Happy Friday! It's been a (rare so far this spring) sunny day here at SiWC Central, and it has me a little giddy. Hope your day has been similarly sunny. I'd wager it'll get even brighter when you meet the Friday Five I have for you today.

Say hello to Margaret George, Eileen Cook, Nephele Tempest, Michael Slade and Ken Sherman.

Margaret George is the author of six biographical novels, set in the ancient world and Tudor England.  They are: The Autobiography of Henry VIII (1986), Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles (1992), The Memoirs of Cleopatra (1997),  Mary Called Magdalene (2002),  Helen of Troy (2006), and Elizabeth I (2011).  All of these have been New York Times bestsellers, and the Henry VIII novel spent several weeks on the London Times bestseller list as well.  They have been published in twenty-one foreign countries. On a completely different note, she wrote (with a co-author) an illustrated children’s book about their pet tortoises, Lucille Lost (2006). She has been a ‘talking head’ on  A & E Biographies and specials about her characters, and a consultant for CNN’s special “The Two Marys” in 2004. ABC-TV made a $30 million miniseries based on The Memoirs of Cleopatra in 1999.

Although the epic novels are classified as ‘biographical’, she thinks of them as ‘psycho-biographies’ because she tries to expose the way the title characters think and what makes them tick.  Visit the author on www.margaretgeorge.com.

Margaret grew up in abroad (Taiwan, Israel, Germany) until she was thirteen; her father was in the U.S.

It seems like a good day to introduce another presenter, don't you think? Today's presenter is brand new to SiWC, and we're looking forward to having him here.

Meet Ken Sherman.

Ken Sherman is the President of Ken Sherman and Associates, a Beverly Hills-based literary agency. 

An agent for more than twenty years, Ken represents screen, television and book writers, and also sells film and television rights to books plus life rights.  A few of Ken's clients include John Updike, David Guterson, author of Snow Falling on Cedars, Tawni O'Dell, whose first novel, Back Roads, became an international best seller and Oprah Book Club selection, Starhawk, considered the best-known witch in the world, Anne Perry, the world's best-known Victorian murder mystery writer and author of 50 books, and the estates of Luis Buñuel and John Hersey.

A popular and accomplished speaker, Ken has lectured extensively at venues including UCLA, USC, Loyola University in both New Orleans and Los Angeles, The Santa Barbara Writer's Conference, Maui Writer's Conference, University of Oklahoma, Sherwood Oaks Experimental College, Santa Fe Writer's Conference and the Novelists, Inc. Conference/San Diego, The Aspen Institute, and The Aspen Summer Words Writer's Conference.

Since graduating from the University of California-Berkeley as a psychology major, Ken has returned to the classroom numerous times having taught his course, "The Business of Writing for Screen, Television and Publishing", at both USC and UCLA for more than six years.