Lisa Rayne
Lisa is an award-winning author, a speaker, and an advocate for mainstream distribution of fiction featuring multicultural protagonists. She provides readers with romantic fiction featuring smart, sexy characters of diverse backgrounds across the span of time.
The Start
HARLEQUIN® SO YOU THINK YOU CAN WRITE
In 2013, Lisa was a Top 10 Finalist in the prestigious, global Harlequin® So You Think You Can Write contest with her first manuscript (a contemporary romance targeted for the Harlequin Desire line). Harlequin editors narrowed 650+ first chapter entries from the U.S., U.K., Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa down to the Top 50 semifinalists. Then, they reviewed the complete manuscripts of the Top 50 semifinalists and narrowed those down to the Top 10. Online public voting decided the winner.
Although Lisa didn’t win top honors, she considers her finalist’s berth in a contest of that magnitude a major achievement. The experience cemented her path of becoming a career romance writer. She published her first books (all contemporary romances and Amazon bestsellers) via her independent publishing imprint, Fire Sign Books, and currently publishes historical romance via Entangled Publishing.
Kirkus Reviews tauted Never Cross a Highlander “a flawless combination of modern-day issues and old-school romance” (15 December 2022).
Entertainment Weekly named Never Cross a Highlander one of The 5 Best Winter Romance Novels to Keep the Season of Love Going (Feb 22, 2023) and extolled,
“Rayne has a gift for crafting setting with a vibrant specificity that casts her characters against a thrilling backdrop. She joins a growing crop of authors doing the work to make historical romance more reflective of the real world, stories unafraid to acknowledge the realities of life for people of color in the past.”
Never Cross A Highlander also received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, which lauded that “Readers are sure to fall just as hard for the page-turning adventure as they will for the swoonworthy Kallum MacNeill” (2022 October 13).
Prior to its release, Publishers Weekly named Never Cross A Highlander a notable book of fall and winter 2021 that readers would want on their radar in the Romance & Erotica genre:
“NEVER CROSS A HIGHLANDER by Lisa Rayne takes on the highland romance genre with a tale of suspense, passion, and strapping Black Scotsmen.”
~ Publisher’s Weekly, (2021 JUNE 21, 268(25), 91)
Industry Reviews
Emma Awards
From Debut Author of the Year to Book of the Year
For her first novel (Counselor Undone), Lisa was honored with 2016 Emma Awards for Debut Author of the Year and for Interracial Romance of the Year.
Her second novel, Quarterback Casanova, debuted as an Amazon Best Seller in Multicultural Romance and Sports Genre Fiction and won the 2017 Emma Award for Book of the Year.
Lisa was also honored with a 2017 Emma Award for Runaway Heart, a Summer Olympics-inspired story that garnered Novella Romance of the Year.
Pictured right: Author Lisa Rayne with the legendary Beverly Jenkins.
Business Strategies & The Art of Going MogulTM
As a former practicing attorney, Lisa’s also passionate about helping creatives become savvy entrepreneurs. In her other life, she puts her expertise to use as a business strategist and entrepreneur coach.
After years coaching authors via workshops and conferences, she’s seen a need to put her business development and entrepreneurship coaching skills to use for the book publishing community. So she’s recently launched Going MogulTM for Authors, an initiative where she helps authors conquer overwhelm and build from platform to profits without compromising their values or neglecting relationships with the ones they love.
