Stella Barcelona has always had an active imagination, a tendency to daydream, and a passion for reading romance, mysteries, and thrillers. From her early days of reading, when she first escaped reality through the pages of a well-written novel, she knew that her daydreams needed an outlet, and she knew that her outlet would be writing. In her day-to-day life, Stella is a lawyer and works for a court in New Orleans, Louisiana. She previously was an Assistant United States Attorney and, before then, a litigator in private practice. Prior to becoming a lawyer, she was a history teacher. Both of these careers have found their way into her writing. As an attorney, she has a healthy respect for the law and a deep-rooted awareness of how quickly things can go wrong. In her imagination, things always go wrong, and the consequences are disastrous. Her characters are often lawyers, ensnared in a world where they are forced to rely upon unconventional ingenuity to meet their goals. The problems they confront, and how they solve them, are influenced by her legal knowledge. Currently, Stella lives minutes from the French Quarter, with her husband of eighteen years and two adorable papillons who believe that they are princesses. Being a New Orleanian, she finds she does more than her fair share of eating, so she's become, by necessity, an avid exerciser. She tries to "run" at least one half marathon a year. While she doesn't have a lot of free time with her writing and legal careers battling for her every minute, she does enjoy any chance she gets to go boating with her husband. In the last several years, Stella and her husband have docked in Pickwick Lake, Tennessee, Orange Beach, Alabama, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and the Bahamas. In addition, she attends writer's conferences, workshops, and retreats. She is a member of the Romance Writers of America and the Southern Louisiana Chapter of the Romance Writers of America.
