Shana Silver studied creative writing at Syracuse University. She's been a computer animator, an e-book creator for a major publisher, and now works as a Project Manager in digital and TV advertising where she enjoys telling people what to do. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, young daughter, and the characters she dreams up.  Mind Games is her debut novel.

Published in the fall 2007 issue of ShatterColors Literary Review.
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When not wrangling around a tiny human I created in 2012 or working as a Director of Program Management in charge of a global team of Project Managers, I spend all my spare time writing. This means I often neglect my husband, but he doesn’t seem to mind. He has nerdy podcasts to keep him company. I also neglect housework or other unimportant things like sleeping.

I started writing since I could say my first word. I wasn’t too impressed with the name my mom had called herself, “Mommy,” so I made up my own replacement. “Bobu” seemed a much more appropriate title at the time. It’s no surprise that I had an imaginary friend with magical powers (she could walk through lava. How cool is that? Though, not terribly useful growing up in NJ). I wrote and drew a picture book series about my magically enhanced friend as soon as I could string coherent sentences together. It only escalated from there.

When I was 7 I wrote a non-fiction book called BLOOPERS, BLOOMERS, AND GRANDMA that chronicled the funny mishaps my real-life Grandmother encountered, from the perspective of her granddaughter. As you can imagine, it made for thrilling reading. In high school, I kept notebooks full of poetry, song lyrics (even though I had no musical talent what-so-ever…unless you count my talent for getting crushes on guys who played instruments), and short stories.

I wrote my first novel when I was 17. This was before I learned about things like plots or character arcs. The book was 75k consisting of mostly existential dribble and none of the characters had names. It did have a premise though, miraculously.

Luckily I had the good sense never to revise this, though I do regret making my poor mother read it. She loved it. But she doesn’t have the best judgement, she also proudly displays all my childhood artwork at home and in her office. Some of that stuff is not fit for public consumption.

In college, I wrote another novel that may have been more autobiographical than fictional despite the name changes. This book taught me about how a first draft does not equal a final book.

Flash forward several years and several more books. Some close calls to selling. Some forever enjoying life on my hard drive. I write in a variety of genres: contemp YA, sci-fi YA, magical realism YA, MG, and NA.