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Elizabeth Power's Biography
Hello, I’m Elizabeth Power.
I’m probably a new name to a lot of readers, but I do hope some of you remember me from my Presents books during the
1990’s.
Family commitments resulted in my slowing down to an eventual prolonged absence from writing. But I’m now definitely
back! I missed writing romance so much, and I’m so thrilled to be back doing what I love best. With new romances
already in the pipeline and more on the way, Presents readers should hopefully now have the chance of reading my titles
on a more regular basis.
I grew up in England, where family difficulties meant life wasn’t always easy. The difficult times at home brought
about many changes of school, and a constant longing to be out in the working world. My way of getting through this
was to write, and I produced my first novel (romantic, of course!) of some sixty thousand words when I was fourteen.
It wasn’t long before my literary aspirations were traded for that of the opposite sex and a career as a legal
secretary. Life was so full during this time that my writing ambitions became somewhat overshadowed, although it goes
without saying that short stories and poems frequently replaced the wills and conveyances in my office typewriter during
slack periods!
A whirlwind romance resulted in ‘wedding bells’ in my early twenties. The needs of the home and a full time career
became my priority, and despite the ever-present nagging little voice in my conscience that constantly reminded me of my
childhood dreams, the writing stopped. I always told my conscience that ‘I would start tomorrow’, but there was always
something else to do.
A few weeks before my thirtieth birthday, I was thinking about what I had done with the first thirty years of my life,
and realised I had been telling myself ‘I would start writing tomorrow’ for at least twelve of them. Whatever had
happened to that dream! Within two weeks my long awaited ‘tomorrow’ came, when fate took a hand in the form of
redundancy!
Writing became my life. After some considerable time and increasingly ‘positive’ rejections, the letter that was to
change my life arrived from Harlequin Mills & Boon. ‘Rude Awakening’ was to be published in 1986 – quite an apt title
considering those thirtieth birthday thoughts! That ‘torn to shreds’ brown envelope, the result of my enthusiasm to
see if my latest offering had been accepted, is one of my most precious possessions!
What I strive for most of all in my books is emotional intensity. Times, places and trends may change, but emotion is
timeless. I try to create powerful story lines crammed with emotion, set in locations in which you can really live
and breath while the story unfolds.
I live with my husband in a very old English cottage. We really do appreciate the simple things in life. Our
cottage, woodland walks, roaring log fires, the local birds and wildlife are all a part of what makes up happy. Having
no children, a stray cat that moved in and stayed eleven years became ‘our baby’. She taught us so much, and really
made us think about how animals feel. I have vegetarian leanings, following in the footsteps of my life-long
vegetarian father.
I am so thrilled that Harlequin recently chose to re-release two of my previous titles on their Presents ‘Collector’s
Edition’ label, but I really can’t wait to see my first ‘comeback’ book out on Presents, hopefully in the not too
distant future!
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