I have lived my entire life in the small town of Azle, Texas.
Azle is located just northwest of Fort Worth, so while I can live the small town life, I
have the big city just a few miles away.
Both of my parents were stay at home parents. Paul and Naomi went to beautician school and
got their licenses while they built onto their house so they’d have a place to work
and raise their children. They love to tell stories about how I climbed up the ladder when
I was two years old while they were working on the roof. So I grew up with the smells of
hair dye and permanents, but I also had both parents anytime I really needed them. And let
me tell you with two older brothers, all three of us needed them. Like when I set off the
roman candle in the house, or when the huge snake chased us into the house. They
didn’t close the shop until Bruce, Arlon, and I were old enough to manage on our own.
This is when my father went back to work at General Dynamics and my mother went back to
school to get her teaching degree. She then taught first grade for 26 years.
James Reasoner came into my life through my
oldest brother, Bruce. They’d known each other since first grade, but they
didn’t start hanging around together until they attended the same university. We
started dating when I was a senior in high school. James was writing his own fiction even
back then. I kind of stumbled into the business after we married, while I was typing his
manuscripts, seeing different ways the story could have gone. Our careers grew as our
family did. We were blessed with two beautiful daughters. We live in a house we built
ourselves with the help of family. We did everything from the pier and beam foundation
poured with buckets, to shingling the roof. I found that I love carpentry and tools. James
has it easy for presents; all he has to do is buy the latest tool I’ve been yearning
for. The latest was a cordless nail gun.
My first story was published in 1978 in Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine. My first novel was
published in '83 by Fawcett as by Livia James. In the eighties I had several westerns
published in hardback by M. Evans, while I was writing mysteries for TorBooks
under my maiden name Washburn. My first mystery WILD NIGHT was recently reprinted by Five
Star Mysteries. WILD NIGHT is set in Hollywood during the 1920's, featuring Hollywood
stuntman Lucas Hallam. WILD NIGHT was the winner of The American Mystery Award and The
Private Eye Writers of America's Best Original Paperback Award. This is also when both our
daughters were born, and we became the stay at home parents. Our writing careers had
progressed to the point we could both work full time. James and I wrote several historical
novels as by J.L. Reasoner, one of which was nominated for a Spur, the Western Writers of
America award. My first small town romance, MENDING FENCES by Livia Reasoner, an Our Town
book, was published in January of '98 by Jove. Under the name Elizabeth Hallam, SPIRIT
CATCHER was published by Jove, July '98 in their Haunting Hearts series and during the
summer of '99 my medieval paranormal ALURA'S WISH was followed by TIME PASSAGES:
YESTERDAY'S FLAME, a time travel romance that came out in February 2000. It wasn’t
until recently that I went back to my first love, mysteries with the October 2006 release
of A PEACH OF A MURDER.
