Textnovel Prize Winner "13 to Life" Released by St. Martin's Press

    PARK CITY, UT, July 06, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Shannon Delany's first book, "13 to Life", was released by St. Martin's Griffin on June 22, 2010 and is available at bookstores everywhere. It can also be ordered at Barnes & Noble or Amazon and many other online bookstores.

The author got her big break when she won the first-ever online cell phone novel contest in the western world at Textnovel.com. "I'm a Cyber Cinderella," Delany confesses. "If it hadn't been for Textnovel.com, I'd probably still be just poking at my story ideas instead of seeing my first novel--the first in a series being published by a major NYC house--released today."

13 to Life, which has been called, "your next fiction addiction," by bestselling author Ann Aguirre and "a new spin on an old legend," by NYT bestseller Maria V. Snyder is already being enjoyed by readers of all ages. "From nine years old to those in their forties and fifties--it seems like it gives people a much needed escape," Delany says. "And that's what I hope it does: Give people an escape and encourage them to ask the questions the narrator, and her behavior, raises."

So what's it all about? "13 to Life is a tale of teenage love, loss and--oh, yeah--werewolves," Delany says with a smirk. "People are quick to say it's a werewolf story, but really, it's the story of a girl who has lost someone very dear to her and how she struggles to move forward. When she meets Pietr (pronounced "Peter") she starts to wake up from the nightmare she's been wallowing in. And, as she starts to really think about the issues dogging her, she realizes he has issues of his own, including an understanding of tragedy which binds them together."

Since winning Textnovel's 2008 contest, things have moved quickly for Delany. "We handled interest from a movie producer and a couple of publishers soon after I won. Luckily my winnings included an agent, Stan Soper of Soper Literary Agency, and he handled the interested parties while I typed my fingers off fleshing out the sparse prose style that's more common in cell phone novels. I wanted "13 to Life" to be a quick, consumable read, but in a more traditional style of prose, too. It was a stylistic compromise of sorts. And as soon as I had the manuscript complete, we sent it forward."

Delany went with St. Martin's Press (an imprint of Macmillan). "I was impressed with their interest, quick response and communication skills. It's paid off. I work with some of the very best people in the publishing industry."

Michael Homler, editor at St. Martin's, commented: "Shannon is a wonderful writer. She gets who she is writing for and keeps things interesting for her characters and her readers. I think this is the start of what will hopefully be a very popular series."

Stan Soper, founder of Textnovel.com, commented "We have been so excited about Shannon's book release. It was an incredible experience to watch her create the first draft of this novel online, with reader input. She is a very talented author and this is such a great book. I can't wait to see how readers and fans react."

Shannon Delany can be found online at http://www.ShannonDelany.com and http://13toLife.us/blog and through Twitter at http://Twitter.com/Shannon_Delany.com.

ABOUT ST. MARTIN'S PRESS

St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in the iconic Flatiron Building in New York City. Currently, St. Martin's Press is one of the United States' largest publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under eight imprints, which include St. Martin's Press (mainstream and bestseller books), St. Martin's Griffin (mainstream paperback books, including science fiction and romance), St. Martin's Minotaur (mystery, suspense, and thrillers), Picador (specialty books), Thomas Dunne Books (suspense and mainstream), and Truman Talley Books (business and specialty books).

ABOUT TEXTNOVEL

Textnovel is a social network for authors and readers of serial fiction and the first English language cell phone novel website, allowing members to write and read fiction with their cellphones or computers, using text messaging, email and online tools. Textnovel runs contests for fiction writers, allowing them to demonstrate the market potential of their work through its unique serial publication and voting format. Textnovel.com was founded by Stan Soper, who offers literary agency services to aspiring writers at http://www.soperagency.com.

# # #