Some writers keep up a brisker publishing schedule than others, and M.J. Rose's schedule is pretty darn brisk! We talk in this #WomensHistoryReads interview about her new book TIFFANY BLUES, which arrives this summer, but her previous release, THE LIBRARY OF LIGHT AND SHADOW, hits shelves in paperback just today. A bit about LIBRARY:

In this riveting and richly drawn novel from "one of the master storytellers of historical fiction" (New York Times bestselling author Beatriz Williams), a talented young artist flees New York for the South of France after one of her scandalous drawings reveals a dark secret—and triggers a terrible tragedy.

Sounds intriguing, doesn't it? M.J.'s books always do. Enjoy her interview below!

Greer: Tell us about a woman from the past who has inspired your writing.

M.J.: Georgia O'Keefe. Not a writer but a painter who has inspired me since I first saw her cloud paintings when I was a little girl. She followed a different drummer and even if it cost her dearly at different points but she remained true to her vision at a time when women artists had to struggle so very hard. She experimented, she persevered, she never stopped.

Greer: What’s your next book about and when will we see it?

M.J.: TIFFANY BLUES, out this summer. My tag line for it is Everything looked beautiful through the stained glass -- but her past. It's a novel of ambition, betrayal, and passion about a young painter whose traumatic past threatens to derail her career at a prestigious summer artists’ colony run by Louis Comfort Tiffany of Tiffany & Co. fame. There is a lot of fact in this novel and I loved doing the research.

Greer: Sounds wonderful! What do you find most challenging or most exciting about researching historical women?

M.J.: Trying to find the truth of the women, not how society painted them or softened them, or cast them in a unfair harsh light. I only trust first person source material but that's not always available.

And a question for you: What is the strangest or most unusual thing you believe in?

Greer: What an intriguing question! I wish I had a darkly intriguing answer. The truth is I'm almost entirely practical and pragmatic, so my beliefs probably wouldn't strike most as strange. I do have a narrow but fierce superstitious streak that comes out in two situations: walking under ladders, which I'll go to great lengths to avoid, and spilled salt, which I always pinch and throw over my left shoulder and/or on the stove. Doesn't hurt, might help, right?

Learn more about M.J. and her books at her website: M.J. Rose.