Reading at the Glen Ellyn Bistro Monet in front of a Monet print with Susan of the bistro. Brunch was great!

Reading at Kris Waldherr's Art & Words Gallery in Brooklyn

In the Irish West Country -- photo by Fiona Claire

Writing historical fiction: sometime journal of a New York City novelist

Three weeks after my novel's debut

April 28, 2010

It is STILL strange to get so many comments (almost all of them perfectly wonderful) to this novel which was a story inside me for so long. I have had several strong press reviews and online reviews, topped by the rave in the Boston Globe and People magazine's choice of the book as a Mother's Day gift. I have managed to make out a few of the fine reviews of the Italian translation of the novel, just released. E-mails from friends and strangers have been a real gift.

In the midst of this, I got a chance to speak before a performance of "Twelfth Night" performed by Shakespeare's Sisters, the subject being my love of Shakespeare. I was glad to get away into another world. Novelists today have gone from being lonely souls shut away from the world for years; now we can bite ours nails over e-mails downloaded every few minutes. My son Jesse suggested I shut off my computer for a day. I may try half a day to quiet myself down a little.



Comments

  1. May 1, 2010 5:45 PM EDT
    Ma chère Stephanie: I just finished "Claude and Camille" and I couldn't wait to thank you for such a wonderfully told story about my most favorite artist and his muse!! I am a recently-retired high school French teacher, who for many years shared my love of the French Impressionists with my students. My French 4 Honors students had to do a research paper (in French) about one of the French Impressionists (although I did include Mary Cassatt since she was born only a short distance from the location of the high school where I taught), and then they all had to sit through my collection of slides of works of art by those artists. And for Monet that selection also included my slides of Giverny. (It took me three hours to copy all of those onto a flash drive this past winter!!) I have loved Claude Monet for a very long time. I have a large framed poster of his "Ladies in the Garden" in my living room - hanging there since I purchased it at the 1994-5 "Origins of Impressionism" exhibit at the Metropolitan in NYC. I remember being AMAZED that they would actually ship something that large and valuable from the Musée D'Orsay - and wondering about the cost of the insurance to do so. I believe I have seen nearly all of the paintings mentioned in your novel - at least once!! And I consider them "old friends" each time I get to see them again. If you have not been to the Institute of Art in Chicago, I highly recommend a visit there. I understand that theirs is the largest collection of Monet paintings outside of France. This might be the second time I have ever written to an author, so please believe that I loved this work of yours!!! Sincerely,
    - Janet A. Konig, aka "Mademoiselle"
  2. May 1, 2010 6:30 PM EDT
    Dear "Mademoiselle,"

    Thank you so much for your comments. We may have been at the Origins of Impressionism at the Met at the same time. I live close by there. I'll be speaking just outside Chicago in June and will be sure to go to the Art Institute! Thanks again! Stephanie
    - Stephanie Cowell

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

CLAUDE AND CAMILLE
the love story of the young, unknown Claude Monet and his muse Camille Doncieux
MARRYING MOZART
Four lovely, musical sisters and one suitor -- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
NICHOLAS COOKE and THE PHYSICIAN OF LONDON
The first two novels of a trilogy about a brilliant Elizabethan man who was an actor, physician and priest
THE PLAYERS: A NOVEL OF THE YOUNG SHAKESPEARE
the passionate love story between Shakespeare, his patron and Emilia Bassano -- based on the sonnets

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