Lynne Hayworth is more than just a dazzling new romance novelist - she's also a medical textbook editor for Vanderbilt University and McGraw-Hill Publishing, the largest educational and professional publisher in the world. This knowledge of medicine gives Hayworth's debut novel, Summer's End (Zebra Books, January 2001), an "art imitates life" flair: While the heroine of Summer's End is a healer with a rare knowledge of herbal remedies, Hayworth is managing editor of the "Bible of pharmacology" - Goodman & Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, 10th Edition (G&G).
"Many modern drugs are derived from herbs used by healers," says Hayworth, 36. "It's fascinating to write about foxglove or willow bark in my romantic historical novels, then edit passages about digoxin or salicylic acid in this famous pharmacology text. Oddly, it was my knowledge of herbal medicine and fascination with medical history that landed me the job as editor of G&G," Hayworth adds. "The doctors I work with think it's fabulous that I write romance. They especially like the passages about smallpox inoculation."
Medical knowledge isn't the only "art imitates life" twist to Summer's End. The book was inspired by the life of Hayworth's ancestress, Mary Walker - a Scottish immigrant who was accused of witchcraft in New Hampshire in 1692.
"Like my heroine in Summer's End, my ancestress was falsely accused," says Hayworth. "Historical records show that she was arrested because she was a `contentious woman.' When I told my husband that, he tossed me this wry grin and said, `That explains a lot.'"
Hayworth was a magazine editor and freelance journalist before turning to medicine and romance, and she has written on topics ranging from conservation to health to transportation. Her career also has included a stint as a public relations executive, where she trained professionals on how to handle media interviews. She has traveled extensively in the Caribbean on behalf of a Peace Corps-type agency, and has served as director of communication for the Tennessee chapter of The Nature Conservancy, the world's largest conservation organization.
Hayworth possesses a bachelor's degree in journalism from Middle Tennessee State University and has taken graduate writing courses at the University of Wisconsin. A twelfth-generation native of Maine (the setting of Summer's End), Hayworth now resides in Nashville, Tennessee, with her husband - a musician and college professor who is the inspiration for her devilishly charming hero, Jamie Maclean.