LAURA BYNUM was born in Springfield, Illinois (Land of Lincoln) in 1968. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Illinois, and earned an MA in Mass Media and Interpersonal Communications from Eastern Illinois University. She has extensive experience in marketing, corporate training and public relations. In 2006 she attended the Maui Writer's Conference and was awarded its top prize--the Rupert Hughes Prose Award--for an early draft of VERACITY. She is currently at work on a second novel. She lives with her husband and three daughters in Virginia.