You could say her blood runs red and blue.
A graduate of both Penn's College of Arts and Sciences and Law School, New York Times best-selling author Lisa Scottoline is more than enthusiastic about her alma mater.
"I couldn't love this school more than I do," Scottoline said.
The Penn alumna is returning to campus this fall to teach a course at the Law School, called "Justice and Fiction," about her two passions.
Scottoline said the course will examine "the ways fiction impacts justice and the ways justice impacts fiction."
But long before she could take on this challenge, Scottoline had to pay her dues.
After quickly completing her undergraduate degree in English in 1977, Scottoline entered the Law School.
"I didn't have enough money to stay for four years, [so] Penn enabled me to take extra courses and gave me the freedom to graduate a year early. ... It was just a wonderful place to be ? Penn offers everything," said Scottoline, who first made her living as a trial attorney.
"I loved being a lawyer," Scottoline said.
"It's terrifically dramatic and fun. That's why it makes good fiction," she added.
However, after the birth of her daughter in 1986, the recently divorced attorney left her job at a Philadelphia law firm to be a stay-at-home mother.
In order to pay her bills, Scottoline turned to writing novels based on, and centered around, her first profession.
"Maybe this [was] the time to try to be a writer, because no women were writing legal thrillers," Scottoline said.
Within three years, Scottoline published her first novel, Everywhere That Mary Went, for which she drew on her experiences as a lawyer and Philadelphia native. She repeated this pattern in her 12 subsequent novels.
All of Scottoline's books also contain characters inspired by her experiences at Penn. One such character is Bennie Rosato, an attorney who appears in most of Scottoline's books, including Final Appeal and Running From the Law.
Rosato is a rower who developed a love for the sport while at Penn as an undergraduate. The character closely mirrors Scottoline, who helped found the University's women's crew team.
Scottoline said that when writing, she never creates outlines before she begins. Rather, she develops an idea and then runs with it.
Of her latest thriller, Devil's Corner ? which will be released May 31 ? Scottoline said, "I woke up and I had the first sentence."
However, Scottoline also acknowledges the difficult and often tedious process of finishing and editing a novel.
"You can always make [your writing] better, and as soon as you know that, it's a blessing and a curse," she said.
Although Devil's Corner, like Scottoline's other novels, takes place in Philadelphia and involves the law, Scottoline said that this thriller is more action-packed than her previous works.
"I really wanted to write a book that was grittier and more-action oriented [than past novels]," Scottoline said.
Despite this departure, a common thread unites all of her books.
"The voice [of the character] is the same, of a woman who's strong and fun and clever and gutsy and who kind of likes breaking the rules," Scottoline said.
"But that will always be because that's my voice ? on a good hair day, that's me," she added.
Scottoline ? who now lives in Malvern and has spoken at the Kelly Writers House in the past ? is scheduled to speak at the Penn Writer's Conference in October.
