Maggie Shayne
Biography of Maggie Shayne :
Maggie Shayne (Margaret Benson) is an American author of more than 50 romance and paranormal novels. She has won numerous awards, including the very prestigious Romance Writers of America RITA Award. In addition to her work as a novelist, Shayne is active in the Wiccan religion, and is the High Priestess of a coven she founded.
Early years
Maggie Shayne was born and raised in a rural area near Syracuse, New York. She left high school to be married when she found herself pregnant at 16. Even as a child, Shayne loved to narrate stories and redo the endings of some novels she had read, or of the horror movies she watched. Her first attempt at a novel did not come until she was older. Within a few days, she had transferred her story to paper, writing longhand. Realising that if she ever planned to be a published writer she would need a typewriter, Shayne took a job watching a neighbor\'s horses so that she could earn the money to buy her typewriter. She soon finished the manuscript, which she was unable to sell.
Although the editor rejected her first book, Shayne\'s enthusiasm impressed her enough that she asked to see more novels, and purchased the second. That novel became the first of Shayne\'s Wings in the Night series, which was so popular that Silhouette asked Shayne to continue writing the series even after the Shadows line was closed.
Career Success
Shayne has penned over 30 published novels, including category romance, contemporary western romance, romantic suspense, paranormal romance, and time travel romance. She has written for the Silhouette Intimate Moments line and Silhouette Romantic Suspense and for five single-title publishing companies. Her paranormal romances are praised as they seamlessly "combine the hearts of two such diverse genres as romance and horror". Many of her novels blend “mysticism into everyday life in a good vs. evil scenario."
Shayne has also worked as a writer for the soap operas Guiding Light and As the World Turns, and even considered accepting the position of co-head-writer before deciding to devote her time to her novels. Her own novel, Eternity, has also been optioned for film.
Her novels have appeared on the USA Today, Booksense and Waldenbooks bestseller lists, and Twilight Hunger reached Number 32 on the New York Times Bestseller Extended List. Many of her books have been chosen by Doubleday Bookclub, the Mystery Guild, and Rhapsody Bookclub. On her thirteenth nomination for a Romance Writers of America RITA Award, Shayne finally won the prestigious award, which is the romance community\'s equivalent of an Academy Award. She has also won three Career Achievement Awards from Romantic Times Bookclub Magazine.
Personal life
Shayne has five grown daughters. She resides in a small town in upstate New York.