Shellie Neumeier holds a degree in Secondary Education from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, with a minor in Psychology, Sociology and Social Studies. A devoted mother of four, Shellie previously worked on staff with Northbrook Church as the King’s Kids ministry assistant (serving children in grades 2nd through 5th). Shellie’s YA novel, Driven, is available from Risen Fiction and her middle grade chapter book The Wishing Ring will release February 2012. She is an active member of SCBWI and ACFW as well as a contributing author for various blogs. Shellie is located in southeastern Wisconsin.
Buy Link: Driven
Q) What inspired you to write this story?
What inspired me to write this book was the desire to encourage the next generation. They have an amazing access to their world with the ease of travel and the internet. They also have the opportunity to change their world unlike any previous generation has. But they’re also bombarded with harsh realism and even harsher dramatized “realism.” It would be very easy to forget that they have a good and Godly purpose.
Q) How long did it take you to write?
It took me three weeks to write Driven, another three months to edit it, and off it went to the publisher.
Q) Can you talk about the story's evolution and publishing history?
Driven evolved over the dinner table and during several long walks with the dogs through the country. Once the story was complete and edited, I submitted it to a clearing house of sorts where it found its way into the hands of my publisher, RisenFiction. Once it was contracted the story made it through edits to ebook in four months and to paper back in another three. It was a whirl-wind experience to say the least.
Q) What can readers expect from you in the future?
I have a novella romance releasing on October 1, A Summer in Oakville (co-authored with Lisa Lickel) and a mid-grade chapter book, The Wishing Ring, releasing in February. I’m currently working on a sequel to The Wising Ring and another young adult novel about a seventeen year-old boy who lands himself in a treatment center and must figure out how to get home.
Q) Where can readers find you?
Website
Booktrailer
