Lyn Cote feels as if she's the most fortunate woman in the USA.  She's been married for over thirty years to a wonderful man, her real life hero.  She and her husband raised a son and daughter who are just finishing up college and striking out on their own.  Three years ago when her husband was "down-sized" from his job of almost twenty years, they moved to their dream home in the northwoods of Wisconsin.  They live on a lovely lake where an eagle nests across the way, a community of beavers build dams and bull frogs serenade them to sleep each summer night.

Lyn's love of writing began of course with a love of reading.  Her favorite night in her childhood in Waukegan, Illinois, was Friday when the Bookmobile would park at a nearby bank.  Her favorite books were those written by Gladys Malvern, Beverly Cleary, Lois Lenski, Laura Ingalls Wilder and later J. R.R. Tolkein, Georgette Heyer, Phyllis Whitney, and Mary Stewart.

It's not surprising that Lyn's all-time favorite novel is GONE WITH THE WIND.  And it set the stage for Lyn's love of historicals and romances.

When Lyn became a mother, she quit her teaching job and began working on her first novel, the first in an historical saga.  Since Lyn was literally chasing around two toddlers with a clipboard in hand, that novel took three years to write.  Then at her local library in Cedar Rapids Iowa, she learned  about Romance Writers of America.  Through RWA, Lyn was able to get the market information and mentoring that resulted in her first sale in 1997.

In the early nineties, Lyn helped organize her local RWA chapter Heart of Iowa Fiction Authors and then the special interest chapter, Faith, Hope & Love, the inspirational romance chapter.  Lyn's first article appeared in the RWA's journal, "Romance Writers Report" in January 1994.  Lyn began researching the emerging Christian romance market in 1994 and wrote two articles about it for RWR and other publications, such as "Advanced Christian Writer" and "Christian Communicator." Lyn's newest update on the latest trends in the Christian romance market will appear this fall in the RWR.

Lyn won the prestigious HOLT Medallion Award in 2000 for her historical, ECHOES OF MERCY.  Lyn was also a RWA Golden Heart finalist in 1996.  The Golden Heart is RWA's unpublished award for excellence in romance.  Recently, Lyn's Love Inspired romance, LOVING CONSTANCE, (Nov 2004) was nominated by "Romantic Times" as one of the five best Love Inspired romances for 2004.  LOVING CONSTANCE is also a finalist in this year's HOLT Medallion.

Right now, some of Lyn's favorite authors are Lois Richer, Francine Rivers, Linda Hall, Deborah Bedford, Sharon Dunn, Kathy Herman, Lisa Samson, Elizabeth White, Dee Henderson, Roxanne Rustand, Cindy Gerard, Kylie Brant, Jan Karon, Jayne Ann Krentz, Terri Brisbin, J. K. Rowling, and many, many more. 

And at present, Lyn is excited about writing the "Women of Ivy Manor" series.  Now in the twenty-first century, the past century is wide-open for historical fiction.  And writing about a family gives Lyn the opportunity to dig deeper into her characters as they have more than one book, more than one stage of life to "live."

Still when Lyn began writing the third book of the series, LEIGH, she admitted to feeling odd.  Leigh, the heroine, was a baby boomer like Lyn.  And it felt a little funny writing an historical novel about the times of her own youth—JFK, Dr. King's March on Washington, the Beatles, the peace sign, bell bottoms and all!

 

 

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