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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