Barbara Pronin grew up in Brooklyn, New York, where she first saw her byline in print in
a community newsletter at the tender age of eight and was forever hooked on writing.

At 16, she won a trip to Los Angeles in a 25-words-or-less contest – a feat that ultimately resulted in her family’s move to the Golden State, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in English and theater at California State University Los Angeles.

Never one to pass up a new opportunity, she has worked over the years as a television actor, a band singer, a probation officer, a news editor, and a substitute teacher, the last of which inspired her first book, “Substitute Teaching: A Handbook to Hassle-Free Subbing,” and provided the impetus to try her hand at novel-writing.

Against all odds, her first novel, the medical mystery, “Syndrome,” sold to a prestigious publisher, and her novel-writing career was launched.

Her second novel, “Finders Keepers,” co-authored with Nickolae Gerstner, attracted the attention of best-selling writer Mary Higgins Clark, who provided a book jacket blurb. It was the first of three-books published under the Barbara Nickolae pseudonym and was published internationally in nine languages by Reader’s Digest Condensed Books.

With all six of her novels, as Barbara Pronin and as Barbara Nickolae, re-published in 2021, she set about writing “The Miner’s Canary,” inspired by a visit to Deadwood’s old mine and the surrounding Black Hills of South Dakota.

Married with two nearly-perfect adult children, and five of the world’s most amazing grandchildren, she loves dark chocolate, Greek sunsets, dinner with friends, and the L.A. Dodgers.

Barbara lives and works in Orange County, California, where she writes on real estate for RISMedia, and is currently at work on a historical novel about three young women drawn to the Dutch Resistance near the harrowing end of World War II.

The Miner’s Company will be releasing October 25, 2022