Mystery Lovers Corner

A native of Louisiana, Barbara was born in the town of Ringgold and grew up in Minden where she worked on her high school newspaper staff, and later, on the staff of the Minden Press and Herald. At that time though, she never really dreamed of becoming a writer. In fact, she attended Louisiana Tech and Nicholls State Universities as a music education major. Her dream then was to become a band director. Instead, she married, and moved with her husband to Luling, Louisiana, near New Orleans. Over thirty-eight years later, three children, and six precious grandchildren, Barbara and her husband still live there.

So how did Barbara get started writing? "The answer is both simple and complex,” she says. “Simply, I was trying to be a good, conscientious mother. More complex, I've always loved to read, and according to my mother, I've always possessed a healthy dose of imagination as well as the belief that I could do anything I wanted to do if I set my mind to it. When my oldest daughter was a young teenager, Harlequin Presents began arriving through the mail. Without my knowledge, my daughter had subscribed to the Harlequin Book Club, and I decided I should read a few to make sure they were suitable for someone her age. I deemed that they were suitable, but a funny thing happened. The more I read, the more I wanted to read. Then I came to a point when I began to believe that I could write one of those."

Barbara says that, "Believing I could write a book was half the battle. Actually writing one and getting published was the other half. Well, I did write one, then I wrote another one, then another, and I'm still writing twenty years later. I've worked at many jobs over the years, including being a line dispatcher in an Army ammunition facility near Minden, editing the classified section for a newspaper, and serving as the secretary for a country club. The best job I've ever had though, is being able to share my stories, whether they're romances or mysteries, with thousands of wonderful readers all over the world as a published author."

As a published author, Barbara has won many writing awards. For Maid for Murder, her first Charlotte LaRue mystery, she was nominated by Romantic Times BookClub for the 2003 Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best First Mystery. She won Second Place for her unpublished novel, Beginnings, in the Mainstream Category for the 2000 PASIC Book of Your Heart Contest. She also received the 1996 Distinguished
Artist Award (in honor of outstanding contributions to the literary arts in Louisiana). Her romantic suspense, Gulf Breezes, won the 1992 Oklahoma Romance Writers of America National Reader's Choice. Gulf Breezes also garnered the 1992 Romance Writers of America Published Author Network ARTemis Award for its outstanding cover art.

Author of fourteen novels, Barbara's most recent novels are Scrub-a-Dub Dead, her sixth Charlotte LaRue mystery from Kensington Publishing, and Rachel's War, a single title saga available from Harlequin Readers Choice.  Wash and Die, Barbara's next Charlotte LaRue mystery will be available early 2008.