Forward Boldly: Guest Elena Maria Vidal

Elena Maria Vidal grew up in the countryside outside of Frederick, Maryland, "fair as the garden of the Lord" as the poet Whittier said. As a child she read so many books that her mother had to put restrictions on her hours of reading. During her teenage years, she spent much of her free time writing stories and short novels. Elena graduated in 1984 from Hood College in Frederick with a BA in Psychology, and in 1985 from the State University of New York at Albany with an MA in Modern European History. In 1986, she joined the Secular Order of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. Elena taught at the Frederick Visitation Academy and worked as a private tutor as well as teaching childrens etiquette classes. During a trip to Austria in 1995 she visited the tomb of Empress Maria Theresa in the Capuchin crypt in Vienna. Afterwards she decided to finish a novel about Marie-Antoinette she had started writing ten years before but had put aside. In 1997 her first historical novel TRIANON was published by St. Michaels Press. In 2000, the sequel MADAME ROYALE was published, as well as the second edition of TRIANON, by The Neumann Press. Both books found an international following which continues to this day. In November 2009, THE NIGHTS DARK SHADE: A NOVEL OF THE CATHARS was published by Mayapple Books. Elena has written for Canticle Magazine, Touchstone Magazine, The American Conservative and The National Observer. She is a member of the Catholic Writers Guild and the Eastern Shore Writers Association. She currently lives in Maryland with her family and is working on a historical novel about her Irish ancestors.

Elena Maria Vidal