Donna Gillespie is the author of two historical novels set in first century Rome, The Light Bearer (Berkley/Putnam, 1994) and Lady of the Light (Berkley/Putnam, 2006). The Light Bearer received a "starred" review in Publishers Weekly, has been translated into German, Dutch, Russian and Italian and was optioned by Hallmark Entertainment for a miniseries. Her second novel, Lady of the Light, is the sequel to The Light Bearer, and is also available in German and Italian. Gillespie was born in 1948 in Gainesville, Florida, and graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in Architecture and Fine Art. Her love of historical novels began at age thirteen when she discovered Mary Renault's sagas of ancient Greece. She credits the novels of Robert Graves -- I Claudius and Claudius the God -- with her enduring interest in the culture and mores of ancient Rome. She has lived in San Francisco since 1971, where presently she is the copyeditor and occasional contributor to her neighborhood newspaper, The New Fillmore. She's currently working on the third novel of the trilogy that began with The Light Bearer.For more information, and to see the author's blog, please visit her web site at www.donnagillespie.com.