Barbara Samuel is a multiple RITA award-winning author with more than 25 books to her credit, both historical and contemporary romances and women's fiction. She has made her way by writing since she was eighteen, penning newspaper and magazine articles, columns and opinion, before settling in with an ancient IBM typewriter and even more ancient house, rescued from the wrecking ball, to write fiction. She now writes women's fiction for Ballantine, romances for Silhouette, and columns for her Web site and Novelist's Ink. She also writs under the name of Ruth Wind. She currently lives in Colorado Springs and has two sons.