Judith Merkle Riley was a U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

 and academic who wrote six historical romance

Historical romance

Historical romance is a subgenre of two literary genres, the romance novel and the historical novel.-Definition:Historical romance is set before World War II...

 novels from 1988 to 1999.

Biography

Judith Astria Merkle was born on January 14, 1942 and grew up in Livermore, California

Livermore, California

Livermore is a city in Alameda County. The population as of 2010 was 80,968. Livermore is located on the eastern edge of California's San Francisco Bay Area....

. Her great-uncle was the famous baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 player Fred Merkle

Fred Merkle

Frederick Charles Merkle , also known as "Bonehead" Merkle, was an American first baseman in Major League Baseball...

, her father, Theodore Charles Merkle ran Project Pluto

Project Pluto

Project Pluto was a United States government program to develop nuclear powered ramjet engines for use in cruise missiles. Two experimental engines were tested at the United States Department of Energy Nevada Test Site in 1961 and 1964.-History:...

, and her brother Ralph C. Merkle is a pioneer in public key cryptography, and more recently a researcher and speaker on molecular nanotechnology and cryonics.

She held a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. She taught in the Department of Government at Claremont McKenna College

Claremont McKenna College

Claremont McKenna College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college and a member of the Claremont Colleges located in Claremont, California. The campus is located east of Downtown Los Angeles...

 in Claremont, California

Claremont, California

Claremont is a small affluent college town in eastern Los Angeles County, California, United States, about east of downtown Los Angeles at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. The population as of the 2010 census is 34,926. Claremont is known for its seven higher-education institutions, its...

. From 1988 to 2007, Judith wrote six historical fiction

Historical fiction

Historical fiction tells a story that is set in the past. That setting is usually real and drawn from history, and often contains actual historical persons, but the principal characters tend to be fictional...

 novels.

Personal life/death

She was married and had two children. She died on September 12, 2010 from ovarian cancer

Ovarian cancer

Ovarian cancer is a cancerous growth arising from the ovary. Symptoms are frequently very subtle early on and may include: bloating, pelvic pain, difficulty eating and frequent urination, and are easily confused with other illnesses....

.

Medieval Word of Margaret of Ashbury Series

1. A Vision of Light (1988)
2. In Pursuit of the Green Lion (1990)
3. The Water-devil (2007)

Single novels

• The Oracle Glass (1994)
• The Serpent Garden (1996)
• The Master of All Desires (1999)