Estrada, Rita Clay

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ESTRADA, Rita Clay

(Rita Clay; Tira Lacy, a pseudonym)

PERSONAL: Born in Mount Clemens, MI; daughter of Dan and Rita (a novelist and lecturer; maiden name, Gallagher) Clay; divorced; children: Rebecca, Rita, Marissa, Clay. Education: Attended college for two years.

ADDRESSES: Home and offıce—P.O. Box 73686, Houston, TX. Agent—Evan Marshall, Evan Marshall Agency, 6 Tristam Pl., Pine Brook, NJ 07058-9445. E-mail—rcestrada1@juno.com.

CAREER: Writer, 1980—.

MEMBER: Romance Writers of America (creator and first president; vice president of Published Authors Special Interest Chapter, 2001-02).

AWARDS, HONORS: Waldenbooks Award, for Summer Song; Golden Scroll Award, RomCon (romance writers conference)/Independent Booksellers, 1994; B. Dalton Booksellers Bookstop Award for best sales overall in temptation category, 1995; Silver Pen Award, Affaire de Couer, for The Ivory Key; awarded membership in Harlequin Five Diamond Club, 1997; Lifetime Achievement Awards, Golden Triangle Writers Group and Romance Writers of America.

WRITINGS:

ROMANCE NOVELS

The Will and the Way, Harlequin Temptation (Buffalo, NY), 1985.

A Woman's Choice, Harlequin Temptation (Buffalo, NY), 1985.

The Best Things in Life, Harlequin Temptation (Buffalo, NY), 1986.

Something to Treasure, Harlequin Temptation (Buffalo, NY), 1986.

The Ivory Key, Harlequin Temptation (Buffalo, NY), 1987.

A Little Magic, Harlequin Temptation (Buffalo, NY), 1988.

Second to None, Harlequin Temptation (Buffalo, NY), 1989.

Trust, Harlequin Temptation (Buffalo, NY), 1989, reprinted in the anthology Bedazzled, Harlequin Enterprises (Buffalo, NY), 2002.

To Buy a Groom, Harlequin Temptation (Buffalo, NY), 1990.

The Lady Says No, Harlequin Temptation (Buffalo, NY), 1990.

Twice Loved, Harlequin Temptation (Buffalo, NY), 1991.

To Have and to Hold, Harlequin Temptation (Buffalo, NY), 1992.

One More Time, Harlequin Temptation (Buffalo, NY), 1993.

Forms of Love, Harlequin Temptation (Buffalo, NY), 1994.

Conveniently Yours, Harlequin Temptation (Buffalo, NY), 1994.

The Colonel's Daughter, Harlequin Temptation (Buffalo, NY), 1994.
The Twelve Gifts of Christmas, Harlequin Temptation (Buffalo, NY), 1994.

Interlude in Time, Harlequin Temptation (Buffalo, NY), 1994.

The Stormchaser, Harlequin Temptation (Buffalo, NY), 1996.

Love Me, Love My Bed, Harlequin Temptation (Buffalo, NY), 1996.

Wishes, Harlequin Temptation (Buffalo, NY), 1997.

Dreams, Harlequin Temptation (Buffalo, NY), 1998.

Hopes, Harlequin Temptation (Buffalo, NY), 1999.

Blissful, Kensington Publishing (New York, NY), 2000.

Too Wicked to Love, Zebra Books (New York, NY), 2001.

ROMANCE NOVELS; UNDER NAME RITA CLAY

Wanderer's Dream, Silhouette Romance (Buffalo, NY), 1981.

Sweet Eternity, Silhouette Romance (Buffalo, NY), 1981.

Wise Folly, Silhouette Romance (Buffalo, NY), 1982.

Yesterday's Dreams, Silhouette Romance (Buffalo, NY), 1982.

Experiment in Love, Silhouette Romance (Buffalo, NY), 1983.

Summer Song, Silhouette Romance (Buffalo, NY), 1983.

Recapture the Love, Silhouette Romance (Buffalo, NY), 1984.

OTHER

(Under pseudonym Tira Lacy) With Time and Tenderness (romance novel), Dell Ecstasy (New York, NY), 1983.

(Under pseudonym Tira Lacy) Only for Love (romance novel), Dell Ecstasy (New York, NY), 1984.

Valentine Sampler, Leisure Books (Norwalk, CT), 1993.

(Editor, with Rita Gallagher) Writing Romances: A Handbook, Writer's Digest Books (Cincinnati, OH), 1997.

(With Rita Gallagher) You Can Write a Romance, Writer's Digest Books (Cincinnati, Ohio), 1999.

Also author of Get Published! Romance, Writer's Digest Books (Cincinnati, OH).

SIDELIGHTS: Rita Clay Estrada, who also writes under the name Rita Clay and the pseudonym Tira Lacy, is a prolific writer of best-selling romances. In the course of two decades Estrada wrote more than thirty romance novels. She is a cofounder with her mother, novelist and lecturer Rita Gallagher, of the Romance Writers of America, a writers organization that numbers more than 8,000 members. Each year the Romance Writers of America presents RITA awards, named in Estrada's honor, to the "best and brightest" published writers of romances.

In 1997 the mother-daughter team of Estrada and Gallagher compiled and edited Writing Romances: A Handbook. This collection of twenty-five essays contains practical how-to pieces by such best-selling authors of romances as Janet Dailey, Jennifer Blake, Jude Devereaux, Diana Gabaldon, and Roberta Gellis. Focusing on the craft of researching and writing romances, they treat the different types of romances within the genre, among them contemporary, historical, regency, paranormal, romantic, and suspense. Writing Romances also includes pieces about the business aspects of writing by agent Richard Curtis, editor Kate Duffy, and distributor Sandy Jaffe, who discuss agents, the "life of a manuscript," publicity, and networking.

Estrada once told CA: "Although I love writing, I love being with my family more. They are the most interesting people I know!"