Mairelon the Magician by Patricia C. Wrede

Our heroine, Kim, is a former street thief, who used to live on the streets of London, masquerading as a boy, and now lives in a fine house in London as the ward of Richard Merrill, a.k.a. but I got along just fine without having read the first book (titled Mairelon the Magician). Basically, this is a Regency Romance with magic. Georgette Heyer meets Diana Wynne Jones (though without quite the ridiculously wild shenanigans/characters and not as uproariously funny, yet still amusing in its own right) in a Jonathan-Strange-esque historical fantasy setting. She is a vegetarian, and currently lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota with her cat Karma. Her interests include sewing, embroidery, desultory attempts at gardening, chocolate, not mowing the lawn, High Tea, and, of course, reading. In 1985, shortly before the publication of her fifth book, she left the world of the gainfully employed to try winging it on her own. It came out at last in 1982, which is the year she met Lillian Stewart Carl (who introduced her to Lois McMaster Bujold by mail). In April of 1980, Patricia's first novel sold to Ace Books. In January, 1980, Pamela Dean, Emma Bull, Will Shetterly, Steven Brust, Nate Bucklin, and Patricia Wrede - all, at that point, hopeful but unpublished - formed the writer's group that later became known as 'The Scribblies.' Several years later, they were joined by Kara Dalkey. Patricia finished her first novel in late 1978. Dalton Booksellers, and finally at the Dayton Hudson Corporation headquarters. She worked for several years as a financial analyst and accountant, first with the Minnesota Hospital Association, then with B. from the University of Minnesota in 1977. She finished it five years later and started her second book at once, having become permanently hooked on writing by this time. She began work on her first novel, Shadow Magic, just after graduating from college in 1974. She attended Carleton College in Minnesota, where she majored in Biology and managed to avoid taking any English courses at all. Patricia Collins Wrede was born in Chicago, Illinois and is the eldest of five children.

Mairelon the Magician by Patricia C. Wrede