Sharon Kay Penman

Literary Birthday – 13 August – Sharon Kay Penman

Sharon Kay Penman was born 13 August 1945 and died 22 January 2021.

Quotes

  1. There is nothing worse than an enemy with imagination.
  2. When I moved to Wales more than twenty years ago and began to research ‘Here Be Dragons,’ I was fascinated from the first by the Welsh medieval laws, by the discovery that women enjoyed a greater status in Wales than elsewhere in Europe.
  3. Whenever I’ve had to tamper with history for plot purposes, I make sure to mention that in my author’s note, and I try to keep such tampering to a bare minimum. I also attempt to keep my characters true to their historical counterparts. This is not always possible, of course.
  4. I do not set specific work hours as some writers do. I generally stay with a chapter until I am satisfied, do very little rewriting, and if a scene is going well, I’ve been known to keep night owl hours.
  5. I do my best to build a strong factual foundation for each of my novels and rely upon my author’s notes to keep my conscience clear.
  6. It usually takes me about three years to research and write one of my historical sagas; this is one reason why I take medieval mystery breaks, for they can be completed in only a year.

Sharon Kay Penman was an American historical novelist. (She was published in the UK as Sharon Penman.) Her novels were about English and Welsh royalty during the Middle Ages. She was best known for the Welsh Princes trilogy and the Plantagenet series. She also wrote medieval mysteries, the first of which, The Queen’s Man, was a finalist in 1996 for the Best First Mystery Edgar Award.

Source for quotes / Source for image: Author’s Website

 by Amanda Patterson

Please click here for our Literary Birthday Calendar

Posted on: 12th August 2022
(1,401 views)