A member of Romance Writers of America since 1981, Barbara Dawson Smith sold her first historical romance two weeks after sending it to a publisher. Herbooks have won the Golden Heart Award from RWA, and Best Historical Romantic Suspense and Best Regency Historical from Romantic Times. She has been a finalist for the National Readers' Choice Award, Romance of the Year by Affaire de Coeur magazine, the Golden Quill, and the Booksellers' BestAward. She has also been a five-time finalist for the prestigious RITA Award, and realized a lifetime dream in 2002 when she won the award forTEMPT ME TWICE. Barbara lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband, two daughters, two cats,and who knows how many neighbor children running up and down the stairs.When she's not finishing a chapter or teaching a seminar on writing, sheenjoys browsing in her collection of over a thousand research books.