His Personal Mission (Silhouette Romantic Suspense #1573)

Picture an ornery, redheaded little tomboy back when boys seemed to have all the fun—a kid who was always the one to make up the stories the neighborhood kids would "play," and you have the start of Justine Davis's writing career. It wasn't until much later that this tomboy realized two things: a) not everyone made up stories in his or her head all the time, and b) in real life, the boys still seemed to be having all the fun, and doing most of the winning.

Justine was born during a snowstorm. Make that a blizzard. Possibly in response to that blizzard, she has been a West Coaster since before age one, and says she intends to stay. She has a history of staying. Justine started her first full-time job right out of school (minus a very brief sojourn at a place where they made, among other things, burial vaults, but Justine says she prefers not to recall that one....) and stayed for 21 years. She's been married to the same wonderful guy for going on two decades now. They lived in their last house for 17 years.

When asked, as she often is, about her first career, Justine says, "My time in law enforcement was many things—exciting, nerve-racking, and sometimes irritating, but most important, never, ever boring. It was fascinating enough that I didn't think about writing seriously for several years.

"I kept a journal, and wrote long letters, collected quotes, mentally rewrote movies, and still made up those stories in my head, but never dreamed of actually writing for publication. I was having fun helping to catch bad guys, and being continually amazed at the situations people got themselves into. Eventually I walked away with a wealthofbackground and story ideas, and knowing some truly great people who work very hard to keep all of us safe. I'm proud to have been one of them, and I'm very aware that I have had the great good fortune of having had two jobs in my life that I love."

And now that she is in what she calls the delicious position of being able to make a living telling those stories, she promises her readers two things: "a) I'm staying—I'll keep writing as long as you keep reading, and b) in my stories, the girl—tomboy or not—always wins!"

And now, the official stats:

Justine sold her first book in 1989, and followed that up with the sale of 19 novels in less than two years. Her first four books were published in 1991, and she saw all reach the finals for either the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award or the Romance Writers of America's RITA Award. She has since won the RITA Award four times, along with several Reviewers' Choice Awards and three Career Achievement Awards from Romantic Times. At the 1998 national conference, Justine was inducted into the RWA Hall of Fame. She also had four titles on the Romantic Times "Top 200 of All Time" list. Her sales now total more than 40, and her books have appeared regularly on bestseller lists, including the USA Today list. She has been featured in several local newspapers and nationwide by Associated Press, has appeared on CNN, and on two episodes of a cable television series on romance. She is also featured in North American Romance Writers, an academic reference on the romance genre.

She currently writes for Silhouette as Justine Davis, and she writes single title romantic suspense as Justine Dare.

Her limited free time is spent on reading, music, photography, watching the eagles near her home, and driving her restored 1967 Corvette roadster—top down, of course.