Rebecca graduated cum laude with departmental honors from Wichita State University. She has a BA in journalism, minors in history and music (theory/composition) and an MA in communications. Twice a recipient of the Victor Murdock Scholarship, Rebecca taught interpersonal communication at the university level before becoming a published writer.

She was twenty-one when she started work on her first novel, No Gentle Love. She finished the book a year later and sold it to Warner Books some months after her twenty-third birthday, making her, at that time, the youngest romance author in America—a record that stood for ten years. To date, she has written over thirty consecutive bestselling titles.

Among many other awards, she has been named one of Love's Leading Ladies and inducted into Romantic Times BOOKreviews Hall of Fame. One of the more unusual honors she has enjoyed as a result of her writing career was being named an Honorary Duchess of Paducah, 1983.

Rebecca's books have been translated into numerous foreign languages, and have been published in over sixty countries worldwide. She has appeared on such television shows as Good Morning, America and Geraldo. She was a subject of a commentary by Andy Rooney on 60 Minutes and of a documentary film on the romance genre, Where the Heart Roams.

Rebecca is a founder and member of Novelists, Inc., a charter member of Romance Writers of America and a member of Mensa, an organization for people whose IQs are in the upper 2% of the world's population.

Rebecca lives in the Midwest with her son, Shane and husband, John. Her hobbies and interests include fencing, karate, Middle Eastern dance and target shooting. She enjoys researching ancient history (especially that of the Celts and Picts), as well as studying cosmogony, mythology, philosophy and theology. Her own personal philosophy has always been that when the student is ready, the teacher appears; she applies this bit of wisdom to all aspects of her life.