About the Author: Sherry Jones

Sherry Jones is an American journalist and internationally best selling author of the controversial "The Jewel of Medina" and other historical fiction novels about women's power. She is also a speaker on issues including women's rights, free speech, and Islamophobia.

Her latest novel, THE SHARP HOOK OF LOVE, tells of the forbidden love affair between two of the Middle Ages' greatest intellectuals: Peter Abelard, headmaster of the Notre-Dame Cloister School and a poet whose good looks and love songs make women swoon; and Heloise d'Argenteuil, a beautiful woman scholar being groomed by her uncle to become an abbess. This erotic, passionate story about the sacrifices we make for love debuts Nov. 25 from Simon and Schuster's Gallery Books.

Jones's other books are:

"White Heart," an e-novella about Blanche de Castille, the legendary White Queen of France, who braved sieges, scandal and heartache to protect the Crown from usurpers for her young son, King Louis IX (Saint Louis). The novella is a prequel to:

"Four Sisters, All Queens," about four sisters in 13th century Provence -- Margeurite, Eléonore, Sanchia, and Beatrice of Provence, who became queens of France, England, Germany, and Italy.

Jones became the center of a national controversy in the summer of 2008 after Random House cancelled publication of her historical novel, The Jewel of Medina about Aisha, a wife of the Prophet Muhammad.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Random House had paid Jones a $100,000 advance for the novel when University of Texas Professor Denise Spellberg say a copy of the galleys and decided to "warn Muslims" of the pending publication of a novel that, in Spellberg's opinion, "made fun of Muslims and their history." Random House immediately cancelled publication.

Beaufort Books published the book in the U.S. in October 2008. Publishers in Germany, Italy, Denmark, Spain, Poland, Serbia, Brazil, Portugal, Hungary, Macedonia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Greece, the Czech Republic, Sweden, and Albania have followed. It has been a best-seller in Serbia, Croatia, Albania, Kosovo, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Spain.

A sequel, "The Sword of Medina," continues the story of A'isha's life after Muhammad's death and the rivalry with his cousin, Ali, which led to the first Islamic civil war and the Sunni-Shia split. It has been published in a number of countries, as well, and was also a best-seller in Serbia. "The Sword of Medina" was awarded a silver medal in the IPPYs, the Independent Publisher Association's book of the year awards.

The controversy over her books has sent Jones on the lecture circuit, speaking in the U.S. and Europe on topics including free speech and censorship, women's rights in Islam, and racism. She has written on these topics for Index on Censorship, New Humanist, AOL News, the Washington Post, and the Huffington Post.

Jones has also published a satirical short story, "Rapture," on Kindle at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0051UT1XG.