Janice Kay Johnson

Janice Kay Johnson Baczewski graduated from Whitman College with a B.A. in history and then received a master's degree in library science from the University of Washington. She was a branch librarian for a public library system until she began selling her own writing.

She is the author of sixty books for children and adults. Her first four published romance novels as Kay Kirby, were coauthored with her mother, Norma Tadlock Johnson, also a writer who has since published mysteries and children's books on her own. These were "sweet" romance novels, the author hastens to add; she isn't sure they'd have felt comfortable coauthoring passionate love scenes! She continued writing novels under the pennames of Janice Stevens, Janice Kay Johnson, Kay Bartlett, and Janice Stevens. She loves writing novels about both love and family — about the way generations connect and the power our earliest experiences have on us throughout life. Her romances are frequent finalists for Romance Writers of America RITA® awards.

She has written six novels for young adults and one picture book for the read-aloud crowd. Rosamund was the outgrowth of all those hours spent reading to her own daughters, and of her passion for growing old roses. Two more of her favorite books were historical novels she wrote for Tor/Forge. The research was pure indulgence for someone who set out intending to be a historian!

Janice is divorced and has raised her two daughters in a small, rural town north of Seattle, Washington. She's an active volunteer and board member for Purrfect Pals, a no-kill cat shelter, and foster kittens often enliven a household that already includes a few more cats than she wants to admit to!