“The spellbinding Ms. Shinn writes with elegant imagination and a steely grace, bringing a remarkable freshness that will command a wide audience.”—Romantic Times

The Shape-Changer's Wife
Aubrey is a young magician who wants to learn the dangerous skills of transmogrification, so he comes to study with the renowned wizard Glyrenden. But the mysterious Glyrenden runs a household that is even stranger than he is, filled with mute and misshapen servants. One member of the household fascinates Aubrey more than all the others: the wizard’s wife, who might not be what she seems.

Publishing history:
My first published novel! It came out as a mass market paperback in 1995. Winner of the Crawford Award for best first fantasy novel. Subsequently republished as a trade paperback, and available in several languages, including Japanese.

Little-known fact: 
This book had several incarnations. I wrote the first version in college as a poetry sequence. "The last to arrive at the Rochesters’ ball/Is the baron of Sinnisfell with his young bride..." Ten or twelve years later, I rewrote it as a novella. My agent is the one who suggested I expand it to novel length.

My favorite scene: 
The one where Aubrey first practices shape-changing before a pool in the forest.