Long before she became a national bestselling author, Meg Shaffer was a 1st-grader at Newton Parrish Elementary School, eagerly behaving her best for a coveted prize: a free book from her teacher’s prize box.
“I remember always wanting to be good enough, or do whatever I had to do, to get that free book,” Shaffer said. “Even though my parents bought me books, I still wanted more.”
That hunger for stories sparked a lifelong passion for writing. Today, Shaffer — who also writes under her real name, Tiffany Reisz — has authored more than 35 books and achieved major success under her pen name. Her debut novel as Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game, became a USA Today bestseller and a finalist for the Goodreads Choice Award and Book of the Month’s Book of the Year. Her second novel, The Lost Story, is also a national bestseller. A third, The Book Witch, is set to release in 2026.
“I’m one of the few people doing at 47 what I wanted to do at 8,” she said. “That’s pretty great.”
Shaffer, who now lives in Louisville, credits much of her creative foundation to growing up in Owensboro.
“I had wonderful English teachers at Owensboro High School who encouraged me,” she said. “There was just such a love of reading and writing built into the school system. We even read adult short stories in middle school, though we had a running joke that someone always died in those.”
Shaffer’s journey wasn’t without detours. After majoring in English at Centre College in Danville, she took a break from serious writing, discouraged by the intimidating quality of the literature she studied.
“When you’re an English major, you’re reading the best writers in the world, but you’re reading their final drafts, not the junk they wrote when they were 18,” she said. “I didn’t understand that then.”
In her late 20s, Shaffer began writing again just for fun, sharing her work in online forums.
“Once I stopped trying to be Eudora Welty or William Faulkner and started finding my own voice, that’s when things changed,” she said.
Shaffer eventually sold her first novel — under Tiffany Reisz — and used the earnings to pay off her student loans. She went on to publish dozens of romance novels, many with Harlequin, now part of HarperCollins.
During the pandemic, she revisited an idea that had been previously rejected: a whimsical, adult fairy tale inspired by childhood classics.
“I wrote it during lockdown — this very fun, cozy, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory for grown ups story,” she said. “We published it under the name Meg Shaffer, and it became the biggest book I’ve ever written.”
Shaffer’s books under her pen name share common themes: the power of reading, a touch of magic, and reflections on mortality — something she says began surfacing more prominently in her work after living through the pandemic.
“All three of the Meg Shaffer books are about the power of books and about time running out,” she said. “If not now, then when?”
Though she’s no longer writing series, Shaffer is enjoying the freedom of creating new worlds with each book.
She also holds deep gratitude for her hometown.
“Owensboro really cares,” she said. “I had the perfect childhood to become a writer. It was safe, it was boring — in a good way. If I was going to have wild adventures, they were going to be on paper.”
With access to a strong school system and a supportive local library, Shaffer said those early adventures were not only possible but encouraged.
“Because we had a great library and a great school system, I was able to start having those adventures early,” she said.
Shaffer’s next standalone novel will release next year, continuing her mission of honoring the stories that shaped her — and inspiring new readers to chase their own literary dreams.
