Peggy Webb

You name it and multi-talented, award-winning, best-selling novelist Peggy Webb (a.k.a. Anna Michaels) has written it – romance, women’s fiction, literary novels, screenplays, and comedic cozy mysteries.

Elvis and the Dearly Departed, the first Southern Cousins Mystery, was a Mystery Guild Featured Alternate Selection. The second and third books in the series are now available, and the fourth, Elvis and the Tropical Double Trouble, will be in bookstores September 27, 2011.

The Tender Mercy of Roses (Simon & Schuster, hardcover, May 2011) written under her pen name Anna Michaels is a Featured Alternate Selection of the Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Clubs and a Top Five Pick of Delta Magazine. Pat Conroy calls Anna’s literary fiction debut “astonishing.”

A former adjunct instructor at Mississippi State University, Peggy likes to describe herself as “Southern to the bone and a pillar of the church and community.” Her friends say she is as down-to-earth as the characters she creates for her books and the roles she plays onstage at Tupelo Community Theater. She readily admits to being part Callie in the Southern Cousins Mystery series and part Maggie in her Pulitzer nominated novel Driving Me Crazy (2006). She even confesses she saw herself in her stage roles as M’Lynn in “Steel Magnolias” and The White Witch in “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.” But she denies being the model for characters in The Edge of Paradise and Duplicity (both now available as e-books) and particularly Confessions of a Not So Dead Libido.

“I am compelled to write,” she says. “My muses won’t let me remain idle.” Peggy’s body of work is a stunning testament to her muse: almost 70 novels, numerous blues songs, more than 200 magazine humor columns and two screenplays.

Currently, she is releasing her Loveswept romance backlist as e-books. “I’m delighted to bring these timeless love stories back to you. What fun to get reacquainted with feisty, independent heroines and strong, sexy heroes!” Five of Peggy’s romance classics are now available, with many more in the works. Her most current e-release is Where Dolpins Go, her beloved women’s fiction novel originally published as a Bantam Fanfare. This is a revised edition to make it compatible with the screenplay Peggy co-wrote when this book was optioned for film.

In a career that spans nearly 26 years, this native Mississippian has seen millions of her books in print in more than 17 languages. Acclaimed by both fans and reviewers, Peggy’s novels consistently appear on bestseller lists and garner awards. Peggy was recently honored by Romantic Times at the International Booklovers’ Conference in Orlando as a “Pioneer in Genre Fiction.” Dubbed Queen of Comedy by her fans, Peggy forged the way for romantic comedy.

She went back to her comedy roots with her mystery series. Her fans say, “To read a Peggy Webb novel is to howl with laughter.” Her classic romances are also big hits with her fans, especially the hilarious Duplicity, the groundbreaking A Prince for Jenny and her time-travel, Night of the Dragon.

Although Peggy says she’s “just a farm girl who loves music and words,” to fans she’s the writer who makes them laugh, makes them cry and makes them ask, “Who is Rainman?”