C. P. Lesley

As a child, C. P. Lesley thought everyone told themselves stories to help themselves fall asleep. It never occurred to her that anyone would pay her for them, and for a long time, she was right--no one would. But after years of producing horrible prose, reading books about novel writing, and pestering hapless fellow-writers and friends to read her drafts, some of the advice stuck, and she finished "The Not Exactly Scarlet Pimpernel," followed by "The Golden Lynx," "The Winged Horse," "The Swan Princess," "The Vermilion Bird," and "The Shattered Drum."

She is currently working on a new series, Songs of Steppe & Forest, which follows selected Legends characters into the 1540s. When not thinking up new ways to torture her characters, she edits other people's manuscripts, reads voraciously, maintains her website, and practices classical ballet. That love of ballet also finds expression in her Tarkei Chronicles series, "Desert Flower" and "Kingdom of the Shades."