Cheers!
 
The RP Staff

Leigh Collett Co-founder, CEO

Leigh Collett has been an avid reader of romance for more than 20 years and has been a published writer for 18 years. She first published a short story in a literary magazine at the age of 17, with several freelance news articles and professional protocol journals published in following years. Leigh holds three degrees and is finishing her MBA. She spent 11 years as an Administrative Consultant, but she decided to retire from consulting in order to pursue her dreams within the publishing industry.   She is the CEO and Director of Sales and Marketing for Resplendence Publishing. Leigh is a member of RWA, Kentucky Romance Writers, Florida Romance Writers, FF&P, and EPIC.

Jessica Berry Co-founder, Publisher

Jessica Berry obtained her BA in Psychology from the University of Central Florida in 2001, and she has since taught language arts to students on various levels, from Kindergarten to college. Her first love, however, is editing romantic fiction for publication and overseeing all elements of the publication process—from submissions to print book design and formatting. In addition to her professional writing and editing experience, Jessica has attended and taught various workshops on the craft of writing. She is an avid reader, and has been devouring an average of 3 books per week for almost twenty years. This has given her a deep appreciation of the craft and the authors who practice it.

Tiffany Mason Editorial Director

Tiffany Christina Mason loves to read everything romance—from historical to paranormal, steamy to sweet—she loves it all.  After spending countless hours in bookstores and reading hundreds of romance novels through the years, Tiffany carried her love of romance with her as she joined the U.S. Air Force, obtained her degree in Electronic Technology, and traveled the world.  When she was not deployed to some remote location or writing technical manuals, she spent her free time traveling Europe to visit the settings of her favorite historical romance novels.   Tiffany left the Air Force to spend three years in Bahrain with her husband.  While there, she worked as an English teacher at a local language school. As a multi-level teacher, she taught everything from basic usage of conversational English for beginning students, to classes on the intricacies of American colloquial English and pop-culture jargon/slang for advanced students.   After returning to the U.S., Tiffany decided to pursue her dream of working within the publishing industry.  Tiffany comes to Resplendence with several years experience writing web content, employee handbooks, writing advertising and sales copy, copy editing, teaching and acting as a critique partner for both published and unpublished romance authors.

Courtney Hoffman Associate Editor

Courtney Hoffman loves books. She also loves romance - so being single, this makes romance novels her ultimate passion. From the time she was about two and memorized Snow White to "read" to herself, she's almost always had a book in her hand. Although the realities of life - a job in NYC, the occassional meal, and the necessity of a good night's sleep - keep her from reading all the time, a book is always her favorite pick-me-up.   Courtney has a BA and MA in Health and Sport Science.  She's also pursuing a degree in English while planning to make this a part of a permanent career shift into publishing. She is a contest-winning author (not counting her short story "Officer Carl, Mittens, and the Thief", which took first prize in a contest in Fourth Grade) and a member of RWA, RWA-Online, Hearts Through History Online Chapter of RWA, KYRW and CR-RWA. She's lived in NJ, PA, NC, and KY before NY, and loves England. She's extremely excited to be a member of the fabulous team at Resplendence.

Christine Allen-Riley Associate Editor

Christine holds a BA degree in English, with an emphasis in Creative Writing and a minor in Developmental Psychology. She had no idea how well that minor would serve her until she had children...   Married, with two sons, Chris lives in Michigan where she enjoys running literature circles for her youngest son’s class, crafting of all kinds, and of course, reading – fantasy, romance and erotic romance are her favorite genres.

Chantal Depp Associate Editor

Professionally, Chantal Depp has done everything from serving cocktails in a gentleman's club to teaching pre-natal breastfeeding classes as an international, board certified lactation consultant. While she has ventured upon many exciting career paths in her life, one love remained constant through each journey: her love of books─especially romance books.   After obtaining a BA in Health Sciences, and spending six years working in the medical field, Chantal decided to take some time off to watch her beautiful children grow and pursue her dream of working in the publishing industry.   With several years experience mentoring, teaching, writing everything from medical pamphlets to web content, reviewing fiction and nonfiction, as well as copy editing, Chantal is a perfect addition to the Resplendence "hands-on" editorial staff.

Wendy Williams Associate Editor

Wendy Williams obtained B.S. degree in Administrative Studies from Nova University, and has nearly 20 years of Marketing experience including writing and editing advertising copy, press releases, newsletters, proposals. She is currently a home schooling mom who loves the flexibility of working from home.   In addition to editing for Resplendence Publishing, Wendy is a published freelance writer, a successful grant writer, a marketing assistant for Resplendence and maintains the Resplendence Readers space at www.MySpace.com/resplendencereaders. Before motherhood, she was involved in the marketing of a super-regional mall for nine years, and became a Certified Marketing Director (CMD) through the International Council of Shopping Centers.

Michele Paulin Associate Editor

Hot sex, hot men and hot chocolate chip cookies are some of editor Michele Paulin's favorite things. Add great characters with a captivating plot and she's thrilled. She loves erotic romance - she loves romance, period - and is a sucker for a happy ending. With a background in both English and History, she brings over eight years of editing experience to the Resplendence staff. Michele lives in Michigan with her husband, two kids, the cutest dog ever, and a whole lot of books.

Rika Singh Cover Artist, Web Designer

Working and living in Sunny South Africa, Rika Singh has always had a passion for creating. In this world of digital gadgets, she did not grow up learning to paint with a brush, but rather with a mouse. With 11 years of design and art experience under her belt, she now creates websites, covers and other graphics for authors... When she’s not swinging from trees and dueling with the monkey’s that is.   Did we fool you? Actually, she doesn’t swing from trees, but rather from Mall to Mall in search of the latest romance releases. You can find her at  www.bookadesign.com  where you will learn more about her, catch up on her latest projects… And maybe even what she is reading this week.

Chel Hickerty Cover Artist

Chel Hickerty hails from Michigan where she divides her time between family, books and art. She stumbled into digital art quite by accident and found she liked it there. A lot. Now it’s not unusual to find her deep in words or immersed in pictures—and that’s just where she wants to be.

Fran Lee Reader Liaison

Fran Lee is passionate about romance in all it's forms!  She has been reading since age five, and has been writing romance since age fourteen. Her stack of yet-to-be-published romances grew for many years. After retiring from a long and arduous career as a public servant, she finally turned her efforts to getting her novels published. She now has several novels either published, or in the pipeline to publication.  Fran loves to read romance, write romance, and she loves helping others to promote their books by creating "cover trailers" with nothing but the book's cover and text slides, with a bit of soundtrack music tossed in. You can visit her website, www.franleeromance.com, or find her on one of her several blogs and social networks, including her own Yahoo Groups,  two groups on Coffee Time Romance & More, in addition to our newest RP promo blog!  Fran is also a columnist for www.Examiner.com, where she interviews authors, does book reviews, showcases cover trailers for many authors, and sometimes even snags an interview with the world's hottest COVER MODELS! You can find the links to most of her sites on her main website. As Resplendence Reader Liaison, Fran maintains and moderates the Resplendence Gems reader group, and arranges a variety of promotional events for RP authors and titles.

Additonal RP Staff

Sally Maga Editor, Literary Fiction and Non-fiction   Susan Everhardt Senior Acquisitions Assistant   Celia Kyle Cover Artist   Melinda Barron  Review Coordinator   Michelle Marino Copy Editor   Diane Riley Customer Service Specialist