Loretta Chase, originally named Loretta Lynda Chekani, was born in 1949. She is an American author who has written romance novels since 1987.

Early life and education

Loretta Lynda Chekani was born in 1949 into a family with Albanian heritage. She attended public schools in New England before earning a bachelor's degree from Clark University, where she studied English.

Career

Her past jobs include clerical, administrative, and part-time teaching at Clark. She also had a six-month job as a meter maid. After college, her first professional writing job was for an exhibition catalog. This led to a job working extra hours as a corporate video scriptwriter. During this time, she met a video producer who encouraged her to write novels—and eventually to marry him. Her first Regency manuscript, Isabella, was bought by the first New York editor who read it, which helped her build a successful career as a romance author. Chase said of her marriage: "The books resulting from this union have won a surprising number of awards, including the Romance Writers of America RITA® Award." Her books have also won several Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice awards, various RRA-L (Romance Readers Anonymous) awards, and the All About Romance Top 100 Romances award multiple times.