Dina Milliken

When I was in fifth grade, my teacher, Ms. Kaplan, decided it would inspire more reading if she had a contest to see who could read the most books. She made a chart and, for every book you read and did a book report on, you got a gold star on the chart. Well, I wasn't athletic, part of the popular group, musical, but this... this I could do. I read so many books and collected so many gold stars, the rest of the class soon lost interest in the competition. It kind of backfired on Ms. Kaplan, but after that, I was hooked on books for life.

I went through the various stages of reader, the morose realist with The Fountainhead, the rebellious, righteous one with Fahrenheit 451, and the blind fool in constant search of beauty with F. Scott Fitzgerald. Then there was the brief interlude with The Vampire Lestat while I was in college at Tulane University in New Orleans. This was long before Tom Cruise destroyed all the images in my head of how the immortal Lestat sucked up every essence of life.

After my first daughter, Caitlin, was born, I felt called to share my love of books with children and I pursued a career in teaching. After seventeen years, I have known the joy of teaching a child to read and the joy of hearing a child who hated reading say "Wow, this is a really good book. It just sucks you right in." I know that every child who says "I hate reading" just hasn't had someone help them find the right book, and I've made a long career out of being that someone.

I discovered my love of all things contemporary romance through a book club when I was living in Orange Park, Florida. From then on, I devoured books by Janet Evanovich, Julie Garwood, Julie James, and some JD Robb for variety. Every once in a while, the characters didn't do what I wanted them to do, and eventually I decided I would just make my own characters.

Hidden Talents rolled around in my head for about two years until, on a road trip moving from Orange Park to Austin, Texas, the plot line finally fell into place. By the end of that summer, my fingers were sore but my first book had been released. It was always meant to be a two-part story. I love the ending, but understand that some of you didn't, so for that reason, I issue the following apology:

I love the ending to Hidden Talents, but I knew a secret the whole time: there was a sequel that would finish the tale. I'm sorry it took me so long to get the ending out to you, my wonderful readers. It took me two years to find the right path to the end I knew all along, but I hope that, once you read Hidden Motives, you will find it was worth the wait.

I now live outside Seattle, Washington because life is a journey you just can't sit out. The world is large and just waiting to be explored. I live here with my youngest daughter, Lauren, my three cats: Dinky, Ziggy, and Daisy, and my two dogs, Gidget and Jude.

I have several stories rolling around in my head, and I hope to share them with you all very soon! Whatever you do in life, keep reading!