Singing almost before she could talk, Gifford MacShane has always loved folk music, whether it be Irish, Appalachian, or the songs of the cowboys. Her love of the Old West goes back to childhood, when her father introduced her to the works of Zane Grey. Later she became interested in the Irish diaspora, realizing her ancestors must have lived through An Gorta Mor, the Great Irish Potato Famine of the mid-1800s. Writing allows her to combine her three great interests into a series of family stories, each with a central romance, traditional song lyrics, and a dash of Celtic mysticism.Her novels feature a family of Irish immigrants who settle in the Arizona Territory. With an accessible literary style, MacShane draws out her characters’ hidden flaws and strengths as they grapple with both physical and emotional conflicts. Her debut novel, WHISPERS IN THE CANYON (Book 1 of The Donovan Family Saga), was published in 2019, followed by a pre-quel novella THE WINDS OF MORNING in 2020, and THE WOODSMAN’S ROSE in 2021.MacShane is a member of the Historical Novel Society and is an #OwnVoices writer. A self-professed grammar nerd who still loves diagramming sentences, Giff currently lives in Pennsylvania with her husband Richard, the Pied Piper of stray cats.