Barbara Raffin

I don’t know about you, but my love of reading started before I had a memory. No doubt my mother read to me. The Pokey Little Puppy stuck with me as well as her reading Dr. Seuss to my younger brother. Once I started reading on my own, my favorites numbered among The Secret Garden and The Black Stallion series. Remember the Weekly Reader book sales. I can still feel those glossy covers between my fingers, books like Big Red, Old Yeller, My Friend Flicka, and Black Beauty. Seeing a pattern of horses and dogs here? Dogs still play a huge part in my life. See Copy's page for my current doggy baby. But In sixth grade I expanded my reading interests. I discovered biographies, the most memorable being Helen Keller’s and life continued in a new direction. I was well into adulthood, reading Tom Clancy’s political thrillers and James Clavell’s far eastern adventures, when I discovered the glorious romantic adventure of Kathleen Woodiwiss’ Shanna. I was immediately hooked on romance, first as a reader, then as a writer. Judith McNaught’s Whitney My Love and Almost Heaven taught me true romance. Lindsay Longford’s sweetly painful romances such as Pete’s Dragon taught me there was more sensuality in the inadvertent brush of hands than the most explicit sex scene. From Elizabeth Lowell I learned the magic of dialogue while reading her western historical Only Love. To those who went before me, and there are many more than the few I mentioned here, thank you. You taught and inspired me. May I do the same for those who come after me. (From the Author's web-site.)