Confessions of a Little Black Gown

Elizabeth Boyle

Elizabeth Boyle has written stories since childhood--including tales about her imaginary friend, an oversize Holstein by the name of John Clapper--and from there graduated to notebooks full of the usual bad adolescent poetry full of angst and dreary tales of woe that only a teenager can conjure up. After college and a stint of traveling, Elizabeth returned to writing what she loved to read: romance novels.

However, she hit a small bump in the road when she discovered that aspiring writers still have to pay their rent and buy groceries, so she worked as a paralegal, compiling case profiles on insurance fraud (arsons, faked burglaries, faked accidents) and police misconduct (assaults by officers, shooting inquests). Eventually she worked for a software company investigating piracy in North America. During her time "pirate hunting," she participated in civil and criminal seizures with the FBI, U.S. Customs, and the Canadian RCMP. After years of these modern-day adventures, it is no wonder that counterfeiting, forgery, and espionage find their way into her Regency-set romances, which she now writes full-time.

Writing at night and on weekends, Elizabeth completed four manuscripts before Brazen Angel won the Dell Diamond Debut Award in 1996. The story of her first sale is considered romance legend, an event she says could not have happened without the love and determination of her husband. The entire story can be found here. Since then, she has written nineteen more historical romances, as well as two novellas, which have consistently hit the USA Today bestseller list, and earned spots on the New Times Extended list, received four RITA nominations (including This Rake of Mine and His Mistress by Morning) and one win, garnered countless Romantic Times awards, and won the praise of fans worldwide, who call her fast-paced, adventurous romances "page turners" and "keepers." Her most recent book, Along Came a Duke, is the first in her new series, Rhymes with Love.