 Maura
D. Shaw has been a writer all her life, squeezing in a dozen
books around the edges of her career as an editor and her
life as a wife, mother, and daughter. Now and then she chucks
the job (but not the family) to write fulltime for a while.
Many of her books are for younger readers, including the historical
novel Owl's Journey and the award-winning Ten Amazing People
and How They Changed the World.
Maura's new adult historical novel for Medallion Press, The
Keeners, brings together her enthusiasm for Irish and American
history and her belief in the healing power of love. Despite
its beginning in the tragedy of the Irish Famine of the 1840s,
the story is one of hope and survival, romance and rebellion,
as a young woman named Margaret Meehan keens for the dead
in County Clare in Ireland and celebrates life in a community
of Irish immigrants in Troy, New York.
Besides the joy of writing, Maura's favorite part of her
books is doing the research. After the story of The Keeners was outlined, Maura and her husband traveled through the West
of Ireland where her fictional characters lived. Maura felt
as if she had come home again, that's where her great-grandmother
came from, and she hopes that the real flavor of Ireland reaches
through the pages to her readers. She also warns readers that
she gained ten pounds in writing this novel, so go easy on
the potatoes.
Web Site: www.mauradshaw.com.
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