Born in New York City to a painter and a well-known fashion artist, Stephanie began scribbling stories as soon as she could write and later, on adolescent sleepover weekends with her friends, shared them. By age twenty she had twice won the national Seventeen award for short stories.
But she diverted into music and as a high soprano, sang over thirty roles in small opera companies and traditional songs with guitar. She formed a classical singing ensemble called The Lyric Quartet which sang everywhere from prisons to concert halls, produced a Renaissance Faire in Central Park, and a music/dance series in Bryant Park in the center of the city. She also formed a chamber opera company called Strawberry where she sang the part of a young Roman soldier in a Mozart opera. Both the experience of translating the libretto into English and the words of the leading tenor who told her, “You’re a very good singer but you are really a writer,” sent her back to creating stories.
Stephanie’s first three published novels were drawn from her love of Shakespeare and his period: The Players: a novel of the young Shakespeare, The Physician of London and Nicholas Cooke: actor, soldier, physician, priest) – all published by W.W. Norton. Her fourth novel Marrying Mozart (Viking Penguin)was conceived in New York’s Café Mozart while drinking Viennese coffee and scribbling down ideas for the book on a napkin. Claude & Camille: a novel of Monet (Crown/Random House), drew on her childhood visits to museums and her parents’ constant talk of the great French artists. Her books have been translated into German, French, Italian and several other languages. She won an American Book Award for The Physician of London.
Among the many amazing experiences as a published writer was seeing her Mozart novel in German translation in the window of the same Salzburg bookshop where Mozart’s father bought his books.
The story of Stephanie’s new novel, The Boy in the Rain, began to haunt her many years ago and she worked on it between other books. During the frightening time of the pandemic in New York in the autumn of 2020 when she did not leave her apartment except for walks, Stephanie decided that if she could finish one more book, this one would be it. She took shelter in her little book cubby and created a final draft.
Stephanie has lived in that same apartment in an old building in a historic area of the city for forty-seven years. She has two very grown sons. If she didn’t live in New York City, she would live in London. And no matter how many books from her shelves she gives away, they are always full.
Regal House Publishing is proud to be publishing The Boy in the Rain in the summer of 2023.
