Meet and Greet Monday: Shannon Taylor Vannatter

Book Giveaway!
Read the details at the end of this post.

Central Arkansas author, Shannon Taylor Vannatter is a stay-at-home mom/pastor’s wife/
writer. White Roses, her debut novel is now available through heartsongpresents.com and
available in stores in November. Two more books in the series will follow: White Doves
releases to the book club in October and stores in April and White Pearls releases to the
book club in January and stores in July.


Vannatter hopes to entertain Christian women and plant seeds in the non-believer's
heart as her characters struggle with real-life issues. Their journeys, from ordinary lives
to extraordinary romance through Christ-centered relationships demonstrate that love
doesn't conquer all, Jesus does.


Vannatter’s short stories appeared in Mature Living and The Writers' Journal, in 2009.
She has taught fiction workshops for several writers' groups including: Arkansas
Inspirational Writers, Cleburne County Writers' Guild, Fiction Writers of Central
Arkansas, and White County Creative Writers. She's contracted to teach workshops in
2010 at the Life Press Christian Writers' Conference in Memphis, TN and the Ozark
Creative Writers' Conference in Eureka Springs, AR.

Dear Reader,

Hi, I’m Shannon Taylor Vannatter. I appreciate Janalyn for inviting me back to Book Readers Central. I live in rural Arkansas, am a pastor’s wife and stay-at-home mom. I’d like to tell you why I started writing inspirational romance.

I started reading romance at the age of twelve. My mom would scour the library until she found wholesome books. After I married and went to work, I didn’t have time to read for several years. About five years into our marriage, my husband started working from noon until eight or nine in the evening. My workday ended at five and my evenings were suddenly long, boring, and lonely.

To fill the empty hours, I started reading again and was amazed that there so few clean romances. In the span of about ten years, wholesome books had disappeared. If I managed to find a clean read, I’d get something else by the same author, and be disappointed to find it wasn’t clean.

My husband began working normal hours and my reading ended once again. I had my own romance going on. Fast forward about eight years and my husband started working evening hours again. Once again, I turned to the library and was once again disappointed. I thought about the story I’d carried in my head since I was fifteen and finally realized it could be a book. I promised myself that if I ever got a computer, I’d write a clean romance like I’d love to read but couldn’t find.

Three years later, my father-in-law gave me his old computer. As soon as we got it set up, I started writing that book in my head. The more I wrote, the more my characters prayed, talked to God, and went to church. I realized that I couldn’t just write a clean romance, that I don’t believe romance can exist without God in the center of the relationship. And so my clean romance turned into an inspirational romance. After I finished it, I went to the library to find out how to get it published. The librarian led me to a Market Guide that listed all the publishers and what they were looking for and I realized there was an inspirational market.

For years, I’d gone to the Christian book stores and went straight to the music, totally missing out on all those clean romances. It took nine and a half years to learn my craft and sign a contract. It wasn’t an easy road to publication, but well worth it. It’s indescribable how it makes me feel when a reader takes the time to e-mail or send a letter letting me know they enjoyed my book. It’s still surreal to know that people I don’t know are reading the words God put on my heart.

White Roses is the first book in a series. I feel a kinship with the heroine, Adrea because she’s falling in love with a pastor. The series is set in real Arkansas towns, Romance and Rose Bud. I based the church on a real church in Rose Bud and featured the Romance Waterfalls where people get married, and the Rambler Café in Rose Bud. Brides and couples mail their wedding invitations and Valentines cards to the Romance Post Office for a unique, romantic postmark and this local flavor is worked into the series.

In book 2, White Doves, the heroine is the Romance postmaster. Book 3, White Pearls is set in the historic Darden Gifford house in Rose Bud. In the book, the heroine is restoring the house and turning it into a bed and breakfast. I enjoyed setting the stories in these tiny towns and researching the area.

Purchase White Roses: http://www.heartsongpresents.com/book/detail/9781602607552/

Purchase White Doves: http://www.heartsongpresents.com/book/detail/9781602609952/

Note: Janalyn Voigt is an Amazon Associate and benefits when books are purchased on Amazon.com through links from Book Readers Central.

Learn more about Shannon and her books at http://shannonvannatter.com/. On her Inkslinger blog, she celebrates true love stories, inspirational author’s real-life romances, insight into the love lives of their fictional characters, book excerpts, romantic destinations, and book giveaways.

Book Giveaway Drawing: To enter for a free copy of White Doves, leave a comment to this post and include your contact information. Entries without contact information will become ineligible. Entries will be accepted until this Thursday at midnight (Pacific Time/US). The winner will be announced on this blog on Friday. Detailed rules of giveaways on this blog are located in the footer.