Elizabeth Ashtree is a pseudonym, but there is a real person behind the name. She loves to write romance, science fiction, and suspense but the other aspects of her life just don't mingle well with that creative side of her. Hence, the pseudonym. It's a little like having two personalities in one body – but in a good way. The information below is mostly about the creative personality, with a little bit of the ordinary personality thrown in for background. Ready?
Elizabeth Ashtree's first novel, AN OFFICER AND A HERO, was a double 2000 RITA finalist for best long contemporary and best first novel. Getting that news was a very good day. This Harlequin Superromance won a Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award. Having never won anything before, this was awesome for her.
Ms. Ashtree's article for Romance Writers of America's, Writer's Report, on the subject of plagiarism, was well received. In writing A HARD WORD, Ms. Ashtree drew upon her legal knowledge developed over more than two decades as an attorney for the Federal Government. But writing that was too much like what she does in her day job (the ordinary personality) so she hasn't written anything like this in a long while.
Legal Times, the primary Washington, D.C. area newspaper for attorneys, requested that she write a short romantic fiction piece, after reading about her in an article on lawyers who write fiction that appeared in a sister newspaper in Atlanta, Georgia. For the Valentine's Day edition, the Legal Times published ROMANCE IN THE MUSIC ROOM, the first piece of fiction printed by this non-fiction publication. But this experience completely blurred that already blurry line between those two personalities of hers and basically everyone in her day job suddenly found out about her writing career and things got messy. It was fun to do, but she's glad there haven't been any more similar opportunities.
Her second novel, THE COLONEL AND THE KID, hit the shelves in January 2002 and has received excellent reviews. It was followed by A CAPTAIN'S HONOR, released in October of 2002. A MARRIAGE OF MAJOR came out in July 2004, INTO THIN AIR came out in March, 2005, and THE CHILD COMES FIRST debuted in July 2008. This last book, unlike Elizabeth's military romances, was about an attorney swept up in the drama of a little girl accused of murder. Her next book will also star attorneys, but these people are from opposite sides of the justice system, yet drawn together for the sake of their sons.
Ms. Ashtree (or at least the ordinary person who uses this pseudonym) holds a B.A. in Anthropology and a J.D. from the College of William and Mary. She served as an officer in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps and is currently an attorney for the Department of Defense. She longs to retire and write full-time, but has about eight more years to go before all those pesky college debts for her children are paid down enough to allow her to leave the day job.