” Shannon’s mother says she was a storyteller from birth, jabbering endlessly in nonsensical baby-talk. Once she could speak, she made up stories and bribed younger siblings to perform them in mini-plays until, thankfully, an elementary school teacher introduced her to the wonder of written fiction. At age 10, she began to write books, mostly fantasy stories where she was the heroine.

She continued to write secretly for years while pursuing acting in television, stage, and improv comedy. After detours studying in Mexico, the UK, and a year and a half as a volunteer missionary in Paraguay, Shannon earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Utah. She was finally forced out of the writers’ closet when she received her Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Montana.

The goose girl, her critically acclaimed first book, is an ALA Teens’ Top Ten and Josette Frank Award winner. enna burning, river secrets, and forest born continue the Books of Bayern series. princess academy is a Newbery Honor winner and a New York Times best seller. book of a thousand days received a Cybils award and is featured on several best of the year lists. austenland, a romantic comedy, was her first book for adults, followed by the actor and the housewife. She and her husband Dean co-wrote the graphic novels Rapunzel’s revenge, which was selected by Today’s Al Roker for Al’s Book Club for Kids, and cal
Calamity jack. ” Shannon makes her home near Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, with her super-human husband, their young son and daughter, and their pet, a small plastic pig. -Taken from Shannon’s Website

To start off your reading we are giving away book number three in the Books of Bayern…
River Secrets

Razo–short, funny and not a great soldier–is sure it’s out of pity that his captain asks him to join an elite mission–escorting the ambassador into Tira, Bayern’s great enemy.

But when the Bayern arrive in the strange southern country, it’s Razo who discovers the first dead body. He’s the only Bayern able to befriend both the high and low born, people who can provide information about the ever-increasing murders. And he’s the one who must embrace his own talents in order to get the Bayern soldiers home again, alive.

Newbery–Honor winner Shannon Hale returns the reader to the intrigue and magic of Bayern, introduced in her critically acclaimed novels, The Goose Girl and Enna Burning. In River Secrets, readers revisit a world where even those with no special magical skills find in themselves something they never imagined.

To Enter to Win River Secrets: leave your name and email address below

Contest ends July 7, 2010 and is open internationally