Mary Burton’s southern family has always enjoyed tall tales and a good yarns. Early on, she realized that Story had tremendous power to inspire strong responses such fear, laughter, love and even sorrow. It didn’t matter if the tale was found in the pages of a book, spoken in hushed tones around a Girl Scout campfire, or spouted at an old fashioned southern family reunion. This appreciation of story motivated she to earn an English degree from Virginia’s Hollins University, she gradued in 1983. After decade of working in marketing and sales, she was the marketing director for a one-hundred-person civil engineering firm, when she became convinced she could write and sell one of the many stories buzzing around her brain. She has worked as a freelance writer and written (or ghostwritten) dozens of articles for publications including The RWR, Virginia Review, and Innsbrook Today. She is also the author of The Insider’s Guide to Direct Marketing (1995 by Zwieg White Associates), a marketing manual geared toward architectural/engineering firms. Mary has been writing historical romance novels for several years. Fingers crossed, she left the marketing profession and devoted all her spare time to writing a novel. Soon after, she sold her fist book, a Harlequin Historical novel, A Bride for McCain in January 1999, and saw it published the following year in March. Her second book, The Colorado Bride, was a June 2001, Harlequin Historical novel. In 2005, The Unexpected Wife was a finalist in the Romance Writers of America’s RITA contest and Wise Moves was 2006 nominee for Romantic Times’ Critics Choice Award. Mary is based in Richmond, Virginia, where she lives with her husband and two children. She enjoys yoga, cooking, hiking and the occasional triathlon.