Barbara
Colley is an award-winning, best-selling author whose books have
been published in over seventeen foreign languages.
A
native of Louisiana, Barbara has lived there all of her life. She
was born in the town of Ringgold and grew up in Minden where she
worked on her high school newspaper staff, and later, on the staff
of the Minden Press and Herald. At that time though, she never
really dreamed of becoming a writer. In fact, she attended Louisiana
Tech University and Nicholls State University as a music education
major. Her dream then was to become a band director. Instead, she
fell in love, married, and moved with her husband, David, to a
small suburb of New Orleans. Over thirty years later, three children,
and seven precious grandchildren, Barbara and her husband still live
there.
"I
truly love living near New Orleans," Barbara says. "With
its Creole French and Spanish influence, it's such a unique and
interesting city. Strolling through the historical French Quarter
or through the lush Garden District is one of my favorite things
to do. The city is well over 200 years old, but each time that
I visit, I find something new and fascinating."
So
how did Barbara get started writing? "A lot of people ask
me that question," she says. "And the answer is both
simple and complex. Simply, I was trying to be a good, conscientious
mother. More complex, I've always loved to read, and according
to my mother, I've always possessed a healthy dose of imagination
as well as the belief that I could do anything I wanted to do if
I set my mind to it. When my oldest daughter was a young teenager,
Harlequin Presents began arriving through the mail. Without my
knowledge, my daughter had subscribed to the Harlequin Book Club.
I decided I should read a few to make sure they were suitable for
someone her age. I deemed that they were suitable, but a funny
thing happened. The more I read, the more I wanted to read. Then
I came to a point when I began to believe that I could write one
of those."
Barbara says that, "Believing I could write
a book was half the battle. Actually writing one and getting published
was the other
half. Well, I did write one, then I wrote another one, then another,
and I'm still writing over twenty years later.
I've
worked at many jobs over the years, including being a line dispatcher
in an Army ammunition facility, editing the classified section
for a newspaper, and serving as the secretary for a country club.
The best job I've ever had though, is being able to share my stories,
whether they're romances or mysteries, with thousands of wonderful
readers all over the world as a published author."
As
a published author, Barbara has won several writing awards. For
Maid for Murder, her first Charlotte LaRue mystery, she was nominated
by Romantic Times BookClub Magazine for the 2003 Reviewer’s
Choice Award for Best First Mystery. She won 2nd Place for her
unpublished novel, Beginnings, in the Mainstream Category for the
2000 PASIC Book of Your Heart Contest. She also received the 1996
Distinguished Artist Award (in honor of outstanding contributions
to the literary arts in Louisiana). Writing under her pseudonym
Anne Logan, her romantic suspense, Gulf Breezes, won the 1992 Oklahoma
Romance Writers of America National Reader's Choice Award. Gulf
Breezes also garnered the 1992 Romance Writers of America Published
Author Network ARTemis Award for its outstanding cover art.
Barbara’s
most recent novel is her eighth Charlotte LaRue mystery, DUSTED TO DEATH, available in paperback and e-book.
