The Perfect Gift
Chritina Skye has eaten snake meat in Shanghai and armadillo in Canton. A Ph.D. graduate in Chinese literature, she has translated for Chinese generals, dissident poets, and fifth-generation puppet masters. In 1981 the Ohio native was nearly arrested when a businessman she was working for insisted she help him smuggle two "ladies of dubious virtue" into Peking's prestigious State Guest House.The armed PLA soldiers at the gate were not amused, shenotes. But these days Skye's greatest love is England,especially the fog-swept southeast coast. Here she firstencountered the portrait of a proud-faced, sad-eyed aristocratand a great gray cat sitting protectively beneath it. Adrian andGideon haven't given her a moment's peace since.Two Draycott novellas later (one appeared in Avon Books'Haunting Love Stories and one in Bewitching Love Stories),the award-winning author of four historical romances is deepat work on a new novel set at magical Draycott Abbey.A descendant of Revolutionary War hero Adam Helmer,Christina Skye currently lives with her husband and youngson in New Jersey, where she prudently avoids snakes andanything that resembles an armadillo.