Chalice of Roses [NOOK Book]

Biography

Though Jo started to write as a young child, it was only in the '80s that she began to think that it was something ordinary people could do, and after a talk at a local library, she settled to seriously writing her first historical romance.

Now, she is the author of over thirty romance novels and many novellas, which have garnered several RITAs from the Romance Writers of America, as well as several awards from Romantic Times, including two Career Achievement awards. She is a member of the RWA Honor Roll, and the RWA Hall of Fame.

Good To Know

"I'm English, born, raised, and educated, which has to contribute to the way I write my books."

"My profession -- once upon a time in another world -- was careers guidance, which involved visiting many different workplaces and learning about the jobs done there. This is a great education in the variety and complexity of life."

"I taught women-centered childbirth classes for 5 years, and that comes out in any childbirth scenes in my books.

"I'm a craft-dabbler, and I've tried most of them, including Tenerife lace, tatting, leatherwork, and stained glass, but I've never stuck with any. However, I once was a very good painter and I've recently decluttered all my craft materials to concentrate on drawing and painting as my artistic therapy for a demented author."

"I grew up in Morecambe, Lancashire, which is a 19th-century seaside town, but that's very close to Heysham, an ancient coastal village. They say the pre-Conquest church there is the oldest one in England still in use and there are stone-age tombs as well. We used to play on an Anglo-Saxon hogs-back stone near the church. I'm sure this easy contact with such ancient things tuned my mind to the past. I set my second book, The Stanforth Secrets, in Heysham, and it will be reissued in 2010." "My indulgences are really good cheese, bread, wine, coffee, and dark, dark chocolate (90% Lindt."