Being an avid reader at an early age, LuAnn McLane soon knew she wanted to be a writer. Encouragement from teachers led to creative writing classes on both the high school and college level. In the mid 1980's she became a staff reporter and wrote human-interest stories for several local newspapers and at one point had her own award-winning column in The Kenton County Recorder. Fiction, though, was what she really longed to write. She joined an eclectic literary group called Night Writers and met romance novelist Nicole Jordan who invited her to join Romance Writer's of America. With a handful of women, they founded the Ohio Valley RWA chapter that is now a huge national chapter.Four children however, curtailed McLane's writing career until a now-or-never mid-life crisis made her overcome her fear of computers and jump back into the crazy business of romance writing and she hasn't looked back.Her fiction accomplishments during the past three years include eHarlequin choosing her to write a chapter for the online romance The Rancher and the Rose. Her inspirational romance Chicken Soup for Annie, won an honorable mention in the Writer's Digest 2001 Writing competition, placing 37th out of over 1600 entries. Fowl Play, a romantic comedy, was published in the anthology Romancing the Holidays, Elan Press February 2002. In a national contest, Beach House Presentations/yournovel.com chose her romance, Mountain Magic to be included in the anthology Celebrating Romance as part of national promotion for their popular personalized romances and was featured in an article in People Magazine. Recent non-fiction credits include "Under the Covers" an article about writing romance in Cincinnati Woman Magazine. She ghost wrote a story for her mother that is included in The Breast Cancer Book of Strength and Courage Prima Publishing, October 2002, and had the pleasure of promoting and signing it with her at Barnes and Noble with local news coverage.In 2003 her short romance, "Express Lane" appeared in Woman's World Magazine. Her big break, though, came when Lori Foster ran a contest on her website looking for fresh new voices in erotic romance. Her entry was chosen as one of the favorites and submitted to editor Kate Duffy at Kensington, resulting in the sale of Cabin Fever which was in the contemporary anthology, Wildest Dreams, a December 2003 release from Brava.McLane now writes for Signet Eclipse, an imprint of New American Library. Although she still enjoys penning sensual contemporary trade-sized romances, she now also writes romantic comedy in mass market including Dark Roots and Cowboy Boots, an August 06 release that will follow with Dancing Shoes and Honky Tonk Blues in May 07. Love, Lust and Pixie Dust,a sexy, whimsical comedy with a touch of paranormal elements set in Nashville, her favorite city to visit. Trick My Truck but Don't Mess with My Heart hit the shelves in January 07 followed by A Little Less Talk and a Lot More Action, which was the follow up to Dark Roots and Cowboy Boots. Driven by Desire, a sexy read with the backdrop of motocross racing came out in October and her next comedy Redneck Cincerella will be out March 09.She is currently working on He's No Prince Charming, another southern comedy set at a Tennessee marina that has a Beauty and the Beast theme.LuAnn McLane lives in Florence, Kentucky, just outside of Cincinnati, Ohio.When she takes breaks from writing, she enjoys long walks, watching chick flicks with her daughter and tries to keep track of her three active sons.She loves to hear from her readers. You can reach her at
[email protected].
