Don M. Shannon

Born on August 16, 1948, a dubious distinction, as it was the day we lost Babe Ruth, I was a Love Child. This is covered in detail in Vella, in my autobiography "Alone Again Naturally". I enjoyed coaching children working through college, so I became a teacher. In my second year of teaching I was asked to take over our "Academic Games" teams; I continued for 23 years. Having won a record number of national titles in that, I later coached a Chess club at a public school that would win state and a few international honors. Yet, I was always fond of writing. While in 5th grade, bedridden for 8 months, I wrote my first "novel". It provided many germs for works to follow. My "ghost stories" became legend at our tournaments for Academic Games. I was inspired to write A Star for Waggoner, in the summer of '91. Encouraged by my reading classes, I followed with Dares Go Last using many of my ghost stories. Yesterday's Child is based on a dream I had in the 1970's about the murder of my biological cousin.