Shannon Symonds's Blog
March 2, 2024
Is It Real?
Have you ever played two truths and a lie? It’s easy. I tell you two truths and a lie, and you guess which one is a lie. Here we go!
Every year I have hiked a mountain with 900 foot cliffs. I have 6 kids and 14 grandchildren. I love clamming with a gun on the beach.Which one is a lie? I will tell you at the end of the blog, pinky promise.
Someone recently asked me if a part of my debut novel was true. If you searched my books, you might find water spouts, the storm of the century, kidnapping, crabbing, and general mayhem. You would also find a red-headed grandmother, an advocate, and Officer Hart.
I write about what I know. Here is a list of truths you will find in my books. The tsunami alarm and the way it was handled are absolutely true. The storm of the century happened and left us without power and a connection to the outside world for a week. One of my books is based on an infamous local murder that made the Oregonian Newspaper. Being on a boat at sea is both glorious and dangerous. You can spirit someon`e away with a new name, driver’s license with a hidden address, and have their mail rerouted so carefully that even law enforcement are not allowed to know their home address—all approved by the state of Oregon. Survivors are some of the strongest, smartest people I know. Just ask Oprah Winfrey or Maya Angelou.
Sadly, Officer Hart is pure fiction.
Here are some things I can never tell you about. I can’t share any work I’ve done as an advocate with a specific survivor. It’s not allowed. In my small town, you would get two words of gossip out and everyone would know who you were talking about. If I tell a story about a survivor, it is fiction, a compilation of things I've seen hundreds of times.
I can tell you stories about things I have seen over and over again. I can answer these four questions in dozens of stories:
Why don’t they just leave? Why don’t they hit back? Why do kids do the darnedest things as soon as your back is turned? Where did you put your keys?Okay, I can answer three of the four questions. When it comes to finding lost keys or shoes, I am no help whatsoever.
I write about things I know, like the unbelievable resilience some people display, the inspiring compassion we can show each other, and the outrageous courage human beings display when they help and love one another.
So what’s the lie? I have 6 kids and 15 grandkids. 14 grandkids was the lie. The gun is a hot pink clam gun, and the mountain is a mile away.
March 16, 2022
When Getting Hit in the Head Gives you an Idea
The tide on the Oregon Coast is different in winter. Waves on the horizon look like the edge of a serrated knife. King tides and high tides like to sneak inland surprising tourists walking by the sea.
The locals will tell you that if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes. The weather can blow in steel grey rain clouds in the morning and blue skies a few hours later. Just when you think December is mild, the winds pick up to over a hundred miles an hour and you survive the first hurricane north of the 45th parallel. Gale is a pretty word for the wild storms that we locals love and respect.
Life is the same way. One day I'm working on increasing my run from three miles to a good six and the next day, I slipped in my one-hundred and twenty-five-year-old claw food tub and have a concussion. I still love my tub.
After losing a few weeks of my life to my concussion, I received a kind letter from a medical professional in our cozy community who could see I wasn't allowing myself to rest. I was trying to write, work, and take a college course while resting. I wasn't getting better and my grade has slipped to an A-. That's when I had my great idea.
For one week, I would go home. I would move two blocks north and one block east in our small town. That would land me a house with an ocean view, the house I grew up in with my large family, Lassie Hame. It's a place that is just as magical as the name.
I don't know how your home is, but when I try to rest in mine, I see all the work I should be doing. I live one block off the beach in a one-hundred and twenty-five year-old-house that used to have a store on one end. We call it the old store. Now, my mom and dad live in the store for part of the year, and my daughter, her husband, adorable baby, cute son, and two dogs live with us. It's fun, eclectic, and shabby chic (another name for a constant project). And so by packing my car moving home, I found something I hadn't experienced since the Covid Quarantine--someplace else, someplace clean, someplace our family still owns, and someplace magic.
When I was a child, my grandmother and her sisters brought us here every summer. ten or so cousins at a time kept me laughing, building forts on the beach, and spending summer days in a Pacific paradise. There were three bunks in a bunk room at that time. I shared the bottom middle bunk with my cousin and twin, Jana. Kristi, the oldest, looked after us, and six-foot-seven Jeff kept us laughing.
Someday, we all need to tell the world the story of Lassie Hame. We need to capture the absolute unique magic that makes this place priceless and keeps us tied together in love and a hilarious, nonstop group text. But for now, here is a few of the crew.
My grandmother and the great aunts of Lassie Hame long before we were born.
The view as I write to you. Waiting for sunset.
Front yard. Location of the big hose burial. Did you know that if you drag a hose out onto the sand and run the water full force while pushing the hose straight down into the ground, you can make half the hose disappear into the sand. It will go straight down! And the only way to get it out is admit what you've done and ask your aunt Hazel to cut the hose off the house.
Every aunt and grandma had a rocker.
Once I counted 13 people sitting around this table while Aunt Margaret fed us Clambled eggs using the clams we had just harvested. Jana and I took turns squeezing our skinny seats into the red high chair until we graduated from high school.
The Bunk Room. Home of the J4 and our generation. I like to count people. One July 4th, we were all here, 42 of us. I lost my bunk and had to sleep in an inner-tube. My dad's name is still carved into the bunk on the left. He has Alzheimers now, so if you trace his name with your finger you can remember him like this:
My dad, me, and Kristi. This is where he taught me how to swim.
The culprit. The Author, in the Bathroom, with the Tub--gets a clue. Mystery solved. I guess the Universe decided it was time to slow down and go home to fill my bucket with good memories, a little laughter, and a lot of sand.
November 27, 2021
Beach Town Christmas Parade of Lights
On the night after Thanksgiving, In Seaside Oregon, our family attends the traditional Christmas Parade of Lights.
Each year businesses, 4-H clubs, and the local beauty queen join kids on bikes and our cheerleaders in a parade of lights on Broadway, our downtown main street. Hot chocolate, wassail, and gingerbread men are served, while rain, starlight, or snow, the parade goes on.
We bundle up the babies and kids and sip warm drinks, catch candy thrown from floats, and chat with neighbors.
This year, there wasn’t as much hugging and there was some social distance as we joyfully gathered for the first time in two years. The pictures look crowded but we were all space respectful and grateful to feel just a little more normal in 2021.
When the last fire truck in the parade passes we usually sing carols and follow Santa to the tree lighting where we count down like New York on New Years eve. Kids line up for Santa and parents visit.
I loved holding baby Rylee, watching the fun, and plotting a way to get Santa in my next book…
[image error][image error][image error][image error][image error]See you when the tide comes in!
Shannon Symonds, Author
August 7, 2021
By The Sea Cozy Mystery Series Book 1: Murder Takes a Selfie Launches August 10, 2021
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Learn more at: COZYMYSTERIESBYTHESEA.COM
MURDER TAKES A SELFIEIf you like Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie, you will love Esther and her best friend Sophie in book one of the By The Sea Cozy Mystery series.
Oceanside High students Esther and Sophie prefer life between the covers of their favorite books, but they open an entirely new adventure and begin an exciting new chapter when the Stuart twins, Parker and Paisley, move from Great Britain to an old mansion in Esther and Sophie’s small beach town. The girls score invitations to a celebrity author’s book-launch party at the twins’ mansion, but after the selfies are snapped, someone goes missing, and everyone is a suspect.
Used to hiding behind her glasses and cardigans, Esther has secrets that only her cat and Sophie know. But when someone’s life is at stake, what will Esther risk to solve the mystery and save her friends?
TAGLINE: Best friends from a small beach town leave the library to race against time when a student’s selfie looks like the last one they’ll ever take.
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April 15, 2021
Spiritual Resilience for Your Youth ~ Giveaway & More!
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Do you need help parenting? I know I did! I was a parent educator for many years and taught some of the best curriculums. And yet, when I had teenagers… I reached out for other perspectives! Sharla Goettl’s book, Spiritual Resilience, Leading our Youth to Go and Do, is a wonderful resource for any parent who is also a member of The Church of Jesus Christ ~ or who lives a Christ centered life.
Sharla’s book is a priceless resource written with all the passion parents feel for their children. But I don’t need to tell you about it. Listen to Sharla talk about her life and inspiration. Read an interesting interview with the author. After you listen—comeback and download a free gift and enter a Rafflecopter Giveaway sponsored by the author. Meet Sharla and hear her story:
Sharla Goettl has served as a youth leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints almost every year of her adult life. Doing so has taught her the faithful capacity of the youth and a respect for the parents who teach them. She currently serves as a stake Young Women president in Oregon. Sharla is a wife, mother, sister, confidant, instigator, and believer. She listens to the voices in her head, sings loudly out of tune, and dreams of faraway mountains. She feels pleasantly surprised when her kids beat her in board games, enthusiastic toward unexpected adventures, and overwhelmed by the generosity of God.
Free gift available: The Goal Maker is a guided questionnaire that will help parents determine what their next best step can be in developing spiritual resilience. This effort will help set a more powerful example through action, not just words. Makes a great companion to the book.
Fun facts: The book includes still shots from the Book of Mormon videos and a new painting of young Nephi entitled Nephi Unfinished. In the book and on my website, I tell poignant stories about my grandfather who did the work to change from bootlegger to spiritually resilient father. It is only through real-world actions that these principles can be taught.
Why did you want to write this book? I did not want to. I had no intention to write a book, but the Spirit told me there was helpful information that needed to be shared. As a stake Young Women president, I very much want to help the good families I know, and love feel successful as they teach their children the gospel of Jesus Christ. I very much want the youth I work with to get the answers they need to their repetitive questions so they can grow up fearlessly relying on a Savior that will never let them down.
What inspires you when you were writing? The parents I was working with were feeling overwhelmed about all they needed to do and all the counter influences affecting their children. We all have felt anxiety over a teenager who is losing their way. Yet I also know the younger generation will usher in the miracles of the future because of their faithful acts and greater commitment. I knew Christ must have a solution to these interconnected problems. So I went looking for the solution in the most likely place I would find it: the very beginning of the Book of Mormon. Where else would Christ put the solution to our most personal struggles?
What other authors have influenced your writing? In this instance, Nephi has been my most influential author. Afterall, the solutions I offer are not mine, but his. I just happen to be pointing them out. I love authors who back up their words with action. Rudyard Kipling, Mark Twain, Sheri Dew and Nephi are some of my favorites.
What books are you reading right now? Hold Back the Dawn. It is an unpublished manuscript my grandmother wrote several decades ago. I’ve known it existed for a long time, but am just now reading it. It has been wonderful to experience a side of her I never knew through her perspective, word choice and storytelling.
My favorite book of all time? Runaway Bunny. The book only has two characters and I have played them both. As a child, I liked to push the limits and as a mother I am learning to support my children unconditionally no matter where their adventures may lead them.
How did you come up with your book s premise? I follow the sequence of Nephi’s learning process. In fact, I use his famous verse of 1 Nephi 3:7 to reverse engineer his testimony to better understand what he knew that made him willing to say, “I will go and go.”
What was the most difficult thing about writing the book? First was remembering to pray before I began to write. If I did not, I would inevitably get stuck and have to start over. Second was developing the cover. I went down so many rabbit holes trying to find an image to relay spiritual resilience. Finally, I went with what was real: my own family. I had to write based on my own real questions. I had to share my own real interactions with my daughters and the Spirit, so it feels fitting. Besides, my family has their fingers all over this book. A book about family would mean nothing without them.
What advice would you give someone who thinks they might want to write a book? Be prepared for a long process. Be willing to humbly share parts of yourself. Every time you hit delete to start over it marks a mini-step of progress, not defeat. It means you are learning and changing and getting better.
What is the next book you will begin writing? I am already working on an illustrated children’s book based on the same ideas discussed in Spiritual Resilience but for a much younger crowd. The book is based on how Nephi developed his testimony and is called “I Will Go and Do.”
What do your fans mean to you? I wrote the book for the many youth I have worked with over the years. They have shared parts of themselves with me which is sacred. But I believe our Heavenly Father would tell me there is nothing there is nothing more sacred than a relationship between a parent and a child. I truly just want to be helpful in strengthening that bond to be even more reliable, loving, and strong.
What inspires you to get out of bed each day? Covid has wrecked my daily schedule. I stay up way too late and wake up too late in the morning, so that is a question that hits home. The answer is easy of course. It is my kids. I want to be with them more than I want to be on my pillow.
When you are not writing, how do you spend your time? Like so many others, I wear many hats these days and not a single day Is the same. I help my kids on their heavy schoolwork, all are online and two are enrolled early in college. My church calling is time consuming in a wonderful way. My husband and I own a construction business. We are also currently renovating a personal property in Bend, Oregon. It is a place that has all my favorite things: mountains, rivers, hiking, biking, skiing, kayaking and food.
a Rafflecopter giveawayFOLLOW AND CHAT WITH THE AUTHOR!
Author’s website: www.sharlagoettl.com
Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/authorsharlagoettl
Instagram: @authorsharlagoettl
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/sharlagoettl
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February 23, 2021
July 31, 2020
Today! Authors For Freedom!
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TODAY! 85 AUTHORS FOR FREEDOM-have books for you!
Buy a book and all profits are donated to Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.) to rescue children from child human trafficking.
Go to the Authors For Freedom Landing page AND
https://my.ourrescue.org/fundraisers/authors-for-freedom
Right click on the name and check out the lists of amazing books.
#authorsforfreedom #ourrescue
Romance:
Rebecca Connolly-What a Spinster Wants
Rachel John-“Engaging Mr. Darcy”
Ashtyn Newbold-“The Last Eligible Bachelor”
Kasey Stockton-“The Jewels of Halstead Manor”
Thriller Suspense
Mystery/Thriller/Suspense
Shannon Symonds, Author (Christian content)
Greta Boris-The Sanctity of Sloth (Seven Deadly Sins Book 3)
General Fiction
Ferrell Hornsby – “If We’re Breathing, We’re Serving”
Historical Fiction
Christian Fiction
Young Adult
Julie L. Spencer’s book: Combustion
Catina Haverlock and Angela Larkin-Beyond
Rebecca Lange-“Plane Crash-A Journey To The Heart”
Children’s Books
Sarah Hadsell: “Pirates Love Pajamas”
Elizabeth Anne Suggs-“Quincey’s Questions”
Sierra Wilson – “The Atonement of Jesus Christ is for Me”
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
True Story-Inspirational
Non-Fiction
Marci McPhee – “Sunday Lessons and Activities for Kids”
Jenny Rosengren’s Book: 1000 Categorized Positive and Negative Beliefs
Marsha Lavin – “Fifty-Five Days of Faith”
Julia B. Blake – “Girls’ Camp: Ideas for Today’s Leaders”
Valiant K. Jones – The Covenant Path: Finding the Temple in the Book of Mormon
Wendy Whiting-Detour to the Light: Staying Positive During Life’s Roadblocks
Debbi S Rollo – “Book of Mormon Rhymes: A Companion for Family Scripture Study”
#authorsforfreedom #ourrescue
MEET THE AUTHORS AND LEARN MORE ON: AUTHORS FOR FREEDOM FACEBOOK PAGE
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June 25, 2020
Safe House~Free Reading & Fireside Chat!
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To read my latest newsletter with free book links and more~ Click here!
I love chatting with readers. Recently, a reader invited me to speak to their local congregation in Utah. Because of Covid-I am doing the next best thing. I am reading Safe House and sharing what I’ve learned about supporting survivors after each chapter.
Do you know someone who has experienced intimate partner violence (domestic violence)? Are you a survivor and your connections don’t understand or support you? Have people given you unwelcome advice, like why don’t you just leave? Send me your questions and concerns. Let’s chat after each chapter.
Safe House by Shannon Symonds
Welcome to the free video reading of Safe House, published by Cedar Fort Publishers. I thought it would be fun to read my first book to you while sharing the beauty of the Pacific coast or the settings for Safe House, Finding Hope, and my upcoming novels.
After I read the chapters, I will tell you a little about what inspired them. Feel free to end the video before the chat. I know how busy life can be!
Safe House Chapter 1 & 2 by Shannon Symonds
Safe House Chapter 3 & 4 by Shannon Symonds
Safe House Chapter 5 by Shannon Symonds
Safe House Chapter 6 by Shannon Symonds
Safe House Chapter 7 by Shannon Symonds
Safe House Chapters 8 & 9 by Shannon Symonds
Safe House Chapter 10 by Shannon Symonds
Safe House Chapter 11 by Shannon Symonds
Safe House Chapter 12 by Shannon Symonds
Safe House Chapter 13 by Shannon Symonds
Safe House Chapter 14,15 by Shannon Symonds
Special thanks to Cedar Fort Publishers–Safe House can be purchased at Cedar Fort & Amazon and is free on Kindle Unlimited.
SALE
CLICK THE PIC OR THIS LINK TO PURCHASE A PAPERBACK OF SAFE HOUSE FOR $5.99 AND USE THE COUPON CODE.
Great News &
Lessons on Patience!
Cedar Fort will be publishing my Cozy Mystery! That’s the wonderful news. But… it will take time…
More as it develops!
I am a volunteer for Operation Underground Railroad and have organized the Authors For Freedom. Shope the bestsellers on 7/31/2020 and all profits will be donated to O.U.R.
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Safe House Chapter 5~Free Reading!
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Welcome to the free video reading of Safe House, published by Cedar Fort Publishers. I thought it would be fun to read my first book to you while sharing the beauty of the Pacific coast or the settings for Safe House, Finding Hope, and my upcoming novels. I also share what inspired the novel. I made this video two miles from my house on the Tillamook Head Trail my family hikes annually. It is six miles of Oregon Forest and ends in Ecola Park just outside Cannon Beach.
Today, I added a reading of chapter 5 of Safe House. I will add new chapters to to my Tuesday and Thursday newsletters. I promise not to spam you!
After I read the chapters, I will tell you a little about what inspired them. Feel free to end the video before the chat. I know how busy life can be!
Safe House Chapter 1 & 2 by Shannon Symonds
Safe House Chapter 3 & 4
Safe House Chapter 5
Special thanks to Cedar Fort Publishers–Safe House can be purchased at Cedar Fort & Amazon.
SAFE HOUSE ON SALE 6/25/2020 on Cedar Fort’s Website.
And a coupon for you!
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June 23, 2020
Safe House Chapter 3 & 4 and Free First Responder Reads
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Welcome to the free video reading of Safe House, published by Cedar Fort Publishers. I thought it would be fun to read my first book to you while sharing the beauty of the Pacific coast or the settings for Safe House, Finding Hope, and my upcoming novels. I also share what inspired the novel. I made this video two miles from my house on the Tillamook Head Trail my family hikes annually. It is six miles of Oregon Forest and ends in Ecola Park just outside Cannon Beach.
Today, I added a reading of chapters 3 & 4 of Safe House. I will add new chapters to to my Tuesday and Thursday newsletters. I promise not to spam you!
After I read the chapters, I will tell you a little about what inspired them. Feel free to end the video before the chat. I know how busy life can be!
Safe House Chapter 1 & 2 by Shannon Symonds
Safe House Chapter 3 & 4 by Shannon Symonds
Here is another game! The 4th person to reply to this newsletter will receive a $5 Amazon gift card.
