Loretta Lynda Chekani was born in 1949 in a family of Albanian origin.
She studied at New England public schools before receiving a bachelor's degree from Clark University, where she majored in English.
Her past jobs include clerical, administrative, and part-time teaching at Clark and a "Dickensian six-month experience" as a meter maid.
During this time she met a video producer who enticed 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 and led to a successful career as a romance author.