SPINDLER, Erica 1957-

PERSONAL:

Born 1957, in Rockford, IL; married Nathan Spindler (an advertising executive); children: two sons. Education: University of New Orleans, M.F.A.

ADDRESSES:

Office—P.O. Box 8556, Mandeville, LA 70470. E-mail—comments@ericaspindler.com.

CAREER:

Writer and artist. Southeastern Louisiana University, teacher in fine arts program.

MEMBER:

Romance Writers of America, Mystery Writers of America.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Listen-up Award, Publishers Weekly, 1999, for audio version of Shocking Pink; Daphne du Maurier Award, 2002, for Stone Cold.

WRITINGS:

"BLOSSOMS OF THE SOUTH" SERIES

A Winter's Rose, 1992.

Night Jasmine, 1993.

Magnolia Dawn, 1993.

OTHER

Heaven Sent, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1988.

Chances Are, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1989.

Read between the Lines, Silhouette (New York, NY), c. 1989.

Rhyme or Reason, Loveswept (New York, NY), 1990.

Wishing Moon, Loveswept (New York, NY), 1991.

Longer Than, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1991.

Baby Mine, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1992.

Tempting Chance, Loveswept (New York, NY), 1993.

Baby Come Back, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1994.

Slow Heat, Loveswept (New York, NY), 1995.

Red, Mira (New York, NY), 1995.

Forbidden Fruit, Mira (New York, NY), 1996.

Fortune, Mira (New York, NY), 1997.

Shocking Pink, Mira (New York, NY), 1998.

Cause for Alarm, Mira (New York, NY), 1999.

All Fall Down, Mira (New York, NY), 2000.

Bone Cold, Mira (New York, NY), 2001.

Dead Run, Mira (New York, NY), 2002.

In Silence, Mira (New York, NY), 2003.

ADAPTATIONS:

Audio version of novels include Shocking Pink, read by Eliza Ross (abridged); Red was adapted as both a daytime drama and a cartoon strip in Japan.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

See Jane Die, forthcoming.

SIDELIGHTS:

Erica Spindler was intent on pursuing a career in art and teaching when a twist of fate intervened. In June 1982 she stopped at a drugstore to pick up cold tablets and tissues, and the cashier dropped a romance novel into her bag. Spindler curled up with the book when she arrived home and after six more months of reading romances, she began to write her first. Over the next two decades, Spindler's stories were published at a rate of more than one a year.

Spindler's novels evolved to include themes of abuse, obsession, and murder. Cause for Alarm is about a New Orleans couple who adopt the child of a CIA assassin and a teenage girl and the slightly deranged birth mother who intrudes on their life. All Fall Down is a psychological thriller in which abused triplet girls grow up to become dysfunctional women. Bone Cold takes place in New Orleans and features an abduction, a severed finger, and the murders of red-headed women in the French Quarter. Romance Reader's Karen Lynch called it "a fast-paced psychological thriller with a strong romantic thread that will particularly please fans of romantic suspense." Key West, Florida, is the setting of Dead Run, in which one sister looks for another, the vanished pastor of a local church. The story involves a satanic cult, murder, and various evil influences. Spindler's 2003 effort, In Silence, is set in Cypress Springs, Louisiana, a small southern town that staunchly resists the cultural changes of the modern world. According to Thea Davis writing for Romance Reader online, "Spindler uses what appear to be her favorite themes—friendship, obsession, deviant behavior and murder, to construct a complicated mystery novel."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Books, autumn, 1999, "Love & Death in the Crescent City" (interview), p. 21.

Kliatt, November, 1998, Bette D. Ammon, review of Shocking Pink (audio version) p. 53.

Library Journal, May, 1995, review of Red, p. 62.

Publishers Weekly, May 22, 1995, review of Red, p. 54; February 17, 1997, review of Fortune, p. 217; December 22, 1997, review of Shocking Pink, p. 57; January 25, 1999, review of Cause for Alarm, p. 93; February 14, 2000, review of All Fall Down, p. 179; June 3, 2002, review of Dead Run, p. 65; June 2, 2003, review of In Silence, p. 34.

ONLINE

All about Romance,http://www.likesbooks.com/ (January 8, 2003), Claudia S. Terrones, review of Dead Run.

Erica Spindler Home Page,http://www.ericaspindler.com (April 22, 2003).

Romance Reader,http://www.theromancereader.com/ (November 16, 2003), Thea Davis, review of Shocking Pink; Karen Lynch, review of Bone Cold; Thea Davis, review of In Silence.