Writing romantic suspense is no mystery for Harlequin Intrigue author Joyce Sullivan. She graduated from California State University, Long Beach, with a bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice and worked as a private investigator in British Columbia before trying her hand at freelance journalism and writing romance. Eight years and three manuscripts later, she made her first sale to Harlequin Intrigue in February 1995. She recently completed her fifth book for Intrigue. Joyce loves the tight pacing and emotional roller coaster of passion and danger that embody Intrigues. Her favorite pastime is observing personality traits and often-overlooked details about everyday life that make unique clues in her stories. Her friends and family earn her undying appreciation when they share interesting newspaper clippings or stories about crimes "they've heard about." Diligent research forms the plot of all her books before her fingers ever touch the keyboard to begin Chapter One. Her daily morning chore is clearing her desk of the piles of notes and clippings she harvests from the media (newspapers, magazines, talk shows) to be sorted into her ever-growing files on all topics criminal. A native Californian, Joyce immigrated to Canada for love. She met her handsome, French-Canadian husband in a disco near the University of Montreal in the summer of 1981. After a long-distance relationship, where they both struggled to learn each other's maternal language, they married in 1983. They have two children and make their home in Aylmer, Quebec.