Natale Stenzel

About me:

Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, I endured your average childhood with two brothers to annoy and parents to baffle. I planted my nose in a book very early in life and have yet to come up for air. I love to read.

The writing addiction began early as well, as I was active throughout junior high and high school on school newspapers and literary magazines. Then I attended the University of Missouri-Columbia, where I earned bachelor's degrees in English literature and magazine journalism. I enjoyed college life, made friends, relished the intellectual challenges tossed at me by some excellent teachers. Somewhere along the line, however, I came to the terrifying conclusion that being a reporter or technical writer really was not an attractive prospect, at least not for me. But I tried.

I moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, right after college, did some business and technical-type writing, married my adorable engineering geek, then quit the tech writing job to churn out babies. (They're smart, funny and adorable -- but will remain anonymous to the general public because I love them dearly.) At home full time and uncomfortable in June Cleaver mode, I decided to try my hand at book-length fiction.

I spent several years shooting in the dark, writing my heart out only to face rejection after rejection. Then, after a move to lovely central Virginia, I sold my first book in July 2002 at a Romance Writers of America conference in Denver, Colorado (Forget Prince Charming, Harlequin Flipside, November 2003). In total, I published four romantic comedies with Harlequin Flipside.

My fifth book, PANDORA'S BOX, is the first in a series of funny paranormal romances published by Dorchester for its Love Spell line. It was released in February 2008. Its sequel, called THE DRUID MADE ME DO IT, hit bookstores in August 2008. The third, BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HEART PLACE, was released in March 2009. Two more books are on the way and will be released back to back, probably in the summer of 2010.