Haywood Smith

Haywood Smith is an American author born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1949, who began her writing career after a midlife crisis, transitioning from real estate to novels. Her debut, *Shadows in Velvet* (1996), won the Romantic Times Award for First Historical Romance, and she later gained success with women's fiction like *Queen Bee of Mimosa Branch* and *The Red Hat Club*, which hit the New York Times bestseller list, focusing on Southern women over 50.[1][2][3]