Barbara O'Neal

Barbara O'Neal is an American novelist who has written over forty books under different pen names.

O'Neal's books include When We Believed in Mermaids, The Starfish Sisters, The Lost Recipe for Happiness and How to Bake a Perfect Life.

O'Neal has written women's fiction under the names Barbara O’Neal and Barbara Samuel, contemporary and historical romance novels under Barbara Samuel and Ruth Wind, and new adult romances under Lark O’Neal.

Career Since 2017, Barbara O'Neal has written general fiction for Lake Union Publishing, and has since published 8 titles with them. Her book, When We Believed in Mermaids, was published in 2019. It has sold more than 1 million copies and been published in over 21 territories.

In 2000, O'Neal began writing women's fiction under the name Barbara Samuel, publishing five books under this name until moving her women's fiction titles under the name Barbara O’Neal. Her novels often revolve around multi-generational stories about women, and include themes of food, second chances, and families. She has won three RITA awards for her women's fiction work, making her eligible for the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame, into which she was inducted in 2012. All of these titles have been reissued by Lake Union books.

O'Neal began her writing career as an author for Harlequin Silhouette. Writing as Ruth Wind, she has published over twenty contemporary romances, winning two RITA awards in this genre. Under the name Barbara Samuel, she has written seven historical romances, winning a RITA in 1998 for her book, Heart of a Knight. and been named Favorite Book of the Year from Romance Writers of America, a Target Book Club pick, and a top book from Library Journal.

When New Adult Romance emerged as a new genre 2013, O'Neal began writing as Lark O’Neal, launching her first New Adult series, Going the Distance, later that year.