Marisa Masterson

20 years at our home in Saginaw.

My health caused me to retire after 22 years. I enjoyed working with the teens and missed it a lot for the first 5 years. My health made it impossible to consider teaching or doing anything else. Writing has become a hobby for me now that I am a bit stronger.

The Nat’l. Writing Project was established by Congress for teachers to help them become better and more enthusiastic writers and take what they learn back to the classroom. I never considered myself a writer before that experience. Through it, I first started writing short stories.

I adore reading romances. Writers like Caroline Clemmons and Kirsten Osbourne helped me to escape from my illness and I fell in love with the sweet happily ever after I found in their books.

I learned about family who came to the United States to escape from the family reputation of incest, illegitimate pregnancy, as well as the stories of family members who lived in soddies to prove up land. It all made history come to life for me and allows me to more easily imagine what might happen to the characters in my books.

The series stays fresh because the books are written by many different authors and are stand-alone romances.

I did quite a bit of research on life in the lumber camps as well as the issue of white slavery at that time in my home state. I was amazed that one woman’s diligence helped to stop the kidnapping and prostituting of young women and went from that to create a story.

She is purely from my imagination.

The Spinster Mail-Order Brides series is again a multi-author series so each book is a stand-alone romance.

I struggle so that each hero isn’t modeled after my own husband. He’s such a kind and tender man that he makes for a wonderful hero in romances.

Interaction and feedback from my readers is my favorite part of being an author.