The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Local author encourages creativity, literacy
Durhamville novelist to discuss works at Sherrill-Kenwood Library Thursday
“When I write a book, I become the characters. It can get a little crazy around here. I feel everything that happens, and I don’t write the books— the characters do.”
— Novelist Almondie Shampine
DURHAMVILLE >> Novelist Almondie Shampine’s kids are never sure who will show up for a visit when their mom is working on her latest book.
“When I write a book, I become the characters,” Shampine explained. “It can get a little crazy around here. I feel everything that happens, and I don’t write the books — the characters do.”
Her love for books goes back to her youngest memories, to even before she could truly appreciate the words inside.
“Right fromthe get-go, I was into books. They’ve helped me with so many aspects of life, not just entertainment,” she said.
Shampine has a wide vari- ety of life experiences to draw her inspirations. She attended seven schools and four colleges, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology: Applied Behavioral Analysis, giving her “great material for my thrillers,“she said. She has moved over 30 times during her life, and held almost just as many different jobs before settling into writing, editing, and marketing her books full-time in 2014.
She began writing professionally at 19, and was published for the first time the following year with the short story “Monster Down the Street” in a children’s anthology. She has since published seven books, andmore than 40 short stories, poems, and articles, four of which were award winners.
Her six-part Modules series, telling of a dystopian world in the vein of “Hunger Games,” is geared towards young adults. It features the brilliant yet unruly Catina Salisbury — or Cat, depending on her mood:
“State recruiters came when we were 12 years old to take me and my twin sister from the only home we’d ever known, as a new reformed education that guaranteed our futures, per the tests that don’t lie. Personality testing determined our fated color, where like stayed with like. My ever-pleasing compliant sister tested Pink, and I Purple, and my fight began to keep us together, forever and always.
“But once a part of The Modules, you could never escape. Through psychological programming, compliance therapy, brain-washing techniques, hypnosis, and emotions therapy, they controlled you to be the future of their design. I had the highest IQ in the global nation for 12-18. I was the prodigy they were looking for to sell their intelligent design, but I was a Purple through and through, and none of their techniques worked on me.
“Gradually, the other Purple’s began disappearing, until I was the only one left. Where they went, no one knew. We were forbidden from asking questions. They alienated me from everyone else, experimented on me, doing everything they could to break me and changemy color, but as long as my sister was somewhere out there, kept apart from me, I would never stop fighting. A prodigy deviant and my conspiracy theorist father’s legacy, I would never stop fighting. They’d have to kill me first.”
“Glimp$es” poses an intriguing question: “Would you pay a million dollars for a glimpse of the future at any time of your choosing? Could you handle it if you did?” An adult psychological thriller with spiritual and psychic contents, “Glimp$es” offers a captivating story blurring the line between illusion and reality. “Since someone’s own predictions of his or her future may differ significantly fromthe future that is shown, will they make the future one of their own choosing, or simply fall into the hands of fate forever?” Shampine asks.
“The Reform,” “The Modules,” and “Glimp$es” are available in both paperback and digital formats in the mid-York library system, Kindle, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Ingram, and GoodReads. Intelligent Design and Blind Fate are currently available on preorder.
Over the next decade she hopes to release some 60 to 70 books, and would like to get movie rights, especially for “The Modules.” Once son Bradon Lenhart, 13, and daughter Jasmine Shampine, 10, are grown, Shampine wants to travel with the goal of writing a book in every state.
Her kids are already following in her footsteps.
“Both my kids are very creative,” she said. “Jasmine tries writing her own books and Bradon dabbles in writing stories. We do our research together.”
Shampine writes for all ages and in a variety of genres including thrillers, romance, adventure, horror, paranormal, fantasy, contemporary, and literary suspense novels.
Libraries have always been a big part of her life, so Shampine wants to make sure there are copies available in as many as possible for public borrowing.
“If not for libraries growing up, I wouldn’t be where I am today,” she explained. “The library taught me everything I needed to know about life, outside of school and life itself.”
She also hopes to be able to visit schools and teach writing classes to reach out to young people with the joy of reading.
Helping to promote literacy, encourage creativity, and prompt a lifelong love for reading is the main driving force behind working on her books, Shampine explained.
“I want to give a little something back to the world,” she said. “I want to encourage creativity in children, teens and adults, and teach them the love of reading.”
Personal appearances, like this week’s visit to the Sherrill-Kenwood Free Library, and an earlier one at the Oneida Library, are helping give her a new, more public push behind her novels. Shampine credited Bradon for coaxing her to seek publicity for her work.
“My son encouraged me to go out into the community and make a public face,” she said. “When he was asked what he wanted for Christmas, he said just to be able to carry my books around at school and to let everybody know I was his mom.”
The book signing event at the Sherrill-Kenwood Free Library is this Thursday, Aug. 20, from 6:30-8 p.m. Shampine will read passages from and discuss “The Reform,” “The Modules” and “Glimp$es,” plus give previews of her next releases “Intelligent Design” and “Blind Fate.” Personally autographed copies will be available, as well as spaghetti, snacks, and beverages.
There is a sweepstakes giveaway for free books, and participants can sign up now through the end of the event at the library. The Sherrill-Kenwood Free Library is located at 543 Sherrill Road in Sherrill.
For more information, find her on Facebook under Almondie Incorporated or visit almondieshampine.com