It was just about 13 years ago that I finished writing my first book. It was a fiction novel for young adults titled “JAILBAIT”. Emily and Jason were the characters that plagued my evenings for nearly 9 months as I traveled across the southern half of the United States working for Intercontinental Branded Apparel. I was in the men’s tailored suit division as a customer service rep and the product I pushed most was Perry Ellis and Nino Cerruti. I was 23 years old, married and alone in a hotel room for 3 to 4 nights of the week which lent for the perfect time to test out if I had what it took to write a novel from beginning to end. I’ll never forget Emily and Jason. She was 15 and he was 18. They were in love and one night in a flurry of hormonal weakness they took it further than they should have and got caught…by Emily’s dad.
*Dum* Dum* Dum (or should I write, Dumb Dumb Dumb) 😉
Yes, the book was about two young people in puppy love and this kid who had everything going for him is now facing charges of statutory rape. Like I said, I wrote this when I was 23 and I was trying to write young adult books with a lesson, hiding all of my personal knowledge behind fiction. I never did try to get this to go anywhere but it was the catalyst that sent me to get my Masters in Creative Writing.
Two years later I wrote the fiction young adult novel titled, “Corner of My Mind”. This was ‘my story’ focusing solely on the rapes and ending with the trial in college. It was fiction…but not. It caught the eye of Random House Publishers. I met up with them at a conference and they also asked to see Jailbait. And I’ll be… nothing came of either book. With Corner of My Mind they felt it was ‘too much’…or something to that effect. Regardless, I never heard from them again. By this time I was desperate to be published. The desire was like poison to my blood and it was killing me inside. I just knew I was meant to write (here is the kicker) in order to help others. I knew (even before my surrender to God) that I was meant to get out there and help others so they wouldn’t be what I had become. Yet wouldn’t get rid of who I had become. Ah…
Two more books, “Crossroad Collision” which was my thesis for my MFA and “Refining Rachel” which was a try at a fiction novel dealing with the abortion issue, and with my final surrender to God I learned how to get rid of the ‘bad stuff’ of who I had become and learned to ask God to take it away from me till it was in HIS time.
Nine years later from that point God has granted me one of the greatest desires of my heart, which you all know because I won’t shut up about it! But today was another cool day too…to see it IN BARNES & NOBLE. It might not be a big deal to you but it’s HUGE to me. And having it in the store may go nowhere. They might only sell those few. But I put no expectations on anything anymore … I allow God to show me what HE can do and what HE WANTS to do because I’ve learned in these past 9 years that by waiting to see what He has in mind is so much greater than any thing my earthy mind can dream up.
Blessings
Shannon