I met Dianne Drake five years ago at a writers’ workshop when I was just beginning to test the waters of getting creative writing published. She was very encouraging regarding my partially-completed manuscript, but it was her example that was most inspiring. She had written over thirty romance novels for publishers such as Harlequin, and is a best-selling medical romance writer in Europe. When I caught up with her again this past July, She was completing manuscripts for her 48th, 49th, and 50th novels–all of them already sold.

I don’t know when Dianne became disabled. She has been wheel-chair bound since I have known her. But her spirit and optimism are contagious. I wish every one of my clients who has a chronic illness could meet her and realize how much they have yet to offer the world.

Dianne had been a nurse in an earlier career, which gives her the inside scoop to tell convincing stories set in hospitals or with medical issues as a part of the plot.