Surf Girl School
by Cathy Yardley

How to surf like a pro 101 1. find surfboard, beach and hot instructor 2. learn to surf (six weeks should do it) 3. avoid imagining surf instructor without a wet suit 4. relax, and become one with the beach 5. return to work as ultradriven ad exec . . . and surf queen extraordinaire Allison Robbins needs to relax. Sure, she's a little career-driven -- what girl isn't? But then the little knot in her stomach turns into full-blown panic attacks, and under doctor's orders Allison has to find a nice, physical hobby. Like any good California girl, she decides to take up surfing. She's even commandeered the services of surf instructor Sean Gilroy -- just the guy to teach Allison's uptight self how to chill. But aside from being unsettlingly cute in a wet suit, Sean lives the typical surfer lifestyle -- casual, laid-back and entirely certain that things will take care of themselves . . . the polar opposite of Allison's world of stress, coffee and more stress. If only she didn't have to go back to work. Ever.

Cathy Yardley's Bio

When I was still in high school, I wasn't allowed to bring romance novels into the house, much less read them," Cathy Yardley remembers with a smile. "My family was pretty strict, and very focused on scholastics. The only romances I got to read were Jane Austen or Charlotte Brontë. So when I went away to college, and my best friend had a closet full of them, I binged." That small rebellion turned into a writing career with the publication of her first novel, "The Cinderella Solution", published by Harlequin Duets. Cathy Yardley's writing career has been "a complete surprise." After graduating from University of California, Berkeley with a double major in Mass Communications and Art History, she had originally planned on trying to be a publicist for other romance authors. She joined the Los Angeles Chapter of the Romance Writers of America in 1995. When she won first place in the Romantic Suspense category of their annual writing contest, she "took my writing more seriously." The result was her first sale.

"I'd written a term paper at Berkeley about the feminist themes in romance fiction," she remembers. "Now I get to put those ideas into practice. I love writing about strong heroines and heroes, and about the realities and rewards of falling in love." She explores these themes in her latest book, "The Driven Snowe", a November 2001 release from Harlequin's super-sexy new line, Blaze.

Currently living in the San Francisco Bay Area, the 20-something writer is working as a budget analyst at a major healthcare organization and working on a women's fiction project for the new Red Dress Ink imprint. Titled "L.A. Woman", it will be released next summer.