Laura Kinsale is an American author of historical romance novels. She has been writing books since 1985. During this time, Kinsale has won and been nominated for the American Romance Writers Association's Best Book of the Year Award several times. She is also a New York Times bestselling author.
Laura Kinsale has a Master of Science in Geology from the University of Texas at Austin. She worked in the petroleum industry for around six years before becoming a full-time novelist.
Kinsale is considered one of the most innovative and influential writers in the historical romance genre. Her first success came with The Prince of Midnight, which won the 1991 Rita Award for Best Novel. In 2005, after a long break, she duplicated that success with the book Shadowheart.
Her novel Flowers from the storm (1992) was chosen by readers of Glamour Magazine and the Washington Post as one of the Greatest Love Stories of All Time.
In the late '90s, Kinsale took a break because, in her own words, she burned out.
"You can call it writer's block or whatever you like, but I had written ten books in 11 years and simply found that I could not continue at that pace. I felt that it was affecting the quality of my work. There was not one day of those six years that I didn’t try to figure out why and what I should do about it, but I never really did. It was very painful. I am grateful to Berkley and my editor there, Leslie Gelbman, for their patience and willingness to wait," the novelist says.
Laura Kinsale is the founder of Hedgehog Inc., which publishes audiobooks written by Kinsale and other authors, narrated by Nicholas Boulton, and produced by The Story Circle, London.
Laura Kinsale and her husband, David, currently divide their time between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Texas.