Blog Tour: 13 to Life by Shannon Delany

I'm today's stop for Shannon's Delany's Start Your Day with Serial Tour!

Shannon Delany has written stories since she was a child. She began writing in earnest when her grandmother fell unexpectedly ill during a family vacation. In 2008 her greatly abbreviated version of 13 to Life (written in just five weeks) won the grand prize in the first-ever cell phone novel contest in the western world through Textnovel.com.

Shannon was thrilled when St. Martin’s Press offered her a contract for a series about her 13 to Life characters. She expanded on the cell phone novel version, adding the subplots and characters she didn’t have time to during the contest. As paranormal as werewolves seem, the grief Shannon used to build Jess’s character is something she personally experienced with the loss of her own mother. Focusing on Jess and Pietr’s story of loss, love and dramatic and dangerous changes, Shannon came to better grips with her own struggle. The resulting novel has earned her blurbs from authors she respects most.

The first novel in Shannon’s YA paranormal series, 13 to Life hit shelves today!

Previously a teacher and now a farmer raising heritage livestock, Shannon lives and writes in Upstate New York and enjoys traveling to talk to people about most anything.

If you were given a chance to travel back in time, what year or place would you go / Why?
1593. The meeting of Irish pirate queen Grace O'Malley and Queen Elizabeth I. And I would take antibiotics and hand sanitizer because Grace was rumored to have the sniffles. ;-)

Describe your novel in seven words or less?
Teenage love, loss and--oh, yeah--werewolves. (Please note the order is order of importance.)

Please share with us about your favorite book and fictional crush to date?
My favorite book changes. I'll go with the one currently on my dresser. It's an old (OLD) copy of Charles Johnson's A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates. Huh. Lots of pirate stuff showing up recently. Fictional crush--I recently admitted to finding Captain Jack Sparrow (as portrayed by Depp, of course) quite intriguing.

If you could be any character in fiction, whom would you be / Why?
I really have no desire to be a fictional character because I get to be any and all of them any time I open a book. And since there are so many talented authors I feel I've already lived a thousand lives (and my own life is quite often stranger than fiction).

If Hollywood made a movie about your life, whom would you like to see play the lead role as you/ Why?
Oh! Emma Watson. She's far cuter than I ever was (and a good actress). I think anyone having a movie made deserves to have it acted by someone far cuter (and younger) than themselves. Being the subject of a film is the height of vanity, I'd imagine.

If someone wrote a biography about you, what do you think the title should be – please explain?
A Woman of Many Lives. I've already zipped through a couple pseudonyms on my path to publication and get to be a slightly different person at book events than at home on the farm--which is also different than when I was a teacher, or an Educational Director at a zoo or a freelance artist or a freelance author or a worker on a factory line. And those are only on the tip of the iceberg when it comes to lives I've led or roles I've already played.

How would you describe yourself/life in seven words?
Adventurous, curious, impetuous, domestically-impaired, mother and wife.

Bonus:

**Is there any additional info you would like to share with your readers about what’s next for you and your books?**
All I can say is that the second book in the 13 to Life series has already gone through copyedits and the third book is due in early August and I keep getting more and more good news from my publisher.


Thanks for stopping by Shannon!

For more information about Shannon Delany and her books, please visit her website here.


Shannon's hosting several contests during the Start Your Day with Serial Tour. The big contest will award one lucky winner with a royal amber pendant, pietersite jeweled bookmark, stuffed wolf, 13 to Life mousepad, pen, tote, signed poster, personalized copy of 13 to Life and both of the 13 to Life pins. All you need to do is comment at 13 of the blogs hosting Shannon during her 30 day tour. Everyone who does so will be entered into a random drawing. Winner may be international.

As part of her tour, Shannon's also giving out sneak peeks throughout the month from her book:

13 to Life: Chapter 3, part W (used with the author’s permission)

I paused on the landing between floors, certain I’d lost him. But he was suddenly at the base of the stairs. I pulled back from the banister and watched. It was odd, observing him. He swung his head from side to side, like he was searching for some invisible clue to my path.