AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR SHERRY SHAHAN visits schools and libraries with a visual presentation featuring Alaska-based MG adventure/survival novel FROZEN STIFF (Battle of the Books). Her program shows her at work in Alaska as a travel journalist and photographer. Her MG novels were inspired by years of personal experiences in the untamed wilderness.
EMAIL CONTACT: kidbooks@thegrid.net
My Story:
Some readers have a weird idea of what it means to be a writer. They think I’m locked away in a dingy room with only a computer to keep me company. It's true. I have calluses on my fingers from typing more than 30 fiction and nonfiction books on a plastic keypad. (Okay, so a few titles were tapped out on a typewriter.) But that's only part of the story.
As part of my research, I’ve ridden on horseback into Africa’s Maasailand, hiked through a leech-infested rain forest in Australia, shivered inside a dogsled for the first part of the famed 1,049 mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska, rode-the-foam on a long-board in Hawaii, and spun around dance floors in Havana, Cuba. True!
My adventure novel DEATH MOUNTAIN (Peachtree) is based on a true story. While attempting to hike to the highest peak in the contiguous United States, Mt. Whitney in California, my group was caught on an exposed ridge in a deadly electrical storm. The pack horse and mule were struck by lightning and killed. Three women in my party were airlifted off the mountain by helicopter and flown to a nearby hospital. Thankfully, they were released shortly after a doctor examined them. ATTENTION TEACHERS! LESSON PLAN: DEATH MOUNTAIN Grade 6 Reading Character Analysis and Plot Development: Project Based Learning: California Educators Together (caeducatorstogether.org)
For my middle-grade novel FROZEN STIFF (Random House), I spent a week kayaking to the largest tidewater glacier in North America, Hubbard Glacier in Alaska. Like my main character, I battled renegade icebergs and had a close encounter with a bear. Again, true.
When I decided to write and photo-illustrate DASHING THROUGH THE SNOW: THE STORY OF THE JR. IDITAROD (Mondo), I stayed with a family of mushers in Alaska. Everyday, I followed them with my camera while they trained their dogs. You know that's a true story since DASHING is nonfiction.
When I’m not traveling around the world or dodging lightning bolts, I like to dance. Sometimes I even enter contests at dance conventions. Even though I’ve never won one -- at least not yet -- it’s fun to wear clothes that sparkle and glue on false eyelashes. True story.
Okay, now it’s time to plop down in my writing chair....
https://youtu.be/j43a1WeAVD8
SKIN AND BONES. From the case files of a hospital Eating Disorder Unit in Los Angeles:
Jack “Bones” Plumb: Age 16, anorexic.
Goal: To retain his svelte self no matter what the hospital tries to force feed him.
Likes: Alice, a sexy but dangerously thin ballerina in the program. Dislikes: One-on-one meetings with the resident shrink-ologist, Dr. Chu.
Alice: Age 17, returning anorexic patient.
Goal: To be hired by a professional ballet company.
Likes: Manipulating the system, road trips, and, just maybe, Bones.
Dislikes: Anyone and anything that keeps her from getting what she wants.