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This essay collection from the National Book Award--winning writer examines how historical facts inspire fiction, exploring the craft of transforming history into narrative through reflections on renowned authors and the writer's own process.

"Before the Brontë sisters picked up their pens, or Jane Austen's heroines Elizabeth and Jane Bennet became household names, the literary world was celebrating a different pair of sisters: Jane and Anna Maria Porter. The Porters--exact contemporaries of Jane Austen--were brilliant, attractive, self-made single women of polite reputation who between them published twenty-six books and achieved global fame. They socialized among the rich and famous,...