Six- time RITA finalist and RITA award-winner Gayle Wilson never dreamed of becoming a romance novelist. She was too busy being a teacher of gifted children, a wife, and a mother. She was always, however, a compulsive romance reader who loved to escape the stresses of modern life by retreating into a good book. As an English and history teacher, it was probably inevitable that she try her hand at writing a historical romance in her "spare" time. That first book sold to Harlequin Historicals and became a RITA finalist for Best First Book in 1995. Gayle has since written 34 books and 3 novellas for Harlequin. She writes historical fiction set in the English Regency period and contemporary romantic suspense.
Since that first RITA nomination, Gayle has been a RITA finalist in 1999, in 2000, 2001 and in 2004. Her most exciting career moment came in 2000 when she was not only a double RITA finalist in both Short Historical and Romantic Suspense, but was fortunate enough to take home the RITA for Best Romantic Suspense. In addition to winning the prestigious RITA, her books have garnered over 45 other awards and nominations, including Daphne Du Maurier Awards for Best Romantic Suspense and Best Historical Suspense and the Dorothy Parker International Reviewer's Choice Award for Outstanding Series Romance.
Gayle is a life-long resident of Alabama. She lives in Hueytown with her husband of 35 years, a very stubborn English Shepherd, and way too many cats. She has one son, who also teaches gifted children, a wonderful daughter-in-law, and a beloved granddaughter, Madeline Elizabeth, affectionately known as Maddie. |
