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Kayla Perrin is a USA Today and Essence ®
bestselling author living in Southwestern Ontario. She has a Bachelor of
Arts in English and Sociology and a Bachelor of Education, having
entertained the idea of becoming a teacher—but she always knew she
wanted to be a writer.
Teachers were being laid off in Toronto when Kayla graduated with her B.
Ed. Frustrated, she used her time to pursue her life-long dream of
becoming a published author and proved that dreams can come true!
Indeed, not landing a teaching job was a blessing in disguise. By the
end of 2006, she will have 26 original releases hit the shelves, and at
least five re-issued novels. So far in 2007, she will have five single
title releases, a novella, and two re-releases. Needless to say, Kayla,
the mother of a three-year-old, has been busy since the release of her
first novel in 1998!
Kayla writes a variety of fiction, including romance, romantic suspense,
chick lit, chick lit mystery, mainstream women’s fiction, children’s
fiction, and most recently, erotica. She has received many awards and
accolades for her writing. She has twice had books voted onto the
Romance Writers of America's Top Ten Favorite Books of the Year list—in
1999, for SWEET HONESTY, and in 2002, for SAY YOU NEED ME, which nabbed
the number 2 spot. In 2002, Kayla hit the Essence Bestseller List with
her first mainstream novel, THE SISTERS OF THETA PHI KAPPA and also won
a Career Achievement Award from Romantic Times Magazine for
multicultural romance. The city of Brampton, Ontario gave her an Arts
Acclaim Award in 2001. Most exciting, perhaps, was the news that came in
June 2000—SWEET HONESTY was optioned to be made into a movie of the week
by Black Entertainment Television!
Kayla has always been creative, and can't remember a time when she
wasn't scribbling a story somewhere, or sketching a picture. After
discovering that people actually earned money to write stories, at the
age of thirteen she submitted her first fully illustrated children's
book to Scholastic Publications, who sent her a letter saying that they
were 'seriously considering' publishing her story. At age eighteen,
Kayla's short story "THE MILLION DOLLAR SMILE," a story about a young
girl whose friend dies of cancer, placed first in The Silver Quill
Literary Association's short story contest. "It was the most exciting
moment of my life at that point," Kayla says of the experience. As she
grew older, she fell in love with drama, and performed in many stage
plays as well as in television and film productions. MAKING CHANGE, a
film in which Kayla had a starring role, premiered at the Toronto
International Film Festival in 1995 and received rave reviews. Kayla has
also worked as an assistant film editor for the National Film Board on
the award-winning documentary THEM THAT'S NOT directed by Christene
Browne, and on Stephen William's short film VARIATIONS ON THE KEY TO
LIFE.
While she has worked at various jobs, Kayla is most happy when writing.
In 1996, she made a promise to herself to become published, and she
fulfilled that promise when in April of that year, she sold her first
romantic short story to JIVE magazine. Later in 1996 she sold three more
short stories to JIVE magazine, as well as her first novel, AGAIN, MY
LOVE, a contemporary romance to Genesis Press, which was released in
February, 1998. Nearly 30 books later, Kayla is still going strong,
writing mainstream fiction for St. Martin’s Press, romance and chick lit
for HarperCollins, and now erotic chick lit for Harlequin’s Spice line. |