Shannon Hale
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Shannon Hale (born January 26, 1974) is a newly recognized author of Young Adult/Adult crossover fantasy fiction. She writes books targeted to teenagers and young adults, especially girls.
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[edit] Career
Shannon Hale was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she attended West High School. She obtained a Bachelors Degree in English from the University of Utah and a Masters Degree in Creative Writing from the University of Montana. She has been writing since the age of 10 and has continued ever since, but met with numerous rejections until her first book The Goose Girl was finally published in 2003. In 2004 her second novel, Enna Burning, which follows Enna, a minor character from The Goose Girl, was published. The third installment in the series arrived in 2006 in the form of River Secrets. By then Hale had earned numerous awards for her 2005 release, Princess Academy, including the prestigious Newbery Honor (the 2005 Newbery Medal went to Lynne Rae Perkins for Criss Cross). Ms. Hale lives with her husband, Dean Hale, toddler son, Max, and baby daughter, Magnolia, in Salt Lake City, Utah. She is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Her writing projects currently in progress include: a fourth Bayern book, Austenland (May 2007), Book of a Thousand Days (Fall 2007), and Rapunzel's Revenge (2008). She is noted for having a very methodical and well-developed writing process, which she provides details about on her website, www.shannonhale.com.
[edit] Tours
Shannon Hale tours to promote each new release: she attends book signings, including in-store appearences, stock-signings, and school appearences. In support of Princess Academy, Shannon toured California extensively. In support of River Secrets, Shannon toured Michigan, Florida, and her home state, Utah.
However, in 2006, Hale wrote on her official website:
"Recently, I've had to cut way back to keep my author events from interfering with my family. I still do some visits in the Salt Lake valley area. Due to family stuff and book touring, I can't book too far in advance (sorry!). I'm most likely to accept an invitation if: I can bring my toddler (and after January 2007, my baby as well)..."
She is currently planning a small tour with Libba Bray in the fall of 2007 to promote her as-yet unpublished Book of a Thousand Days.
[edit] Bibliography
- The Goose Girl, 2003 (Josette Frank Award Winner)
- Enna Burning, 2004
- Princess Academy, 2005 (Newbery Honor Book)
- River Secrets, 2006
- Austenland, 2007
- Book of a Thousand Days, 2007
- Rapunzel's Revenge, 2008
[edit] Book Summaries
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- The Goose Girl(2003)
She was born with her eyes closed and a word on her tongue, a word she could not taste. Her name was Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee, Crown Princess of Kildenree, and she spent the first years of her life listening to her aunt’s stories and learning the language of the birds, especially the swans. And when she was older, she watched as a colt was born, and she heard the first word on his tongue, his name, Falada.
From the Grimm’s fairy tale of the princess who became a goose girl before she could become queen, Shannon Hale has woven an incredible, original, and magical tale of a girl who must find her own unusual talents before she can lead the people she has made her own.
- Enna Burning (2004)
This sequel to The Goose Girl was well received by Shannon Hale fans and was eventually followed by River Secrets. The setting is still the country of Bayern, and Enna, a minor character from the first book, is its protagonist. Her brother discovers an ancient piece of vellum that describes a strange power that might be more dangerous than wonderful.
- Princess Academy (2005)
This is a coming of age story about Miri, a girl from a mountain town in the kingdom of Danland. The town is taken by surprise when the priests of Danland decree that the prince must choose his bride from among the inhabitants of the small town. The town's uneducated girls are reluctantly whisked off to be trained at the newly established princess academy.
As for a sequel to Princess Academy, Hale has commented on her webpage: "I really don't know. At this point, probably not. I like the book intact, whole, without needing another story to it. I do have ideas about what happens next and so I don't want to say that I never will, but I also have 3 other books that feel more insistent to me to write first. Besides, wouldn't you rather decide yourself what happens next?"
- River Secrets(2006)
Razo--short, funny and not a great soldier--is sure it's out of pity that his captain asks him to join an elite mission--escorting the ambassador into Tira, Bayern's great enemy.
But when the Bayern arrive in the strange southern country, it’s Razo who discovers the first dead body. He’s the only Bayern able to befriend both the high and low born, people who can provide information about the ever-increasing murders. And he’s the one who must embrace his own talents in order to get the Bayern soldiers home again, alive.
Newbery–Honor winner Shannon Hale returns the reader to the intrigue and magic of Bayern, introduced in her critically acclaimed novels, The Goose Girl and Enna Burning. In River Secrets, readers revisit a world where even those with no special magical skills find in themselves something they never imagined.
- Austenland (May 2007)
Jane Hayes is a seemingly normal young New Yorker, but she has a secret. Her obsession with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, is ruining her love life: no real man can compare. But when a wealthy relative bequeaths her a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-crazed women, Jane’s fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become realer than she ever could have imagined.
Decked out in empire-waist gowns, Jane struggles to master Regency etiquette and flirts with gardeners and gentlemen—or maybe even, she suspects, with the actors who are playing them. It’s all a game, Jane knows. And yet the longer she stays, the more her insecurities seem to fall away, and the more she wonders: Is she about to kick the Austen obsession for good, or could all her dreams actually culminate in a Mr. Darcy of her own?
