NTRWA January 2004 Spotlight On...

CATHERINE SPANGLER
          by Juliet Burns

If you go to her website, you can read all about how Catherine Spangler grew up in Alabama. How her father worked for NASA and how being around the space program influenced her interest in outer space and the future. It tells how she was a voracious reader and started writing romantic fantasies when she was twelve, but stopped writing in college after a creative writing teacher told her she was going about it all wrong.

But talking to this vivacious woman about her life and her books was an energizing experience that opened up whole new worlds.

Catherine is a vibrant bundle of energy wrapped up in a beautiful petite package. Like the heroines in her novels, she is not only feisty, but caring. Strong, but tender.

After marriage, two children, and a career in accounting, she was looking at a local community college catalog and noticed a class called, “How to write a book and get it published.” She went to the one-day seminar and started writing again. In 1993, she joined RWA^® and DARA, and 7 years later sold her first book, SHIELDER.

Why was she reading that catalog? No reason, just flipping through. Fate? Destiny? Subconscious psychic abilities? Perhaps. Catherine is open to the possibilities and believes strongly in the force for good in this world. And obviously in other worlds too.

Her SHIELDER books all seem to have a similar theme. Besides the strong, honorable, sexy hero, sizzling sexual tension, space ships, and distant planets, they all deal with good, or love if you will, triumphing over evil. Catherine’s 2003 release, SHADOW CROSSING, is a thrilling, emotional, story that will keep you on the edge of your seat—or in my case, up all night.

And next month, the fifth and possibly last book in her SHIELDER series will be released, SHADOW FIRES. SHADOW FIRES has received 4 ½ Stars and is a Top Pick by Romantic Times Magazine! Catherine says this is her darkest novel yet, containing slavery and torture, but she had to stay true to her characters and the people and races she has created. If you haven’t entered her Shielder world, you’re missing an unbelievable opportunity to experience a fantastic world that will expand your perceptions and make you believe in the possibilities waiting out there, just beyond the horizon.

Visit Cathy’s website.

Postscript August 2005:

SHADOW FIRES was a 2005 RWA^® RITA finalist in the Best Paranormal category.

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