Shannon Taylor Vannatter's "White Roses"

We're happy to have Shannon Taylor Vannatter with us today talking about her book, White Roses. To learn more about Shannon and her book, read on!



Your title: White Roses
1) How did this story come to you?
My dad always gets me flowers or balloons for Valentines. As he’s gotten older, I’ve wondered what it will be like the first time they don’t come. I turned it around and thought about it if I died first and figured he’d take them to the cemetery. Then it became the story of a grieving husband and the florist who does his wife’s flowers.


2) Tell us about the journey to getting this book published.
I wrote the book in 2001. It was the one I could never put away. At the American Christian Fiction Writers’s conference in 2005, Tracy Peterson brainstormed with me and helped me fix the conflict issue, but my craft was still lacking. I kept tweaking, changing, and gave it a new setting, Romance, Arkansas. That’s when the story came alive. At the ACFW conference in 2008, I took Margie Lawson’s editing class, which finally got my craft publishable.

3) Tell me three things about yourself that would surprise your readers.
Despite my southern accent, I lived in Illinois as a kid. My husband was my high school sweetheart. We were married for sixteen and a half years before our son was born.

4) What are you working on now and what's next for you?
I’m currently finishing the third book in my series for Heartsong Presents.

5) Parting comments?
I feel very blessed and in awe when I think of people, I don’t know, reading my words.

6) Where can fans find you on the internet?
http://www.shannontaylorvannatter.com/
http://www.inkslingerblog.com/
http://www.inkspirationalmessages.com/
http://www.heartsongpresents.com/
http://www.fictionfinder.com/