Kristina McMorris lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and their two sons, bundles of energy who take pride in transforming any cylindrical household object into a weapon.

At age nine, she began creatively expressing herself when she embarked on a five-year stint as the host of an Emmy® and Ollie award-winning kids' television program. Being half Japanese, Kristina jokes that she discovered a genetic kinship with the camera and continued to nurture that relationship by acting in many independent films and major motion pictures while living in Los Angeles. Later, as the owner of a wedding/event planning business, she fed her performance addiction by serving as the six-year host of the WB's weekly program Weddings Portland Style.

Kristina's extensive experience in media and events led her to becoming a professional emcee and contributing writer for Portland Bride & Groom magazine. Her previous writing background also includes ten years of directing public relations for an international conglomerate.

In fall of 2000, deciding sleep was highly overrated, she compiled hundreds of her grandmother's favorite recipes for a holiday gift that quickly snowballed into a self-published cookbook. With proceeds benefiting the Food Bank, Grandma Jean's Rainy Day Recipes sold at such stores as Borders and was featured in a variety of regional media. It was while gathering information for the book's biographical section when Kristina happened across a letter her grandfather mailed to his "sweetheart" during his wartime naval service -- a letter that later inspired McMorris to pen her first novel, a WWII love story entitled Letters from Home.

Praised by critics as a "sweeping debut" (Publishers Weekly), Letters from Home was published by Kensington Books and Avon/HarperCollins UK in spring 2011. In addition to numerous foreign rights sales, book club rights have been sold to Reader's Digest, Doubleday, and the Literary Guild. Her second novel, Bridge of Scarlet Leaves (Kensington, Avon UK), was released in spring 2012 to equally high critical acclaim. Most recently, her novella, The Christmas Collector, was featured in the anthology A Winter Wonderland, headlined by #1 New York Times bestselling author Fern Michaels.

To date, McMorris's works of fiction have garnered more than twenty national literary awards and two nominations for the highly coveted Golden Heart®. A workshop presenter and active member of several writers' organizations, she holds a B.S. in International Marketing with a language concentration from Pepperdine University. Having been saved as a newborn by Seattle Children's Hospital, she is also an advocate of many charitable causes for children's health and wellbeing. For her diverse accomplishments, she has been named one of Portland's "Forty Under 40" by The Business Journal.

Kristina is currently working on her next novel.

Click on image to enlarge