Originally from Moscow, Olesya Salnikova Gilmore is a historical and fantasy fiction writer and lawyer. She graduated from Pepperdine University with a B.A. in English and political science, and Northwestern Pritzker School of Law with a J.D. After law school, she practiced litigation at a large law firm in Chicago for several years. Aside from the Independent, she has written for Modern Luxury Magazine and Northwestern’s Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. But her real love has always been fiction, her writing inspired by Eastern European folklore and history. She lives in Chicago with her husband, writing stories, traveling the world, and visiting family in Russia, and reading as many novels about history’s leading ladies as possible.