Hi, everyone! I'm excited to be the newest member of The Writer's Voice. I'm Shana Norris and I'm the author of four young adult novels.
I've always loved books. When I was three, I would make my parents read my favorite books to me so many times that I had them memorized and would then "read" them aloud to myself. Each month as a kid, I would beg my mom to buy me the newest Baby-Sitters Club or Sweet Valley Twins book, and some of my favorite memories are of my mom taking my brothers and sister and me to the local library on Saturdays to check out a huge stack of books--which I would then quickly devour. :)
It wasn't until I was in middle school that I found out that people were actually paid to write these books. Ordinary people, not glamorous mythological creatures like I had always imagined authors to be. And writing books was their job! I decided that was what I wanted to do one day, so I wrote all the time. I filled tons of notebooks and any little scrap of paper I could find with stories.
Most of my early stories were Baby-Sitters Club and Sweet Valley rip-offs, so those will never be published since I don't want to be sued! But I've moved on since then into writing about my own characters and ideas. I didn't originally intend to be a YA author. Eleven years ago, when I first started trying to get published, I was sure I'd be an adult fantasy author. I loved reading fantasy books by Sara Douglass and Elizabeth Haydon, so I wrote books like those and sent them out to agents and publishers. I never got any interest in them. Then I started writing women's literature because that was another thing I loved reading. Still no luck.
In early 2005, I was about ready to give up ever trying to get published. I decided to write something just for me, just for fun. I wrote the first draft in three weeks and loved the book so much, I revised it then started sending it out to agents to see what would happen. A year later, I had an agent and a few months after that I had a book contract from Amulet Books for Something to Blog About, the book that turned me into a YA author. My second book Troy High was also released by Amulet Books, and I now have two self-published ebooks as well, The Boyfriend Thief and Surfacing.
I live in eastern North Carolina with my husband and our houseful of pets--we have two dogs (Chloe and Zoey) and five cats (Bandit, Elmo, Kit, BC, and Butter). We're planning to add some chickens to our brood next spring and the Husband is trying to talk me into a goat too. We'll see!
I've always loved books. When I was three, I would make my parents read my favorite books to me so many times that I had them memorized and would then "read" them aloud to myself. Each month as a kid, I would beg my mom to buy me the newest Baby-Sitters Club or Sweet Valley Twins book, and some of my favorite memories are of my mom taking my brothers and sister and me to the local library on Saturdays to check out a huge stack of books--which I would then quickly devour. :)
It wasn't until I was in middle school that I found out that people were actually paid to write these books. Ordinary people, not glamorous mythological creatures like I had always imagined authors to be. And writing books was their job! I decided that was what I wanted to do one day, so I wrote all the time. I filled tons of notebooks and any little scrap of paper I could find with stories.
Most of my early stories were Baby-Sitters Club and Sweet Valley rip-offs, so those will never be published since I don't want to be sued! But I've moved on since then into writing about my own characters and ideas. I didn't originally intend to be a YA author. Eleven years ago, when I first started trying to get published, I was sure I'd be an adult fantasy author. I loved reading fantasy books by Sara Douglass and Elizabeth Haydon, so I wrote books like those and sent them out to agents and publishers. I never got any interest in them. Then I started writing women's literature because that was another thing I loved reading. Still no luck.
In early 2005, I was about ready to give up ever trying to get published. I decided to write something just for me, just for fun. I wrote the first draft in three weeks and loved the book so much, I revised it then started sending it out to agents to see what would happen. A year later, I had an agent and a few months after that I had a book contract from Amulet Books for Something to Blog About, the book that turned me into a YA author. My second book Troy High was also released by Amulet Books, and I now have two self-published ebooks as well, The Boyfriend Thief and Surfacing.
I live in eastern North Carolina with my husband and our houseful of pets--we have two dogs (Chloe and Zoey) and five cats (Bandit, Elmo, Kit, BC, and Butter). We're planning to add some chickens to our brood next spring and the Husband is trying to talk me into a goat too. We'll see!
Welcome to the team! We are all so happy to have you!!! <3
ReplyDeleteWelcome to The Writer's Voice, Shana! We're so excited to have you on board. A fellow YA author, to boot. Yay!
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