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All About Nancy Northcott

Reading led me to writing, as I suspect it does many authors. When I was a preschooler, my grandfather and I drew stick figures and made up stories about them, but something new and serious sparked in my imagination after I read my first super-hero comic book at age 7 (I’d talked him into buying it for me). By that time I’d progressed to stories I illustrated in crayon, mostly fairy tale retreads. Comic books led to science fiction, which joined YA romances, mysteries, and adventure stories on my reading list.

While a succession of teachers who liked realism led me to read more and write less, I never stopped inventing worlds and people in my head. College and graduate school revived my need for escapism, and I returned to writing, this time in the form of comic book fan fiction, much of it with a heavy romance slant. Encouraged by friends to write something of my own, I tried my hand at a novel. Figuring out how to write something that long led to a few fits and starts and lots more fan fiction, but I eventually finished my first novel and went on to give it siblings.

I read pretty much all genres, including comic books, but love romance and read very few books that don’t include a romantic arc. I’m also a lifelong history geek and Anglophile, so I read a lot of history. I majored in history as an undergraduate and spent a fabulous summer studying Tudor and Stuart Britain at Oxford University (as well as learning to drive on the left side and observe local customs in pubs). My college classes mostly covered who fought whom, when, why, and how, and I’ve been delighted to discover how much material is available about the ways people of different eras lived.

I enjoy all forms of wordplay (love crossword puzzles!) but consider fiction a unique window to the human heart. My books include historical romance and fantasy, paranormal romance, traditional fantasy, and romantic suspense, but all of them combine adventure and romance in the development of true love for my characters.

When I’m not blogging with the Banditas, I read, write, or try to convince my husband Prime Minister’s Question Time on C-SPAN is a really cool show.

Me with the Stargate Atlanta stargate backdrop, Dragon*Con 2010 (Yes, my eyes, unfortunately, are closed.  *sigh*)