I began my flight into fantasy in 1990 in order to escape from the reality of a miserable secretarial job. I had never written fiction before, so it was a complete shock to discover that I loved writing romance. But then, I’d always entertained myself with dreams and stories of my own making. Why not put them down on paper and - maybe, maybe with a lot of perseverance and a tiny bit of luck – share the stories with other people?

By the Fall of 1994, I’d written five complete books and one novella when I made my first sale. Red Sage Publishing bought my ultra-sensual romantic novella, "The Spinner’s Dream." The story appeared in the first volume of Secrets in December of 1995.

Despite the highs and lows of the writing business, I’ve hung in there and produced books and novellas for Changeling Press, Ellora’s Cave, Cerridwen Press, Leisure Romance and Lovespell, Draumr Publishing, ImaJinn, and Hard Shell Word Factory.  I recently helped to launch E-Red Sage with my fantasy romance, Master of the Elements.  I’ll have an e-novella from Spice Briefs from Harlequin in March of 2008.

I live in Oakland, California with two corn snakes, Sheikh Yerbouti and Casper the Friendly Ghost Corn Snake, and two stray cats that live in my backyard.  My passion, next to writing, is cooking.  Only America’s Test Kitchen and Lidia Bastianich can pull me out of my work-in-progress.

My advice to anyone who wants to write comes from the good people at Nike. "Just do it!" And to anyone with a dream, let me repeat the words of the late basketball coach, Jim Valvano. "Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up."

If you’d like to receive my e-mail newsletter, please send an e-mail to:

AliceGainesChambers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

How to contact me:

Write to Alice Gaines or Alice Chambers
5111 Telegraph Avenue
PMB #197
Oakland, California 94609

E-mail me at: alchambers@yahoo.com.