Shanna Swendson
Once upon a time ...
A little girl learned to amuse herself by making up stories in her head. She turned everyday activities into exciting adventures, and she made up new adventures for characters from her favorite movies, TV shows and books. Then one day she realized that if she wrote down those stories, she'd have a book! But that was crazy, she thought. Real people don't become novelists. That was like deciding you were going to be a movie star. You couldn't just go and do it.
But, it turns out, you can, and she did. She realized her dream of becoming a novelist and seeing her stories in bookstores.
And then she started to wig herself out by writing about herself in the third-person.
This is her story.
The Novelist's Journey
As I said above in that bit of silliness, I've always been a writer at heart. My favorite way to play was to create stories and act them out with my Fisher-Price people, my Barbie dolls or myself and a box of play clothes. If none of those things were available, I could just sit and make up stories in my head. I occasionally got into trouble for being a little too creative, such as the time when I embellished a bit on my kindergarten experiences (where's the dramatic hook in coloring, cutting out and pasting?).
When I was in seventh grade and a bit old for Fisher-Price people, Barbie dolls or the dress-up box, I started writing these stories down in spiral notebooks. Later, I found an old manual typewriter, taught myself to type, then wrote a lot of first chapters of novels on it. I still hadn't figured out how to actually be a working novelist who gets paid for writing (finishing a book instead of writing a lot of first chapters might have been a good start), so when it came time to go to college, I went to journalism school at the University of Texas. While getting my degree in broadcast news, I managed to structure a curriculum that might also help me in my real career plans. I took fencing (which I thought would be useful for writing fantasy novels), an astronomy course on the search for extraterrestrial life (in case I wanted to write science fiction), psychology, interpersonal communication, and parageography (the geography of imaginary lands).
I got serious about pursuing my novel-writing ambitions soon after I got my first job in public relations (TV reporting, it turns out, would have taken away from my writing time) when I started joining local writing organizations and reading books on how to write a novel. Then I took the big step of registering for a writing conference. With the registration fee, you could enter two manuscripts in a contest that went with the conference. I figured if I was paying that much money, I'd get the most out of it, so I wrote two entries. At the conference, I met a real, live editor, who encouraged me to submit, and one of my entries won the science fiction/fantasy category of the contest. I hurried to finish the novel the editor had asked for, then mailed a proposal.
She ended up rejecting the book, but encouraged me to keep trying. I ended up selling that novel elsewhere, then sold two more books to that publisher before I had another idea for that original editor. That book ended up selling, and then one more.
And then I hit the wall. Due to a number of circumstances, some of which weren't my fault and some of which were, I didn't sell anything else for eight years. But then I had the idea that became Enchanted, Inc., I wrote it, sold it, and here I am.
Other Life Stuff
I think I need to get a few more hobbies or something else going on in my life that isn't related to reading or writing because currently my bio in my books is shorter than the "about the typeface" section. Yes, a typeface has a more interesting life than I do.
When I'm not writing, I'm most often reading. Otherwise, I enjoy watching science fiction TV shows and then discussing them on the Internet, working crossw
“Brrrrraaaaakkkkkkkeeeee!”
“Ruling the world is overrated. It would really cut into your leisure time.”
“Did someone actually have to do bad things to be a bad boy, or was it all about the potential? If it was the potential that counted, then maybe it was the restraint that was so sexy, knowing that he could do something dangerous and powerful but had the restraint not to.”
“Onze boosaardige aartsvijand had de concentratieboog van een peuter die hyper was van de suiker.”
“Maar als je genoeg kikkers kust, kom je vanzelf wel een prins tegen.”
“Ik begreep plotseling waarom de schaars geklede filmheldinnen altijd in katzwijm vielen in hun redders armen: niet omdat ze zulke slappe troela's waren, maar omdat je blijkbaar slappe knieën krijgt als een man iets heel bijzonders doet om jou te redden, en dat was, merkte ik nu, een plezierig gevoel.”
“Gregor werd nog roder. En toen werd hij groen. Ik knipperde een paar keer met mijn ogen, maar hij was nog steeds groen, met rode ogen. Net de Hulk: hij werd steeds groener en griezeliger en er sprongen twee hoorntjes uit de zijkant van zijn hoofd. Ik had wel eens gehoord van monsterachtige bazen, ik had er zelf een gehad, maar dit was echt belachelijk.”
“Ja, het is best een leuk bedrijf, al zitten er hier en daar een paar lijken in de kast." Ik kreeg het angstige voorgevoel dat ze dit letterlijk bedoelde. "En welk bedrijf heeft er nu niet een paar monsters in dienst?" Dat bedoelde ze waarschijnlijk ook letterlijk, maar ik had voor Mimi gewerkt, dus ik was wel wat gewend.”
“Ik stak één straat eerder door naar 4th Avenue, omdat ik niet langs de kerk wilde lopen; er zat soms een stenen waterspuwer op die me de stuipen op het lijf joeg. Het was niet die waterspuwer zelf die ik eng vond, maar het was dat "soms" waar ik de zenuwen van kreeg. Waterspuwers zijn beeldhouwwerkjes, ze horen deel uit te maken van een gebouw. Als er een zit, hoort die daar altijd te zitten en niet af en toe.”
“But when I clicked over to my e-mail program, it was just another “great opportunity” spam, this time adding the words “don’t delete!” to the subject line. With a sense of perverse satisfaction, I deleted it. It was probably the only act of rebellion I’d get away with all day.”