Great love story.
Kara Lennox (a.k.a. Karen Leabo) published her first book when she was in the eighth grade. She wrote a children's book as a class assignment, then convinced her yearbook publisher to print up bound copies, which she distributed herself to friends, relatives and neighbors. Though this was hardly a high-profit venture, the urge to see her work in print never deserted her.
Kara began her first novel in college, a truly awful gothic that was best left in a drawer. Then graduation, finding a job, marriage and moving cross-country got in the way. She toiled in anonymity for the Texas Society of CPAs, writing brochures for their continuing education program. Naturally, with such scintillating subject matter to occupy her days, her imagination ran wild at night, and soon she was working on her second novel.
The horrible first job gave way to an even worse second job (writing insurance policies in plain English) and a third. But she never completely lost sight of the dream of earning her living as a writer--a real writer, with a byline.
She worked several years as a nonfiction magazine writer with hundreds of articles to her credit. She would get up at five every morning to work two hours on her novels before tackling her various freelance jobs. Three years and five novels later, Kara sold her first book, Roses Have Thorns (by Karen Leabo) to Silhouette Romance.
Determined to earn a living as a novelist, Kara focused relentlessly on her goal to sell at least three books per year (the minimum she figured she could live on). And during the past fifteen-plus years, that's exactly what she's done (if you average things out!). Writing has always been her priority, and in sixty-plus books, she has missed only two deadlines (both only by a few days).
Kara has written for seven different category lines (for Harlequin, Silhouette and Bantam Loveswept). In addition, she's written ten screenplays (three of which have been optioned, none produced, alas) and numerous novels and proposals that haven't sold (yet). She also blogs, tweets and spends way too much time on Facebook. The blank page doesn't frighten her.
Kara's books have finaled in several romance industry contests including the National Readers' Choice Awards, the Holt Medallion competition and the Rita. Her Harlequin American PLAIN JANE'S PLAN won the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice.
Currently Kara writes a romantic suspense series for Harlequin Super Romance, PROJECT JUSTICE. She lives in a 105-year-old fixer-upper Victorian house in California with her husband Rob, also a writer, and various pets. When she is not writing, she enjoys an ever-changing array of activities that currently includes bicycling, yoga, mosaic-making and selling vintage jewelry online.
