A former journalist, DeVon Nelson, published her first romance novel — The Bitter and Sweet Around Me — in 2011. Since then, she has self-published three romance novels, Bitter Can Taste Oh So Sweet, Gotta Find My Way Back, which received a nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Literature from the African American Arts Alliance of Chicago, and her new novel, A Bakery Called Scrumptious. Born in Waukegan, Ill., – the setting for her first novel — DeVon earned her B.A. from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Ill., where she majored in journalism. She has over a decade of writing for the News-Sun in Waukegan, Il., and the Chicago Tribune. When she’s not reading or writing romance stories, she’s playing with her nephews Legend, Zavonn, Skylar, and Xavion, learning how to blog, or cooking up a big pot of spaghetti.