Shenda Paul
Shenda Paul
Shenda Paul

Shenda Paul
ABOUT ME

The desire to write took root some time during the childhood stories my parents read me.
By my teenage years, I’d become a voracious reader. Austen, Du Maurier, the Brontës, and Hardy fed my romantic soul, and books like To Kill a Mocking Bird and I Know Why The Caged Bird sings sharpened my sense of justice. Those brilliant authors also stirred my interest in the complexity of human nature.
By then, I'd also been writing for a while. From my first childish tale about my cat, Timmy’s, secret powers and talking ability, to my adolescent depictions of villains and heroes and happily-ever-afters, and later fictional stories about historical characters and imagined times and places, I continued to write. Relationships took precedence for a time, and though a demanding career made it almost impossible for many years, the desire to write books remained.
It took decades for me to overcome my insecurities and sharing my work. Enrolling in creative writing courses and having to read my work to an entire class of fellow students boosted my confidence. Eventually, I took the plunge by penning and publishing weekly installments of my first novel for an online audience. In writing Counsel, I set out to create a story of substance and disprove the misconception t that romance novels are ‘fluff.’ Primarily, though, I wanted to write an absorbing tale with characters readers care about–hopefully, long after finishing the last chapter.
Publishing The Counsel Series was a dream come true, and I’m incredibly thankful to that community of online readers. They eased my self-doubt and kept me going through that first novel. Their professed love for the characters inspired the other books in the series. Also, their championing made the leap into the precarious world of self-publishing far less scary than it would otherwise have been. To them, a profound 'thank you' from the bottom of my heart.