I write sexy, emotional small‑town romances where rugged cowboys tumble head‑over‑boots into love, even when things get downright messy. Born in Tennessee and shaped by my teenage years under the wide Texas sky, I’m hooked on open spaces, tight‑knit communities, and characters determined to earn their happily ever after.

When I’m not at the keyboard, you’ll find me with a paintbrush in hand, feeding the livestock on our Appalachian farm, or sketching the next hard‑headed cowboy hero in my notebook. My short fiction has appeared in Woman’s World, Sasee, and Micromance magazines under the Mina Beckett name, while my sweet‑romance pen name, Shelby James, sticks to softer love notes and holiday kisses.

I also run CurtissLynn Publishing and share behind‑the‑scenes peeks, cover reveals, and book news through my Romantic Reader Newsletter on Substack.

I fell in love with romance at fifteen, raiding every grocery‑store spinner rack for Harlequins and dog‑earing the pages until the spines cracked. Elizabeth Lowell and Diana Palmer showed me how longing could feel like lightning in your chest, and even though I told everyone I was headed for business or maybe architecture, the truth was already inked on my heart.

I’ve always been equal parts numbers and imagination. I earned degrees in tech, education, and business, and I loved sketching floor plans as much as drafting short stories for Mrs. Mendez’s English class. But the stories kept tugging at me, louder than any sensible career plan. One night, hiding in the laundry room while the dryer hummed, I finally admitted it out loud: “I write sexy romance.” My husband grinned and said, “Then hit send, already.” So I did.

That was 2008. Between a nine‑to‑five job, grad school, and my son’s baseball games, I published three books—one of them, The Heartbreak Cowboy, while finishing my master’s thesis. A Romance Writers of America conference pushed me further. Liz Maverick’s workshop lit a fire, and the proposal I wrote on the flight home became the Coldiron Cowboy series and landed me a literary agent.

The road still had potholes. Editors asked me to rewrite entire books to sound like someone else. I tried, hated it, and tossed the draft. My voice is mine, and if it’s a little wild, so be it. In 2018 I bet on myself, launched CurtissLynn Publishing, and re‑released The Heartbreak Cowboy on my own terms.

"Characters don’t care about my schedule; they stroll in unannounced and start talking. I listen, because their secrets are the pulse of the plot. Once they trust me enough to whisper the hurt they hide, I know the book’s alive. After that, all I do is follow the heartbeat to the very last page.”