About Me
A Bit about Shannon
Shannon's debut series of YA paranormal romance novels, the 13 TO LIFE series, (13 to Life, Secrets and Shadows, Bargains and Betrayals, Destiny and Deception, and Rivals and Retribution) began by winning the first-ever cellphone novel contest in the western world at Textnovel.com. Picked up by St. Martin's Press (an imprint of Macmillan), her books were so well received by readers (and nominated for a YALSA Teen Top Ten) that her trilogy was expanded to five books and quickly led to a second series (the WEATHER WITCH series), film interest, and translations of the 13 to Life series in a half-dozen languages.
Writing under a number of names, Shannon has seen fairytale and folktale retellings of hers and nonfiction articles published in national magazines including Cricket Media’s ASK, COBBLESTONE, and FACES, her art how-tos and art published in SOMERSET STUDIO and the Guild of American Papercutters quarterly magazine FIRST CUT.
Her stories have been published in the following anthologies: her science fiction in SPIRITED: 13 Haunting Tales, her high fantasy influenced by a nursery rhyme published in TWO AND TWENTY DARK TALES, and her spin on a traditional legend published in VERY SUPERSTITIOUS: Myths, Legends, and Tales of Superstition. A different angle on a traditional ballad has been published even more recently in SLAVA UKRAINI: Tasting Freedom. Her collection of classic Victorian-era short stories of female vampires (with Shannon’s historically-based annotation) formed BEASTLY BABES, and her mixed genre writing prompt workbook, PROMPTED TO WRITE WORKBOOK: 500 Writing Prompts and Creativity-building Exercises: Book 1 (and prompt book soon to follow) also releases this year. A sample of her microfiction will be published as part of The 50-Word Stories of 2026 anthology coming November 2025.
Shannon and friend and author Judith Graves acquired Leap Books when it was faltering, and published a variety of other authors’ books for them (as a traditional small publishing house) including several anthologies that helped new authors get their first credits in the publishing industry. BEWARE THE LITTLE WHITE RABBIT and FRIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS were two of the fun ones Shannon was co-editor (and illustrator) for. For a variety of reasons, Judith and Shannon made the hard decision to close the publishing house a few years later, reverting all the rights of the Leap authors’ written work back to those authors.
Shannon's WEATHER WITCH series (a steampunk-influenced series through St. Martin's Press) began to release in 2013 and included the novels Weather Witch, Stormbringer, and Thunderstruck. Shortly before her agent’s retirement, he won her rights back to her traditionally published books, allowing Shannon to make additions and changes and republish things as she sees fit.
Shannon earned her MA in Holocaust and Genocide Studies in 2020, her thesis being Making Them Pay: The Role of Stereotype Tax and Confirmation Bias in the Holocaust-Era Resistance Efforts of Women. Her newest fiction wips often incorporate resistance actions and movements.
In 2020 Shannon began ghostwriting and book coaching for a highly respected international agency, resulting in her writing and coaching a dozen other books into being to date (none of which she's allowed to talk directly about due to NDAs...). She also edits for a popular online publisher from time to time.
Over the years Shannon’s played many roles, having been a tour guide at a popular cave, a worker on multiple factory lines, a privately owned zoo's Educational Director, a tutor, an artist, a social studies teacher, an author, a school librarian, a farmer raising heritage livestock, a publisher of other people's books, an illustrator, and a library Director. She's learned something fascinating at each job and has always been fascinated by history, myths, legends, and paranormal research.
Learn more about Shannon and her work through her newsletter, at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, on Etsy, Facebook (AuthorShannonDelany), Twitter (@shannon_delany), on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/shannon_delany/ ), GoodReads, Pinterest, her Fourthwall shop, and Wikipedia.
