Susan Elizabeth Titus was born 11 December 1948 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, daugther of Louesa Coate and John Aller Titus. She met her husband, Bill Phillips, on a blind date while in college. She obtained a BFA in Theater Arts from Ohio University and taught high school until her first child was born. She then became a stay-at-home mom. She started to write by accident when her husband’s job moved them from Ohio to New Jersey. She and her best friend, Claire Kiehl Lefkowitz, were avid readers. They decided that they would write a book together. With blind luck, they worked their way through a story and Dell bought that manuscript published under the pseudonym of Justine Cole (reedited under their real names). Susan had been bitten by the writing bug and continued to write when Claire moved to the southwest. Her subsequent novels have gone on to win awards and land on bestseller lists. In addition to being the only two-time recipient of the Romance Writers of America's prestigious Favorite Book of the Year award, she also holds Romantic Times Career Achievement Award. Susan and her husband live in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. She is the proud mother of two grown sons.