Secrets of a Charmed Life

Susan Meissner (b. 1961) is an American writer who was born and raised in San Diego, California. As an adult, she lived in Minnesota, England, and Germany before moving back to San Diego in 2007. She lives there now with her husband, a pastor and Air Force reserves chaplain, and has four adult children. She attended Point Loma Nazarene University and, while living in Minnesota, worked as a weekly newspaper editor.

She writes largely Christian and historical fiction and targets her books towards both secular and Christian literary audiences. Her debut novel, Why the Sky Is Blue, was published in 2004, and it was followed by other novels, including A Window to the World and The Remedy for Regret (2005), the Rachael Flynn series (2006-2007), A Seahorse in the Thames (2006), and The Men of Lancaster County series, which she co-wrote with Mindy Starns Clark (2014-2015). She started writing historical fiction in 2008. Her first book in this genre, The Shape of Mercy, implements depictions of historical events and details a woman’s exploration of the story of her librarian employer’s ancestor during the Salem Witch Trials. Following historical novels include White Picket Fences (2009), which combines a contemporary story with historical fiction about two holocaust survivors, Lady in Waiting (2010), which is set largely in Tudor England and focuses on Lady Jane Grey, and A Sound Among the Trees (2011), which is set during the Civil War.