About

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Reading is the road to discovery!

Parris Afton Bonds, Novelist!

Pull up a deck chair, kick off your shoes, and grab an ice cold tea –
or if it’s been a hectic day, pop a beer or pour a glass of wine.
Settle in and let’s talk about what’s on your mind. Anything goes, whether it be romance writing and reading or concern for humanity and Mother Earth. I want to know what you’re for, not what you’re against — and I want to know about you.

Parris Afton Bonds was conceived in Paris, Kentucky and was born in Tampa, Florida on July 21, 1944. The mother of five sons and the author of thirty-five published novels, she is the co-founder of Southwest Writers Workshop and cofounder and first vice president of Romance Writers of America.
 
Although she wrote her first novel at the early age of five (The Blackhawk Women Ride Again), she didn’t publish professionally until she began free-lancing while living outside the United States. When she moved back to the States, with more than a dozen articles and short stories to her credit, she decided to tackle novel writing again. Because of the explosion of the romance novel at that time, she wrote and sold her first submission, the historical romance Sweet Golden Sun, to Popular Library. Her editor was Kate Duffy who went on to establish a stellar name for herself in the publishing industry.
 
Ms. Bonds attributes her particular fascination with historical romances and, in particular, Native Americans, to authors she had read as a child and young woman such as Frank Yerby, Rafael Sabatini, James Fennimore Cooper, Dale Van Every, and Edna Ferber. The plight of the Native American as described in the novel Romana by Helen Hunt Jackson, most influenced Parris Afton Bonds.
 
Declared by ABC’s Nightline as one of the three best-selling authors of romantic fiction, the award-winning Parris Afton Bonds has been interviewed by such luminaries as Charlie Rose and featured in major newspapers as well as published in more than a dozen languages. She donates her time to teaching creative writing to both grade school children and female inmates. The Parris Award was established in her name by the Southwest Writers Workshop to honor a published writer who had given outstandingly of time and talent to other writers. Prestigious recipients of the Parris Award include Tony Hillerman and the Pulitzer nominee Norman Zollinger.

 

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