MADELEINE L'ENGLE, the great author and spiritual leader who went to heaven a few years ago, was my mentor. I could always call her when I needed writing or personal help. She indirectly introduced me to my husband and when I married him, she gave me away. She read all my books and loved me and cheered me on. A book about her by the writers she mentored called REMEMBERING MADELEINE L'ENGLE: A CIRCLE OF FRIENDS has now been published by Lulu.com and may be ordered through the Amazon link below. I miss her all the time.

Two other mentors, also always there for me, were the beloved author ISABELLE HOLLAND and the great Elizabethan historian A.L. ROWSE whose research inspired much of my Elizabethan novels.

ORDER FROM AMAZON: A Circle of Friends
A book of memories about Madeleine L'Engle by her friends and students
Madeleine L'Engle by Lucy Shaw

Biography

I was born in New York City to a family of artists and fell in love with Mozart, Shakespeare and historical fiction at an early age. I began printing stories in a black and white school notebook at about nine years old and in my teens wrote several short novels which remain in a dark box. I learned something though, because by twenty, I had twice won prizes in a national story contest.

Then I left writing for classical singing. I sang in many operas and appeared as an international balladeer; I formed a singing ensemble, a chamber opera company, and so on. The translation of a late Mozart opera returned me to writing once more and I now mostly sing while washing the dishes!

My first published novel was NICHOLAS COOKE: ACTOR, SOLDIER, PHYSICIAN, PRIEST, followed by two other Elizabethan-17th century novels: THE PHYSICIAN OF LONDON (American Book Award 1996) and THE PLAYERS: A NOVEL OF THE YOUNG SHAKESPEARE. In 2004, I returned to my musical background and wrote MARRYING MOZART; it has been translated into seven languages and optioned for a movie.

I am married to poet and reiki practitioner Russell Clay and have two grown sons (one in computer systems design and one a filmmaker). I was born in New York City and am still living here, a short walk away from all the impressionist paintings at the Metropolitan Museum.


ABOUT MY WRITING LIFE:

I cannot count the number of readers and reviewers who have said I write like a cinematographer. But to tell the truth, writing a historical novel is much like making a film, except one person chooses the actors and setting, directs, designs the sets, plans camera angles and lighting/shading, sews the costumes, touches up the makeup, edits, decides whether an antique clock or a very old photograph will go on a mantelpiece and…brings all this together so that a whole rich world comes to life before the reader when she/he merely opens the book!

I get so involved in my stories that I often date checks the year of the novel. I once addressed a supermarket clerk in Elizabethan English!

Looking back on my novels so far, I have found I return often to the passions and struggles as well as the intimate daily world of artists, writers and musicians of the past: Claude Monet half a century before he painted the water lilies, the unmarried Mozart choosing between four musical sisters (talk about sibling rivalry!), Shakespeare leaving his resentful family in Stratford to try make it as a playwright in London 1590 where he had never been in his life, and my latest intense love story about a much-loved writer from the nineteenth century...but more to come on that! Check back! See you again soon!

MY FIVE HISTORICAL NOVELS ABOUT ARTISTS, WRITERS, MUSICIANS, ACTORS, 17th CENTURY PHYSICIANS, AND SPIRITUAL SEEKERS

the love story of the young, unknown Claude Monet and his muse Camille Doncieux
Four lovely, musical sisters and one suitor -- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The first two novels of a trilogy about a brilliant Elizabethan man who was an actor, physician and priest
the passionate love story between Shakespeare, his patron and Emilia Bassano -- based on the sonnets

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