Jessica Matthews grew up in the Midwest. The first school she attended was a little one-room country schoolhouse within walking distance of her home. Although she was only four, the teacher allowed her to come with her older sister every Friday morning so she could "go to school."

The next year the little country school closed and she went to school about six miles from home, jumping right into first grade because they didn't offer a kindergarten class. Although she struggled with her alphabet, once those letters finally soaked into her head, she became an avid reader and her favorite place was the public library.

She told her eighth grade teacher that she wanted to write a book someday, but that day didn't come until some 20-odd years later when her youngest child was born.

While at home, she decided to combine her love for the printed word with the information and training she'd learned as a medical technician. Her first published novel, The Call of Duty, was released in September 1995 by Harlequin Mills and Boon in the United Kingdom, and since then she has written 14 medical romances which have been translated into many foreign languages.

She now lives in central Kansas with her husband, a teenage daughter and a preteen son, and Pepper — an adorable, easygoing cocker spaniel-dachshund cross adopted from the Humane Society.

When she's not writing or working at the hospital, she's following her daughter's high-school golf tournaments, cheering on her son during his soccer games, driving him to Boy Scout meetings, and collecting all of his works of art.

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