1. J.R. Ward is a New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author of erotic paranormal romance. 2. She lives in the south with her incredibly supportive husband and her beloved golden retriever. 3. After graduating from law school, she began working in healthcare in Boston and spent many years as Chief of Staff of one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation. 4. Writing has always been her passion and her idea of heaven is a whole day of nothing but her computer, her dog and her coffee pot. 5. Not many people who are addicted to J.R. Ward's BDB series knows that she also writes contemporary romance as Jessica Bird. 6. I was eight years old when I wrote my first story, ten when I finished my first book and thirteen when I fell in love with stories about people falling in love. 7. I can remember the first romance novel I ever read and am able to picture exactly where I sat while turning the pages. It was in a walled garden surrounded by blooming pastel roses on a perfect summer day. I have to say the bucolic scene was a poetic compliment to the genre but it was totally unnecessary. I was hooked and have been ever since. 8. What fascinates me about love stories is the drama that surrounds people when they lose their hearts to someone else. I've never seen a romance in real life that ran smoothly in the beginning because with great love comes great vulnerability. 9. The question always in my mind is, when two people get rattled like that, how do the pieces come back together? How are they united in spite of the forces, internal and external, which threaten to tear them apart? 10. I could continue to ply my hours in lawyerly pursuits but I'd rather reach out to people who likewise have a passion for romance. The pastel roses were a great backdrop on that summer day long ago but I didn't need them. 11. What I needed was an author who could spin a tale out of the ether and let me live a little in the divine drama of two people falling in love. 12. So maybe I am a heartless lawyer. When I'm in my black suit and up to my elbows in corporate work, my heart's not in it. 13. Give me a key board and a ream of blank paper, though, and I'll show you a woman of passion!