Susanna Kearsley

Susanna Kearsley was working as a museum curator when she wrote her first book on a dare from her sister and realized that writing was all that she wanted to do.

She left the museum and worked as a waitress instead while she wrote her second novel, which went on to win the U.K.'s Catherine Cookson Fiction Prize in 1993. Since then, her books have been translated into several languages, selected for The Mystery Guild, condensed for Reader's Digest, and optioned for film.