Michele Dunaway

Ever since she was in first grade, Michele Dunaway wanted to be a writer. Well, she wanted to be a nun too, but that quickly passed when she discovered that boys were cute. So, while she didn't follow in Sister John Michael's footsteps, the writing dream did stick with her. Michele typed her first romance stories when she was in high school. Using an old green manual typewriter with a bad ribbon, Michele wrote love stories in which the girls on her street married the cute boys in the neighborhood. She still has those romance novels, in the memory box in her basement. In 1988, Michele set a goal at her five-year high school reunion, which was to publish a romance novel by the year 2000.Of course, falling in love caused a brief detour from the writing goal. Engaged after two weeks and married six months later, Michele insists she knew her husband was "the one" because he had two cats, one a stray kitten that he'd rescued from near death. Since Michele had two cats as well, it quickly became a four-cat household, and crazy as they were, they also added a Siamese kitten to the fray. After the birth of her children, Michele returned to writing. While she authored three professional journal articles, and compiled the Journalism Education Association Middle/Junior High Curriculum Guide, it wasn't until August of 1999 that Michele learned she had sold her first novel. Writing for Mills & Boon has always been Michele's dream, and she made her first sale after pitching the manuscript to an editor at the RWA national convention. As Michele is fond of saying, if you work hard enough, dreams really do come true. Michele still teaches and writes and you can reach her at www.micheledunaway.com or P.O. Box 53, Valley Park, MO 63088.