb” is a shortened form of Roberts.

Roberts is famously prolific—in 1996 she passed the hundred-novel mark with Montana Sky. Since 1999, every one of Roberts’s novels has been a New York Times bestseller. 124 of her novels have ranked on the New York Times bestseller list, including twenty-nine that debuted in the number one spot. Her books have ranked in the number one position on the NYT Bestseller list for a combined 90 weeks. Roberts writes eight hours a day, every day, and even works on vacation.

Many readers and scholars of romance fiction attribute the transformation of the romance heroine into a strong female figure in part to Roberts’ ability to develop characters and to tell a good story.

Roberts does much of her research over the internet, as she has an aversion to flying.

Other romance authors jokingly refer to Roberts as “The Nora”.

Lifetime Television is adapting four Nora Roberts novels into TV movies for release in 2007: Angel’s Fall, Montana Sky, Blue Smoke, Carolina Moon. Her novels Sanctuary, and Magic Moments had previously been made into TV movies.

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Judith McNaught

February 14, 2007 at 5:24 am · Filed under Judith McNaught

Judith McNaught « eBooks! eBooks! eBooks!

Biography

Before gaining success as a writer, McNaught has previously worked as an assistant director for a film crew, an assistant comptroller of a major trucking company, president of a temporary employment agency, and president of an executive search firm. She also was the first female executive producer at a CBS radio station.

McNaught’s first manuscript was Whitney, My Love, which she wrote between 1978 and 1982. After having difficulty selling that novel, she wrote and sold Tender Triumph in early 1982. She received the book cover for Tender Triumph on June 20, 1983 — the day after her beloved husband Michael McNaught was killed in an accident.

While McNaught at one time lived in Saint Louis, Missouri, she moved to Texas after falling in love with Dallas while on a book tour. She currently lives in Clear Lake, Texas. McNaught is active in children’s charity and with breast cancer causes, and she has recently begun promoting literacy issues. She has a daughter, Whitney, and a son, Clayton, and is married with Don Smith.

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Johanna Lindsey « eBooks! eBooks! eBooks!

February 14, 2007 at 5:18 am · Filed under Johanna Lindsey

Johanna Lindsey « eBooks! eBooks! eBooks!

Biography

Helen Johanna Lindsey was born 1952 in Germany, where her father, a soldier in the U.S. Army, was stationed. The family moved about a great deal when she was young. His father always dreamed of retiring to Hawaii, and after he passed away in 1964 Johanna and her mother settled there to honor him.

In 1970, when she was still in school, she married Ralph, becoming a young housewife. The marriage produced three children; Alfred, Joseph and Garret, who already have made her a grandmother. Johanna has not remarried after her husband’s death. Her older book jackets listed Lindsey as living in Hawaii; she now resides in Cape Cod. Lindsey wrote her first book, Captive Bride in 1977 “on a whim.” . The book was a success, as have been the 30+ novels which followed. By 2006, over 58 Million copies of her books have been sold worldwide, with translations appearing in 12 languages. Lindsey’s books span the various eras of history, including books set in the Middle Ages, Regency England, the American “Old West,” and the Viking era. She has even written a few futuristic romances. By far the most popular among her books are the stories about the Malory Family.

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