Shalanna's Scribbles

Shalanna: rhymes with "Madonna" and "I wanna," and is not a soundalike with "Hosanna" or "Sha-Na-Na."

I've been writing since I could hold a crayon.

I started with fiction, which Mama said was "lying." “Don’t tell stories,” she would admonish, in Southern vernacular. “That's all in your imagination!” When grownups said this, they were not approving.
So, shamed, I stopped telling stories for a few years--rather, I stopped letting anyone read them.

I'm married to a fellow computer nerd who doesn't really like hearing about writing, but who reads sf/fantasy and understands the creative drive. I'm actually a nonconformist/hippie still wearing bluejeans and drop earrings and the Alice-in-Wonderland hair with headbands and sandals. Favorite flavor is chocolate/orange, favorite color is either Dreamsicle orange (cantaloupe) or bubble-gum pink, favorite musical is either Bye Bye Birdie, Rocky Horror, or The Producers . . . wait, I also love The Music Man. Is this getting way too specific and irrelevant yet?

Obvious why I don't sell a ton of flash fiction, isn't it?

To define oneself, I always say, it is good to make a list. How about a booklist?

Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
Frank and Ernestine Gilbreth, Cheaper by the Dozen
C.S.Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (all the Narnia books)
J.R.R.Tolkien,The Hobbit/LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy
Gail Godwin, The Odd Woman
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
J. D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye (before dismissing it, actually read it)
George Orwell, 1984
Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle
Donna Tartt, The Secret History
Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
James Allen, As A Man Thinketh
Mark Winegardner, Elvis Presley Boulevard
James Thurber, My Life and Hard Times
The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum
Winnie-the-Pooh/House at Pooh Corner, A. A. Milne
Peter Pan, J. M. Barrie
The KJV and NIV Bible (each translation has its glories)

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