With 40 sales to her credit since her first publication in 1987, Nancy Gideon's writing career is as versatile as the romance genre, itself.

Under Nancy Gideon, her own name, this Southwestern Michigan author is a Top Ten Waldenbooks' best seller for Silhouette, has written an award-winning vampire romance series for Pinnacle earning a "Best Historical Fantasy" nomination from Romantic Times, and will have her first two original horror screen plays made into motions pictures in a collaboration with a local Michigan independent film company, Katharsys Pictures.

Writing western historical romance for Zebra as Dana Ransom, she received a "Career Achievement Award for Historical Adventure" and is a K.I.S.S. Hero Award winner. Best known for her family saga series; the Prescott family set in the Dakotas and the Bass family in Texas, her books published overseas in Romanian, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Danish, Dutch, German, Icelandic and Chinese.

As Rosalyn West for Avon Books, her novels have been nominated for "Best North American Historical Romance" and "Best Historical Book in a Series". Her "Men of Pride County" series earned an Ingram Paperback Buyer's Choice Selection, a Barnes and Noble Top Romance Pick and won a HOLT Medallion.

Gideon attributes her love of history, a gift for storytelling, a background in journalism for keeping her focused, and the discipline of writing since her youngest son was in diapers. She begins her day at 5:00 a.m. while the rest of the family is still sleeping. While the pace is often hectic, Gideon enjoys working on diverse projects, probably because she's a Gemini. One month it's researching the gritty existence of 1880s Texas Rangers only to jump to the 1990s themes of intrigue and child abuse. Then, it's back to the shadowy netherworlds of vampires and movie serial killers.

In between, she's the award-winning newsletter editor and former vice president of the Mid-Michigan chapter of Romances Writers of America and is widely published in industry trade magazines. A mother of pre-teen and teenage sons, she recently discovered the Internet and has her own web pages.

She spends her 'spare time' taking care of a menagerie consisting of an ugly dog, a lazy cat, a tankful of pampered fish and three African clawed frogs (adopted after a Scouting badge!), plotting novels under the stars in her hot tub, cheering on her guys' hobbies of radio control airplanes and trucks, bowling and Explorer Scouting to indulging in her favorite vice - afternoon movies.