While still in her teens, Anna DePalo began her first novel. She wishes she could say that this early manuscript went on to receive numerous accolades and to bring her fame and fortune. Instead, that first attempt—well, all three pages of it—hit the trash heap, and she understood why many authors throughout history have burned their papers for posterity.

Anna went on to live in Italy and England, graduate from Harvard, earn an advanced degree in political science, practice intellectual property law, and married the man of her dreams--who hails from Birmingham, Alabama by way of Charlotte, North Carolina.

One day, Anna decided to give fiction writing another try, believing that having done some more living would help her tell the truth about life in the pages of made-up stories. This time she didn’t stop at three pages—or even ninety-three. Writing during weekends and evenings, after working long days as an attorney, she finally typed her first “The End.” That first finished manuscript, Having the Tycoon’s Baby, soon sold to Silhouette Books, became a best-seller and award-winner, and has been published in over a dozen countries to date.