She teaches a class on the Italian Renaissance wherein students enact the 1492 papal conclave, complete with secret meetings, betrayals, and a final vote conducted in full costume.

[8] In an interview, Palmer discussed her experience with the class, suggesting that students have a lot of favorable biases about this period despite its darker underside.

Palmer holds that the Lucretius poem De rerum natura, rediscovered in the Renaissance, could be the first document offering a profane worldview; that is, the possibility to describe how the universe works without any divine influence.

[3] It has been described as a rational adjacent book,[11] a work influenced both by science-fiction and historical genres,[12] a fact the author has confirmed.

Palmer has announced multiple upcoming projects, including Hearthfire, the first novel in a new historical fiction series about Viking mythology; and The Wrath of Abaia, co-written with Jo Walton.