Judith Kohnen spent thirty years with a story she couldn't let go — and couldn't quite bring herself to release. She began writing what would become One Chance, One Moment in 1986, inspired by the sweeping romantic novels of Danielle Steel, Johanna Lindsey, and Catherine Coulter. She revised it, rethought it, joined Virginia Romance Writers, edited their newsletter for four years, earned a nursing degree, and kept coming back to the manuscript — until she finally did what she'd always said she would, and published it. The book went on to earn fourteen honors, including a Bronze Medal from Readers' Favorite and selection among ten books worldwide chosen by Wind Dancer Films for film and television evaluation.

She never gave up. That's the whole story, really.

Judith writes contemporary romance with humor, suspense, and emotional depth — stories that treat love not as a feeling that happens to people, but as a choice they make, often at great cost. Her Mandy series drew unexpected inspiration from Barry Manilow's 1976 hit of the same name: a song about longing, loss, and the one who got away. It's a more complicated muse than most, and she wouldn't trade it.

With a background in nursing, hypnotherapy, and the natural healing arts, Judith brings an uncommon sensitivity to her characters' inner lives — the places where emotion, instinct, and transformation intersect. She was an active member of Romance Writers of America and Virginia Romance Writers for nearly thirty years and looks forward to returning to that community as her writing life fully reawakens.

She is currently at work on the third book in the Mandy series — the story of a young boy from the earlier novels, now grown, finding his own way to love. And possibly saving the world in the process.

Judith lives on five acres in rural Virginia with her husband.