| Carolyn Pizzuti | |
| Pseudonym: | Carolyn Zane Suzy Pizzuti |
| Occupation: | Novelist |
| Nationality: | American |
| Period: | 1993–present |
| Genre: | Romance |
| Spouse: | Matt Pizzuti (1978-Present) |
| Children: | Madeline, Grace, Gabriel, Olivia, Silas |
Carolyn Pizzuti is an American author of romance novels under the pen name Carolyn Zane. She has also been published as Suzy Pizzuti.
Carolyn was born to Douglas Owen Tope and Mary Patricia Willis and raised in Southern California. When she was five, her family, including younger sister, Judy, moved to Oregon. Carolyn graduated from high school in 1976 in Silverton, Oregon and enrolled at Oregon State University, where she majored in broadcast/speech communications. In 1978, she married her college sweetheart, Matt, and, in 1981, she graduated from OSU and moved to Portland. She worked as a producer/director for local television commercials.[1]
On their sixteenth wedding anniversary, Carolyn and her husband welcomed their first daughter, Madeline Alexa. A second daughter, Olivia RoseAnne, followed four years later. In 2003, they added an infant son of Guatemalan descent, Silas Matthew, through adoption. When he was 18 months, an African American sibling set, Grace Elizabeth and Gabriel Robert were added to the family, adopted through foster care. While her five children were small, Zane wanted to find a career that she could follow from home.
In March 1993 she finished her first romance novel, The Wife Next Door, which was soon purchased by Silhouette.[1] Since then, she has had more than 30 novels published by four publishers, with several million copies in print worldwide.[1] Her work has been selected as Top Pick by Romantic Times, where Cheryl Hanson described her latest work Beyond the Storm by saying, "The writing is so riveting and real that you'll feel the storm and the pain of the aftermath." Reviewer Pamela Cohen says Zane's genre books are "strong on humor, snappy repartee and passionate moments."[2]
Two of her novels have been inspirational romances, written under the pen name Suzy Pizzuti. These were released in 1998 and 1999.[3] After what Zane refers to as the world's longest maternity leave, she went back to work as the launch author for Abingdon Press's Quilts of Love series. Her book, Beyond the Storm, inspired by the Joplin/Tuscaloosa tornadoes, debuted October 2012.