I’m excited and very humbled to announce that I have been named Writer of the Year for 2017 by the Utah Valley Legends, a chapter of the League of Utah Writers! What a fun journey it’s been over the past several months as I’ve gotten to know this awesome group. This is where I shared, for the first time, my ongoing rough draft of The New Wine Baptist Church Chronicles with people I had not previously met. My nervousness was soon dispelled and we are critiquing each other’s writing all the way to huge success. Thank you, Utah Valley Legends, for being my first audience and for helping me with ideas that will make my work even better.
I would also like to thank my very supportive family, including David Davis who told me for five years running that this book would be spectacular and I needed to write it. You called it, David. I hope you’re proud of me.
Here is the bio that the Utah Valley Legends posted:
Shelly Davis is a native of Florida who now makes her home in Utah. Her professional experience includes 11 years as a network news editor with a national press clipping bureau and five years as a movie reviewer with a Tennessee newspaper. Currently a freelance editor, she is the owner of Eagle Eye Edits & Critiques, which works with clients worldwide.
She formerly volunteered as a literacy specialist, served as a judge for children’s literature and poetry recitation competitions, and founded a local book club for which she taught creative writing, hosted meet-the-author nights and other events, and spearheaded a book collection drive for a new young mothers school.
Shelly’s western novels Eagle Shadow and Eagle Rising are a reflection of her keen interest in Old West history and Native American culture. She first created the characters and story of Eagle Shadow when she was 15 years old. She is currently writing a Southern Baptist comedy, which may or may not be based on true events, for as she says, “Truth is strangely like fiction.” Readers of her books who didn’t know better would never guess that the half-Cheyenne Nate Hunter and Tennessee Pastor Eugene Romans were channeled by the same person.
Married to fine art photographer/artist/antiques dealer David “Harley” Davis from 1994 till his death in 2016, they are the parents of two sons, who were homeschooled by their mom from kindergarten through 12th grade. Taylor is now in college, majoring in filmmaking with an emphasis on writing and directing, and Tristan runs his own graphic design/illustrating business.
When she’s not writing, Shelly enjoys reading (of course!), listening to music of all kinds, watching movies, traveling, cooking, visiting museums and art galleries filled with old things, and doing yoga, all while simultaneously eating chocolate. Discussing homeschooling is actually fun for her (she’s weird that way). And she loves to observe people (only in public places) and catch snippets of strangers’ phone conversations. Others call that eavesdropping, but to her it’s character research and is very important.
The world lost a great poet, photographer, and artist this year when my husband, David “Harley” Davis, passed away in July from complications resulting from leukemia. How I miss his talent and creativity, his uncanny ability to find and bring home the unusual and rare antiques, and introduce the rest of us to ideas and worlds we never knew existed. While going through his many treasures and writings this summer, it was especially touching for me to come across poems he’d written that I’d never read before, including this one, a message directly to me from eternal worlds. What better way to pay tribute on my blog, I thought, than by sharing his own words, written October 3, 2014 from his hospital bed, at the beginning of his treatments. These words have been a secret treasure to me these last few months, but it’s time to share them with others now. I’ll let his own words take it from here:
