Toni Collins

Norma Beishir was born on 5 August 1953 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. She has wanted to be a writer for as long as she can remember. She used to get in trouble in school because she was writing when she should has been paying attention in class. She foolishly sent a handwritten manuscript to a publisher when she was sixteen. It was rejected, of course--but an editor actually took the time to look at it and wrote her, saying she had talent but wasn't ready for publication yet. She worked in numerous occupations, all with one goal in mind: to one day realize her dream of being a published writer.

Some years later, she found an agent and sold her first novel within six months. Six months later, Berkley bought two more books from her--for a six-figure advance. She published mainstream novels with Berkley as Norma Beishir and romances through Silhouette as Toni Collins. When she began writing for Silhouette Books, she felt a greater freedom with the category romance format, since she felt that she "could do things in these books that simply didn't fit" her mainsteam novels. Obsessed with having creative control--she made the move to self-publishing for her latest two as ebooks, and introduce two new pseudonyms: Robin Collins and Scarlett Martin.

She has traveled extensively and now lives in her native St. Louis with her husband and son.