Courtney Milan, a pen name for Heidi Bond, is an American writer who creates historical and modern romance books. After publishing her first books through a traditional publisher, Milan has released more recent works independently.
Before becoming a writer, Bond worked as a law clerk for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor of the U.S. Supreme Court and for Judge Alex Kozinski. During the Me Too movement, Bond claimed that Kozinski had sexually harassed her. Kozinski then resigned from his permanent position, and Chief Justice John Roberts ordered an investigation into how the federal courts handled reports of sexual harassment.
Milan was a member of the Romance Writers of America (RWA) board for four years and led efforts to increase diversity and inclusion in the organization. In late 2019, the RWA board voted to suspend Milan after she called another author's book racist. The board later reinstated her, citing problems with the suspension process. This event caused many RWA board members and the organization’s executive director to resign, and the 2020 RITA Award program was canceled.
Early life and education
Milan was born in 1976 to her American father, Doug Bond, who was a teacher of chemistry at the University of California, Riverside, and her Chinese-American mother, Gloria. Her website says she grew up in Southern California. She wrote her first book when she was ten years old and wanted to be an author from a young age. In 2000, she earned a bachelor's degree with two majors: mathematics and chemistry, from Florida State University.
She later studied at the University of California, Berkeley, where she completed a master's degree in theoretical physical chemistry. After that, she attended the University of Michigan Law School, where she received the Henry Moore Bates scholarship. In 2006, she graduated with the highest honors, summa cum laude.
Career
In 2007 and 2008, Milan worked as a clerk for Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Later, Milan said that during her time working for him, Kozinski called her into his office three times to look at pornography and repeatedly asked if the images made her feel uncomfortable. Milan talked about the harassment and the discomfort it caused her with her friend and fellow author Eve Ortega, but she did not report the incidents. At that time, there were no ways for clerks to report harassment without being identified.
Milan was later hired to work as a clerk for the Supreme Court of the United States, first for Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and then for Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy. She took a year-long break to transition from practicing law to teaching. For the next three years, she taught classes at Seattle University School of Law, focusing on contracts and intellectual property.
Milan began reading romance novels during her time as a law clerk, as a way to take a break from the large amount of legal research she had to do. She decided to write a historical romance novel. Milan told The Washington Post that the transition from law to writing was natural. She said, "One of the skills that makes you a good lawyer is the ability to take many different facts and combine them into a story that captures people's imaginations. Whether you’re convincing a judge that your client is innocent or convincing your reader that a couple is meant to be, it’s the same skill." Her first book, Proof by Seduction, was published by Harlequin in 2010. The book received a starred review in Publishers Weekly, which called it "delightful" and praised Milan's humor, character development, and plot.
Her first several books were published through a traditional contract, where a major publisher bought the rights to her books and Milan earned money from their sales. Under this model, Milan reportedly earned "an average household income" from her books. In 2011, she chose to self-publish her novels. Within 18 months of self-publishing, Milan left her job. By 2014, she was writing about two novels each year and earning close to $1 million in royalties each year.
Although Milan had always believed she could earn more by publishing her books herself, money was not the only reason she chose self-publishing. She also wanted more control over how her books were designed and marketed. Self-publishing does not mean Milan handles all parts of the process alone. She hires professional editors and works with designers for book covers. By 2013, she also hired a full-time project manager to help prepare her books for release.
Many of her books have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List or the USA Today Bestseller List. In 2015, Milan's series, The Brothers Sinister, was listed among NPR's "100 Swoon-Worthy Romances." NPR described Milan as "a master of the intelligent relationship discussion."
Milan's novella, Her Every Wish, won a RITA Award from the Romance Writers of America in 2017.
In early 2019, a reader told Milan about similarities between her novel The Duchess War and the novel Royal Love by Brazilian author Cristiane Serruya. Milan wrote about several instances where sentences or paragraphs from her book appeared in Serruya's novel. Other authors also found that their work had been copied in Royal Love and other books by Serruya. Serruya first denied any wrongdoing, then removed Royal Love from consideration for a RITA Award and blamed the plagiarism on a ghostwriter she had hired to write the book.
Advocacy
In late 2017, the #MeToo movement became more widely known as more women shared their experiences of sexual harassment in the workplace. Heidi Bond, who used the name Milan, told The Washington Post about her time working for Judge Kozinski, who was the Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals from 2007 to 2014. Other women also shared similar stories about Kozinski’s behavior. Milan was one of only two women who allowed her real name to be used; she was no longer working as a lawyer, so she did not worry about losing her job. After being closely examined, Kozinski left his position on the federal bench. This stopped any formal investigation into his actions. The Chief Justice of the United States, John Roberts, asked a group to review how the judiciary handled harassment claims. The group suggested major changes.
Six months after Kozinski resigned, Milan and eleven other women who accused him of harassment wrote a letter to the Los Angeles Daily Journal. They criticized the newspaper and its editor for publishing a column by Kozinski without mentioning that he had resigned under suspicion. The letter stated that Milan, using her real name Heidi Bond, and the other women would always be known as Kozinski’s accusers, and it seemed unfair that Kozinski would no longer be known as the accused after six months.
Milan served multiple terms on the board of directors for the Romance Writers of America (RWA) and worked there for four years. As a board member, she pushed for changes to make the organization more diverse and inclusive. Over 80% of RWA members are white, compared to 61% of the U.S. population. Milan encouraged authors of color to join the board and asked a publisher questions about why it had never signed a non-white romance author. For her work to increase diversity, the RWA gave Milan a Service Award in July 2019.
In August 2019, Milan joined a discussion on Twitter about racism and gatekeeping in the romance publishing industry. The conversation started with Sue Grimshaw, a longtime romance buyer who was accused of refusing to buy romance novels by authors of color. Grimshaw was hired by Suzan Tisdale, an author who started a small publishing company. Milan reviewed a book written by Tisdale’s other acquiring editor, Kathryn Lynn Davis, and said the book’s portrayal of a half-Chinese character was racist.
Tisdale and Davis filed complaints with the RWA against Milan, who was then the chair of the RWA’s Ethics committee. In her complaint, Davis wrote that Milan should not be allowed to hold a position of authority or influence others, and she claimed Milan’s comments caused her to lose a book contract. Milan resigned as chair of the Ethics committee to avoid conflicts of interest. On December 23, 2019, the RWA Board voted to suspend Milan for one year and ban her from all leadership roles for life. In a statement to CNN, Milan said the board punished her for the same behavior that had earned her a Service Award in July 2019.
There was strong opposition to the RWA’s decision. A week later, the board reversed the punishment, saying the process had problems. In response, women of color on the RWA Board of Directors and the President, Carolyn Jewell, resigned. The RWA had to cancel the 2020 RITA Awards after hundreds of authors quit as judges and more than 300 stories were removed from consideration. Major publishers criticized the RWA’s decision and said they would skip the 2020 RWA annual conference. A group within the RWA called the Cultural, Interracial, and Multicultural Special Interest Chapter organized a petition to remove the new RWA President, Damon Suede, which gained over 1,000 signatures in two days. Suede and the RWA’s executive director, Carol Ritter, both resigned on January 9. Davis later told The Guardian that her original complaint had exaggerated details, including claims that she had lost a book contract or had been directly harmed by Milan’s comments. Davis also admitted she had revised parts of her book to address racial issues after others pointed out problems.
Milan was a co-organizer of Romancing the Runoff, a fundraising event during the 2020–21 U.S. Senate election in Georgia.