Petie earned a Bachelor's degree in Zoology from the University of Central Florida, which was no help at all when she decided to write romance novels as her second career.

Her career as an aquatic biologist took her on many wild assignments, including surveys of Florida lakes, rivers, and streams by airboat. Many of those off-the-wall assignments became the backdrop for her romantic suspense novel, Ambush in the Everglades.

Petie spent most of her career as a biologist at the Walt Disney World Resort, "The Most Magical Place on Earth." What could be more magical than driving by Cinderella's Castle on your way to work every day? Living in the heart of the theme park entertainment industry constantly tweaked her imagination and made her want to write. She had the fun of working in the land of fairy tales by day and creating her own romantic fairy tales by night. She eventually said goodbye to her wonderful "day" job to write her stories full-time.

These days, Petie shares her home on the beautiful Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee with her horticulturist husband and an opinionated Nanday conure named Sassy Smart-Assy, who makes a cameo appearance in Christmas Watch, Book 2 in The Watchers series. She loves golf, running, and reads voraciously.

That's Petie, not the conure.