Shannon Delany has written stories since she was a child. She began writing in earnest when her grandmother fell unexpectedly ill during a family vacation. In 2008 her greatly abbreviated version of 13 to Life (written in just five weeks) won the grand prize in the first-ever cell phone novel contest in the western world through Textnovel.com.
Shannon was thrilled when St. Martin’s Press offered her a contract for a series about her 13 to Life characters. She expanded on the cell phone novel version, adding the subplots and characters she didn’t have time to during the contest. As paranormal as werewolves seem, the grief Shannon used to build Jess’s character is something she personally experienced with the loss of her own mother. Focusing on Jess and Pietr’s story of loss, love, and dramatic and dangerous changes, Shannon came to better grips with her own struggle. The resulting novel earned her blurbs from authors she respects most.
Shannon's newest series, Weather Witch (again through St. Martin's Press), will begin to release June 25, 2013.
Previously a teacher and now a farmer raising heritage livestock, Shannon lives and writes in Upstate New York and enjoys traveling to talk to people about most anything. She is a member of RWA and SCBWI and has spoken at numerous book stores and hosted many workshops as well as speaking at the RT Booklovers Convention 2010, TBF Live in Rochester 2011, the NAIBA Trunke Show 2011, the Empire State Book Festival 2011, NoobieCon 2011, RWA 2011, Unmask the Writer Within 2011, YA Fest 2012, PAYA 2012, Bangor Book Festival 2012, the 2012 YALSA Symposium, MOSCBWI Fall 2012, and other events.
13 Questions for YA Authors
1) Coke, Pepsi, Coffee, or Tea?
Shannon) Fancy coffee (gimme the works!) or cherry coke.
2)Do you prefer print books or an ereader? If ereader, what type?
Shannon) Print--they smell better and I can flip through pages and ruffle them against my fingers when I'm thinking aout the book. I'm very sensory-oriented so ereaders don't engage me as much.
3) PC or MAC?
Shannon) MAC (ironically as I'm typing this on a PC...I'm so conflicted! ;) ).
4) Plotter or Pantser (in other words do you plan things out before you write or figure things out as you go along).
Shannon) Ugh. This is such a tough one! I'm a mix now. I used to be a pantser (and mainly still am) but now I spend a little more time on my plot's stages. I plan more of it before writing than I used to.
5) What comes first- the character or the plot?
Shannon) The character--the character always comes first...Because I'm so visual they often show up in a daydream-like vision for me and I chase down their story by following them and asking them questions. Yes, yes I do sore of interview my characters. In my head. Yeah, crazy, right? They show me what they want (or sometimes what they can) and I fill in the blanks and try to figure out their truth. Some of them are very troublesome and don't reveal much-- some start out shy or evasive. Pietr was especially difficult. and that's why, no matter how many fans asked me to, I never wrote from his point of view).
6) How much world building do you do?
Shannon) It depends on the book. With the 13 TO LIFE series there wasn't much world building to do because it was meant to be a typical small town America contemporary setting. I wanted readers to feel that they could turn a corner in their own small town and bump into Jessie or Pietr or Max. I like to think of the 13 TO LIFE series as our world with a paranormal veneer. The WEATHER WITCH series is much different because it's a somewhat historical setting with dark underpinnings and paranormal situations. I call it "stormpunk" instead of "steampunk." Because of the history involved (which I selectively use and mess with as fiction authors should feel free to do) there was more research, more planning and more backstory.
7) How do you come up with the names of your characters?
Shannon) Pietr was easy. He was a werewolf, hence, "Peter and the wolf." Because I wanted him to be of Eastern European extraction (and I like the "growl without the vowel" at the end of his name) I tweaked the spelling to give a foreign feel. Max also had something behind his name (as did their sister). Max's full name is spelled very specifically and reflects a hapless historical monarch who dies at the hands of his own people (Max's story was originally going to end much differently--and then he sort of spoke up). And, if you know your Russian history, Catherine the Great was quite the leader! So she was the inspiration for their sister's name. Jess was because of some girls named Jessica I've known, and Amy was very much because of what they say in the books about it being like the French word for "friend." Most times my character names don't reflect people I've known and frequently I use BehindTheName.com to find names I think might suit a character (while hiding meaning in their background). As the 13 TO LIFE characters mention, "What's in a name?" Thank you, Shakespeare.
8)Do you listen to music while you write? If so, what and who?
Shannon) Not so much anymore... I usually have a playlist I listen to before doing my writing (especially if there's a mood or pace I need to drop into quickly) but then it needs to be the sound of the voices in my head telling the story, I guess. That's the thing about most authors, I think. It's only recently we've started talking about our process--go back a hundred or more years and if we said some of this stuff people would have freaked out and tossed us into asylums. It can sound pretty weird if you aren't a writer or other type of artist.
9) What's your favorite place to write? Do you need complete silence or can you work anywhere?
Shannon) In the early stages of the story ideas sort of ambush me and I write anywhere and everywhere. It's when I'm refining the situations and words and making it into a presentable form that I need quiet.
10) Who are your favorite authors?
Shannon) Mercedes Lackey, Orson Scott Card, Neil Gaiman, Anne McCaffrey, Jim Butcher, Eloisa James. Remember that when I was growing up they didn't really have YA so I tend to read adult stuff more often than YA. But for cool YA, check out Ann Aguirre's ENCLAVE. I loved that. And Molly Cochran's LEGACY.
11) Who was the biggest influence on your writing?
Shannon) My parents and my 4th grade teacher. They encouraged me to be creative and explore my talents. My father was diverse in his own forms of artistic expression, so I blame--erm--THANK him. It explains why my attention span is so--SQUIRREL! Ahem, sorry. Short. My attention span is short.
12) Why do you prefer to write for teens?
Shannon) Because I never really grew up? That's a good question. I think part of me got stunted during my teenage years. I was bullied pretty viciously. I was smart, I was overweight, and I was shy so I was a perfect victim for the kids who had issues at home. They messed with me enough that part of me has remained a teenager: I'm curious, I'm full of energy, I know my potential is still unreached; new people, places, relationships and situations fascinate me and I occasionally laugh when I probably shouldn't. So I think I understand the teenage experience and I really just love teenagers--they have so much potential and so much passion! They're raw power! Really, I respect teens and believe we undervalue them in our society so I like to write them into seemingly impossible adventures where they can discover something powerful about themselves and evolve to claim that power and overcome the story's Big Bad.
13) If you could go anywhere, and money was no object, where would you go?
Shannon) I would take a lengthy tour of Europe and (since money is no object) I'd stop in the orphanages there that I've read about to help them remodel their rooms so they are friendlier for the children living there. And I'd hold and rock (not sing to--no one deserves that torture!) every baby they have. I'm a sap like that.
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