Sharon Kay Penman seems superbly equipped to write novels about the medieval era, but she took several detours before finding her calling. She attended three different colleges, graduating in 1969 with a history major. After teaching for a year at a Catholic school in Hawaii, she returned to the mainland and earned a J.D.

She then worked for four years as a tax and corporate attorney. Penman says that she hated her legal work. She turned back to her original passion, history, and in her spare time began to write a novel about Richard III. After four years' work on it, the 500-page manuscript was stolen from her car.

She was devastated. It took her five years to begin writing again. But she continued to research the topic, and finally an insurance settlement gave her enough money to quit...