Кристина Макморрис — о писателе

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 as a "sweeping debut" (Publishers Weekly), Letters from Home was released in trade paperback from Kensington Books and Avon/HarperCollins UK in spring 2011. Various book club rights have been sold to Reader's Digest and Doubleday, and the film rights are represented by the prestigious Creative Artists Agency of Los Angeles. A portion of Kristina's sales proceeds will benefit United Through Reading®, a nonprofit organization that video records deployed U.S. military personnel reading bedtime stories for their children. Her second novel, Bridge of Scarlet Leaves (Kensington, Avon UK), will be released in February 2012.

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.