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Shanna Swendson

@shannaswendson.bsky.social

1.6K followers 430 following 5.1K posts

Novelist and nerd. Author of the Enchanted, Inc. series and a lot of other stuff. http://shannaswendson.com/

shannaswendson.com

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Shanna Swendson @shannaswendson.bsky.social · Oct 24

Since I've been gaining new followers and we can now pin posts, I think an introduction is in order. Hi, I'm Shanna, and I write various flavors of fantasy: contemporary humorous, portal, steampunk, paranormal mystery, and currently doing cottagecore cozy.

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Shanna Swendson @shannaswendson.bsky.social · 14h

I guess I saw the important part, the end of the game in which Texas won, so I got to see all the little school traditions and get a real dose of college nostalgia. I still know all the words to "The Eyes of Texas."

Shanna Swendson @shannaswendson.bsky.social · 14h

Then on the way home I ran into my next-door neighbors, the assistant pastor from church, and a friend (and her dog). Plus, the guy who gave me the theater tour lives nearby (I pass his place on the way to and from downtown). It was a nice little evening excursion.

Shanna Swendson @shannaswendson.bsky.social · 14h

The theater will have the old sound system from Skywalker Ranch when it's done, so it'll be the best theater sound in the region. The Art Deco bones are still there in the theater, so it's going to look cool when the restoration is complete.

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Shanna Swendson @shannaswendson.bsky.social · 14h

I had a nice wander downtown. There was an Irish music group performing on the street (they block off the main street downtown on weekends), and I got a tour of the old Art Deco movie theater they're remodeling into a theater and performing arts center.

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Shanna Swendson @shannaswendson.bsky.social · 14h

And as soon as I turned the game back on, Texas scored.

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Shanna Swendson @shannaswendson.bsky.social · 14h

I watched the start of it, but I have very little patience for football. I can manage a quarter before I get bored. I watched enough to hear a bit of Texas Fight and have a moment of nostalgia, then decided to go out.

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Shanna Swendson @shannaswendson.bsky.social · 16h

What was supposed to be a cool, cloudy day has been bright and sunny. There's going to be an outdoor concert downtown, so I think I'll walk down there to have done something fun today. Tomorrow will be the rainy reading day (I hope).

Shanna Swendson @shannaswendson.bsky.social · 20h

That book is on sale now as part of the Cozy the Day Away sale. (As is the first book in that cozy paranormal mystery series.) cozyfantasysale.promisepress.org

Cozy the Day Away Sale
A Two-Day Sale specifically for the cozy fantasy genre
Tea and Empathy $0.99
Sat/Sun Oct. 11-12th
Images show a little creature snuggled up with a pile of books and the Tea and Empathy book cover.

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Shanna Swendson @shannaswendson.bsky.social · 20h

And now, here I am. I realized almost everything I'd been writing (including books that never went anywhere) involved a character finding refuge in a little mountain town. Maybe my brain (or heart) was trying to tell me something.

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Shanna Swendson @shannaswendson.bsky.social · 20h

I'd been pondering and even researching a move for a couple of years, but writing a book about a woman who stumbles into a quirky village made me realize I was writing about what I wanted. The week the book was released, I took a trip to a place I wanted to move to see if I liked it.

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Shanna Swendson @shannaswendson.bsky.social · 20h

I did wrap up the series, but I couldn't go back to it. I haven't even read mysteries since then. With everything going on in the world, I needed something gentler, completely outside our place and time. One day, the story for a cozy fantasy book popped into my head.

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Shanna Swendson @shannaswendson.bsky.social · 20h

The person had been followed from another city, and they happened to shoot him right by my house. He crashed his car and later died on the block behind my house. A week or so later, someone I'd known since she was born was murdered. I couldn't see murder as entertainment anymore.

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Shanna Swendson @shannaswendson.bsky.social · 20h

While I was writing one of those books, a murder happened outside my house. I heard the gunshots, then watched the crime scene team working while I was writing the crime scene part of the mystery. I didn't know what had happened at the time. I later learned it was a drive-by shooting.

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Shanna Swendson @shannaswendson.bsky.social · 20h

Just before the pandemic started, I started writing a cozy paranormal mystery series. It seemed an obvious transition, since most of the "also bought" books for Enchanted, Inc. were cozy paranormal mysteries. But then some things happened.

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Shanna Swendson @shannaswendson.bsky.social · 20h

A while ago, I started doing posts about my books, then got sidetracked, so now back to it. I'm best known for the Enchanted, Inc. series, but my current series is the one that literally changed my life. Not because it was so successful, but because it made me realize some things.

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Shanna Swendson @shannaswendson.bsky.social · 20h

It's not so much fear of weather on my face as it is that the road is through a mountain pass and is harrowing in perfectly clear weather, lots of S-curves and switchbacks and very narrow. I wouldn't want to do it with low visibility and a wet road.

Shanna Swendson @shannaswendson.bsky.social · 21h

Today, which was supposed to be cloudy, is as sunny as yesterday was supposed to be, but I don't want to head into the mountains because it's supposed to rain later in the day. I guess I'll do some housework, maybe take a walk in the park.

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Shanna Swendson @shannaswendson.bsky.social · 21h

It's possible that what I'm remembering is the "movie" from my head from starting to read the book. What I had in mind was something a lot cozier and quirkier. But the way Hollywood is, there could have been a similar film a year later. I can't find it if there was.

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Shanna Swendson @shannaswendson.bsky.social · 21h

No, I can't picture that at all. I suspect the fact that Daisy Ridley is a trained dancer helped with the physicality of that role. I like Emma Watson, but "physicality" isn't something I feel she has.

Shanna Swendson @shannaswendson.bsky.social · 21h

And no killing/ghost plot that involved a cop?
Or maybe what I remember is mental images from starting to read the book. I had it from the library, didn't finish by the due date, and there was a hold list so I had to return it. I may not have reached the main plot part.

Shanna Swendson @shannaswendson.bsky.social · 21h

Last night, I watched Practical Magic to get into the Halloween spirit. I thought I'd seen it before, but nothing about the main plot was familiar. Was there another movie from that era about quirky women in a quaint town who were vaguely witchy, but it was more magical realism than outright magic?

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Shanna Swendson @shannaswendson.bsky.social · 1d

One nice thing about planning to be out all day but the plans fell through is that I planned for dinner. I defrosted some French dip sandwich filling, so all I have to do is nuke it, toast a bun, and make a salad.

Shanna Swendson @shannaswendson.bsky.social · 1d

I've been looking at non-electric fondue pots, and they're rather expensive. Maybe I should check thrift stores, since that's the sort of thing people buy/get as gifts and never use.

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Shanna Swendson @shannaswendson.bsky.social · 1d

I've been thinking about getting a small camping stove that uses Sterno, or something like that. You can use Sterno indoors, but I'd be worried, as tight as my house seems to be. There's not a lot of ventilation.

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Shanna Swendson @shannaswendson.bsky.social · 1d

Look under Labels. You can assign a value to each color and decide whether it shows in the dot next to a scene or in the title. I've mostly used it to track POV characters for scenes. You can also come up with custom colors.