[1] After earning a double major in journalism and political science from Syracuse University, Dimon moved to Washington, D.C. to work as the legislative correspondent for her hometown's congressman, Robert Smith Walker.
[2] The work began to take a toll on her; as Dimon noted in an interview, "'I'm not sure what a win is in a divorce custody case because everybody loses.
[2] She drew on her love of mysteries and her experiences in Washington, D.C. representing Secret Service, CIA, and FBI agents to craft romantic suspense novels.
Foster chose twenty winners, including Dimon, and forwarded their entries to her editor at Kensington Books.
In May 2005, she signed a contract to sell a novella, "When Good Things Happen to Bad Boys", to the same editor who had rejected her manuscript 18 months previously.
[1] The first book to be published, Hard Hats and Silk Stockings, included the rewritten pages that she had submitted to the Foster contest.