BROCKWAY, Connie 1954-

PERSONAL: Born December, 1954; married David Brockway, November, 1976. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: Macalester College, B.A. (magna cum laude), 1976; University of Minnesota—Duluth, graduate study, 1976-78. Religion: Roman Catholic. Hobbies and other interests: History, environmental protection, wildlife protection, hunting, gardening, tennis.

ADDRESSES: Home—P.O. Box 828, Hopkins, MN 55343. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer. University of Minnesota—Duluth, graphic artist for School of Medicine, 1976-78; employed at Bachman's Nursery, Minneapolis, MN, 1978-80. University of Minnesota, Extension Office, master gardener.

MEMBER: Authors Guild, Romance Writers of America, Novelists, Inc., Audubon Society, Sierra Club, Ducks Unlimited, Pet Haven, Minneapolis Arboretum.

AWARDS, HONORS: Named "rising star" by Midwest Fiction Writers, 1997; RITA award, Romance Writers of America, 2001, for The Bridal Season.

WRITINGS:

HISTORICAL ROMANCE NOVELS

Promise Me Heaven, Avon (New York, NY), 1994.

Anything for Love, Avon (New York, NY),1994.

A Dangerous Man, Dell (New York, NY), 1996.

As You Desire, Dell (New York, NY), 1997.

All through the Night, Dell (New York, NY), 1997.

My Dearest Enemy, Bantam (New York, NY), 1998.

McClairen's Isle: The Passionate One, Dell (New York, NY), 1999.

McClairen's Isle: The Reckless One, Dell (New York, NY), 2000.

McClairen's Isle: The Ravishing One, Dell (New York, NY), 2000.

(With others) My Scottish Summer (short fiction), Warner Books (New York, NY), 2001.

The Bridal Season, Island Books/Dell (New York, NY), 2001.

(With Christina Dodd) Once upon a Pillow (short fiction), Pocket Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Bridal Favors, Dell (New York, NY), 2002.

Editor,Novel Ideas, 1995-97.

SIDELIGHTS: Romance writer Connie Brockway is the author of the popular McClairen's Isle trilogy centering on the Merrick family. Ashton Merrick, an eighteenth-century Scottish rogue, stars in the series debut, The Passionate One. Merrick falls in love with fiery Rhiannon, "a young Scotswoman whose clan was destroyed by Ash's people when she was a child," according to a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Merrick's budding romance is threatened, however; Rhiannon has been pledged to Merrick's father, the despotic Lord Carr. A Library Journal contributor welcomed the novel, praising Brockway's "lush, lyrical writing style." In The Reckless One Ashton Merrick's brother Raine Merrick takes center stage. He escapes from a prison in 1760 France, after being framed by his father. Raine discovers a kindred spirit in Favor McClairen, herself the victim of a scheming family. With the love relationship between the two in place, the novel turns on "deception, vengeance, and a legendary treasure," in the words of Library Journal contributor Kristen Ramsdell.

Brockway's other work includes an unusual book co-written with Christina Dodd. Once upon a Pillow is a series of four vignettes narrated by museum curator Laurel Whitney, keeper of an 800-year-old bed that has borne witness to many romantic escapades over the centuries. The collaboration with Dodd, noted Brockway in her Web site, began after Dodd's husband brainstormed a title, Autobiography of a Bed. "What we've done in Once upon a Pillow," she said, "is taken four of the [romance] genre's most popular time periods and traced the history of a magnificent bed and the even more magnificent lovers that owned it, culminating with a contemporary hero and heroine." Brockway discovered that having a far-away collaborator held no disadvantage: "Christina and I talk on the phone. A lot. More than I talk to my friends in town, actually. But that's the beauty of living 1,500 miles from one another and never having shared the same state—an intimacy bred of the knowledge you can always hang up. We never do." Published in 2002, Once upon a Pillow gained the attention of Booklist contributor John Charles, who praised the book's "delightfully humorous and delectably sexy romances."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 15, 2001, John Charles, review of The Bridal Season, p. 1639; June 1, 2002, J. Charles, review of Once upon a Pillow, p. 1693.

Library Journal, May 15, 1999, review of McClairen's Isle: The Passionate One, p. 84; November 15, 1999, Kristen Ramsdell, review of McClairen's Isle: The Reckless One, p. 56.

Publishers Weekly, June 29, 1998, review of My Dearest Enemy, p. 56; May 17, 1999, review of McClairen's Isle: The Passionate One, p. 76; December 6, 1999, review of McClairen's Isle: The Reckless One, p. 59; June 17, 2002, review of Once upon a Pillow, p. 44.

ONLINE

Connie Brockway Web site,http://www.conniebrockway.com/ (November 26, 2002).

Romance Reader,http://www.theromancereader.com/ (June 26, 1998), review of My Dearest Enemy; (June 1, 1999), review of McClairen's Isle: The Passionate One; (December 31, 1999), review of McClairen's Isle: The Reckless One; (August 4, 2001), review of My Scottish Summer; (October 15, 2001), review of The Bridal Season.*