LONG BIO

Shannon Singleton has been mesmerized by books ever since she was able to read. Her fascination with them led to her love of writing when she took Mrs. Tureau’s creative writing class in 7th grade.

From a young age, Shannon’s oldest son, Jaylen, shared her passion for reading. Through his reading, he quickly found there weren’t many books available with African American protagonists as the main character or any black characters at all. When he was in middle school, Jaylen said he didn’t see himself in the books he read. It was if authors acted like black people didn’t exist. It made Shannon really sad because she experienced the same thing, but didn’t have a good answer as to why that was nor a solution to make it better.

Fast forward 10 years to 2020. Shannon was laid off with just about half of the rest of the world due to COVID. One of her happy places was teaching her youngest, Ty, how to drive! He was enjoying it too, but then something changed. He kept putting off his driving lessons. One day she finally asked what was going on. He said “Mom, I don’t want to get stopped by the cops and get shot and die”.  Again, like with Jaylen and the book situation, she had no answers and no solutions to make it better. She couldn’t tell her little one that what happened to people like George Floyd won’t happen to him.

She was depressed for about 2 weeks. Shannon finally sat Ty down and had a talk. She told him that when people harm folks like they did to George Floyd, they want people of color to be scared and not use the rights we were all given in this country. She told him that it is his right of passage just like any other American teenager to get his driver’s license and drive. Not doing so is like letting the devil win. She asked him if he was going to let the devil win. He said no!

Ty has been driving ever since then, but these two incidents made her think long and hard about what she could do to change both of these situations. Writing the Jaylen & Ty’s Adventures: Based on True Stories book series was her answer..

BOOKS

      QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

1. 1. What inspired you to write the book series?

      • My son, Jaylen, and I are avid readers. Through our reading, we found that we didn’t really see ourselves in the books we loved. There were no African American characters. And if there were, they were usually the stereotypes that we see in TV and social media. So instead of waiting for someone else to write books with people that look like me, I decided to do it myself. 

   2. What are you hoping for the book series to accomplish?

      • Where do I start? Lol. There are a lot of things I want to accomplish with the books! They are all non fiction because I want readers to see that African Americans deal with the same ups and downs and have similar triumphs as they do. I want them to realize through the books that not every black person they see is a stereotype. On top of that, they are entertaining and there are some nuggets of knowledge here and there that children and parents can take from the stories.

      • I want the books to be a conversation starter on the importance of inclusivity for all ethnicities. If we start children off early, recognizing in a positive way, that there are people in the world that look different from them, there would be less discrimination. 

      • It hurt my heart that Jaylen didn’t feel seen by authors in the books he read. I don’t want any children to feel like that. I want little boys and girls to know that they are seen, they are heard and they are loved. 

      • I also want the books to be a legacy for my descendants. 

   3. Why is leaving a legacy for your descendants important to you?

      • For years, I’ve been researching my family history. Sadly, there wasn’t an importance placed on gathering information on people of color until information collecting was standardized sometime in the 20th Century. Also, I can only go back so far because of slavery. I often wonder how they interacted with each other, what their interests were, what was important to them and what did they do for fun? The book series will answer all of those questions for my descendants! 

   4. How did you first get published?

      • Because I wanted to keep creative control of the series, I decided to create my own publishing company, I Rise Publishing.

   5. Do you have a writing process and if so, can you share it with us?

      • Because the books are true stories, I first just wrote them as if I was recalling a memory. Once I had the story down, I looked at it from an author’s point of view (sentence flow, making sure I had descriptive adjectives, etc.). After that, I went over every book with my sons to make sure I didn’t leave anything out (you know how the memory goes when you get up in age! Lol) and add their point of view into the books.  

   6. Are you planning on writing other books? And if so, in what genres?

      • I do have plans to write many other books. The genres include children’s, romance and self improvement. But this list is “subject to grow” as new ideas present themselves. 🙂

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ADDITIONAL PHOTOS