Increase flexiblity of recommendByAuthor plugin positioning

Describe the problem you would like to solve
Our editors would like to highlight other articles by the same author, but as a block rather than in the article footer. The Recommend Articles By Author plugin hard-codes the the positioning and number of articles.

Describe the solution you’d like
Add a settings form to the plugin which inputs interesting configuration items, like the where the output should be rendered and how many articles to display.

Who is asking for this feature?
Journal Editors

Additional information
Some interesting insertion points might be: