Susan Longhi was born on 1951 and raised in upstate New York and moved to the Washington, D.C. area as a teenager. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in studio art and a Master of Arts degree in art history from the University of Maryland. She has lectured in art history and art theory, and is a Ph.D. candidate in medieval art history at the University of Maryland.

She married David King, they had three sons. Following the birth of her third son, Susan took a leave of absence from graduate school. Gaining inspiration from a multitude of research notes, she turned her attention to writing fiction set in the medieval period that so fascinated her. The result was The Black Thorne's Rose, set in 13th Century England.

Susan King is a member of Romance Writers of America and Novelists, Inc. She has been on the Board of Directors of Washington Romance Writers and is currently a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in Scotland. She has lectured widely and often on historical research and art history, as well as on different aspects of writing.

Susan King lives with her husband and their three sons in Gaithersburg, Maryland.