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Biography
Shannon Condon (1969-) was born in upstate New York and raised in South Florida. She graduated from the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida. While she was married she moved frequently to several states. When she got to North Carolina, she fell in love with the state. Soon she divorced her husband and moved to Greensboro, North Carolina. She and her sons were soon joined by the rest of her family who migrated up from South Florida. Shannon comes from a close knit family and with the help of her parents, she is able to work and raise her three sons. Her dream has always been to write books. In 2015 she got that chance and the result is her debut novel, Finding Magdalena. It will pull at your heartstrings from the first few pages and hold you captive until the shattering climax.
Disclaimer: These questions are courtesy of BookBear.
Q & A
5. Do you have any advice for other writers?
My advice to other writers is not to get discouraged. I received lots of rejection letters before I decided to self publish. I am still sending query letters to publishers. Just because what you write doesn’t strike a chord with one agent doesn’t mean another won’t love it. The most important thing is to believe in yourself and make sure you EDIT your manuscript before you send any part of it to an agent.
6. How long does it take you to write a book?
It’s hard to put a timeline on how long it takes me to write a book. I can spend a couple of months developing a book and the characters before I actually put a single word on my computer. Once I begin writing, however, I would say it takes about six to eight months. I am constantly rewriting in my head even as I am writing on my computer and this leads to deleted chapters and backtracking. It’s important to me that when I am done, the characters are strong and the story fluid.
I think the books that have had the greatest influence on me are the ones that I don’t want to end. They draw me in so much that I am immersed in another world. Some examples would be my all time favorite, ‘Lord of the Flies’ by William Golding and the Hunger Games series.
Right now I am working on the sequel to Finding Magdalena. I am very excited about it because I feel that Maggie is growing as a woman and in strength. There will be a lot of surprises and I hope everyone who has been asking for a sequel will be asking for more!