Media Kit

QUICK FACT SHEET

Books published to date: 35

Most Current Release: Sin Bin

First Novel Published: Ghosts of Fire (2002)

Former Career: Newspaper Staff Writer, Public Relations/Communications/Editing

Education: B.A. in English

Hometown: Upper Marlboro, MD

Family Background: Maureen’s father received a Ph.D. in graphic design from the University of Iowa. Her mother worked as a registered nurse for over forty years. Maureen has three sisters and two brothers. She met her husband, Lorrent, at the University of Maryland in College Park, where they were paired together through a campus mentoring program. They married in 1995 and have two children.

PROFESSIONAL BIO

Maureen Smith is the USA Today bestselling author of over thirty novels. She spent her early childhood in Iowa before her family relocated to Maryland. After graduating from Largo High School in Upper Marlboro, Maureen attended the University of Maryland in College Park, where she majored in English and minored in creative writing.

As an undergraduate, Maureen held summer jobs at the National Air and Space Museum and the famed Watergate Complex in Washington, DC, and interned with Ralph Nader’s consumer advocacy group Newsprints. What she most remembers about her internship experience was receiving personal advice from Nader when the bridal boutique where she’d purchased her wedding gown filed for bankruptcy. As a result of being interviewed by a local news station, Maureen and several other panic-stricken brides received their gowns from the bridal shop.

After graduating from the University of Maryland with a B.A. in English in 1995, Maureen went on to work for a local newspaper, a small publishing company, and a nonprofit organization before she struck out on her own as a freelance writer. Her articles were featured in various magazines, websites, and newspapers including the Baltimore Afro-American and Prince George’s Journal.

Following the publication of her debut novel in 2002, Midwest Book Review called Maureen “a writer of considerable promise and ability.” Of her romantic suspense novels, Publishers Weekly says “Smith gives equal credence to spicy romance and nail-biting suspense.” According to RT BOOKreviews, Maureen’s reputation in the romantic suspense genre is “well deserved.”

Maureen has given writing workshops and served as a panelist at various literary events, including the RT Booklovers Convention, Romance Slam Jam, and the Society of Latino and Hispanic Writers.

Many of her books have been designated an RT BOOKreviews “Top Pick,” and seven have been nominated for RT Reviewers’ Choice awards. She has also been nominated for numerous Emma Awards, winning her first in 2010 for Secret Agent Seduction and winning several after that. Her novel, Recipe for Temptation, was named one of the Best Reviewed Books of 2010 by Urban Reviews, and won an RT Reviewers’ Choice award and three Emma awards. She also received awards from Building Relationships Around Books (B.R.A.B.) in 2014 and 2015. Maureen’s books have appeared on bestseller lists for USA Today, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Harlequin, and Mosaic Books, to name a few.

Maureen also writes pseudonymously as Naomi Chase. Her popular women’s fiction novels, Exposed and Deception, were chosen a “Top Pick” from RT BOOKreviews and were both nominated for RT Reviewers’ Choice awards. In 2012, Naomi Chase was named Featured Author of the Year and Featured Romance Author of the Year by Shades of Romance Magazine.

Maureen lives in Houston, TX with her husband and two children.