About Viola

I was born in 1974, the youngest of five children, to parents who had recently left the Amish. I spent my earliest years in Indiana before my parents moved us to Arizona in hopes of better opportunities. At first, we lived in a one-bedroom shack in Phoenix’s Sunnyslope area before settling into a better neighborhood.

I grew up shy and quiet, with only a few friends, but the ones I had were the best. I spent many afternoons riding bikes through the streets, getting into harmless mischief, and later in middle and high school, watching MTV videos and cutting out pictures of teen heartthrobs with my best friend Kezia. My parents divorced during my high school years, and while painful, it was also a relief to see the end of a volatile, sometimes abusive marriage.

Like many teenagers, I made mistakes. I ended up in a toxic relationship that lasted off and on for seven years, had my first son at 18, and my second at 19. Those years were hard. I leaned on family, food stamps, and housing assistance at times, but I always tried to be independent. There were times I went without food so my boys could eat, but I was determined to give them more and to break generational cycles of abuse. Eventually, I found the strength to leave that relationship and start over as a single mom.

In time, I met my husband, we married, and together we had two more sons. We moved to Colorado, where my husband started a job at Coors Brewery that helped stabilize our lives. While I mostly stayed home with the kids, I picked up part-time jobs along the way. When my youngest started preschool, I suddenly had a few hours each day to myself. And that’s when I began to write.

I’ve always written something. As a girl, I annoyed my older brothers with the clack of my old typewriter as I wrote out my journal. But my life up to that point, I’d only had partial stories running through my head until finally, I decided at the age of 29 to finish one of these stories, to give one a proper ending. My first attempt at a fiction novel, In Her Mind, will never be published, but it was the spark that started everything. I took an English course, joined Romance Writers of America, and immersed myself in learning the craft. I wrote, queried, faced rejection, and wrote again.

My persistence paid off when Angel Vindicated was published and became a finalist for the RITA® Award in the “Best First Book” category, making history as the first digital-first book to final. It was one of the proudest moments of my life. I went on to publish Bewitching You, Haunting You, Finding You, and more, discovering along the way that I loved designing book covers too. I learned how to use Photoshop and honed my skills there.

For seven years I ran a book cover design business, working with indie authors and small presses.

Still, writing has always been at the center of who I am. My women’s fiction novel, Little Amish Girl, grew out of questions about my mother’s life as a young Amish girl and the abuse she endured. Writing it was both painful and healing, and though my mother passed away before she could see it in print, I dedicated it to her strength and memory.

Now, I continue to write paranormal romance, women’s fiction, urban fantasy, and contemporary romance. No matter the genre, my stories are always written with heart, weaving together love, resilience, and transformation. Writing has been my constant through hardships, motherhood, and change, and I’m grateful every day to share my stories with readers.

All my best,

Viola