At the age of 5 or 6, Leah Stewart wrote her first story, featuring a princess captured by a giant claw.

Today, the 37-year-old Cincinnati author of three novels still writes about women in distress, but with much more realistic plots.

In 2000, Stewart published her first book, a thriller titled Body of a Girl that is told through the eyes of a crime reporter covering the murder of a young woman in Memphis. In her second, The Myth of You and Me, Stewart explores the complex relationships that exist between female friends, and what happens when those friendships come to a bitter end. Her most recent novel, Husband and Wife, published last year, concerns a woman navigating her emotions after discovering her husband’s infidelity. To read more, click here to subscribe. >>