Alumni Profile: Shirley Hailstock

Hailstock, a best-selling, award-winning writer of contemporary and historical romance and mainstream women’s fiction, is quietly revolutionizing the genre with her unique blend of suspense and passion. She has been the recipient of awards such as the Waldenbooks Award for Bestselling Multicultural Romance and the HOLT Medallion from the Virginia Romance Writers. Glamour Magazine readers picked three of her novels as books that “made them fall in love again,” putting her in the prestigious company of Jo Beverly, Danielle Steele, Nicholas Sparks and Laura Kinsale. 

Not too bad for someone who only began writing romance novels in 1986 after a dare from one of her friends. “Before that, I carried the ideas around in my head and figured I was the only person who thought about, even talked silently to, imaginary people.” 

Hailstock became more serious about writing in 1988, when she joined the Romance Writers of America (she has since become a board director). But she did not have immediate success with novel writing. In fact, her first two attempts were not published. She re-ceived enough encouragement, however, to continue and sold her third effort, Whispers of Love, published in September 1994. The romantic suspense novel received critical acclaim from several publications. The novel is now in its fourth printing and was recently optioned for television as a movie of the week. 
 
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