About Beyond The Pear Blossoms:
Four friends. Three weddings. Two paths.
Tori has kept men at a distance while pursuing her goals, and has relished in the friendships she has built. Upon returning to Oregon after college, she quickly realizes the number of weddings and engagements are increasing around her. She trips over the roots of her small town as each relative only seems to care about the prospects in her dating life. By happenstance (or Fate?), she reconnects with an acquaintance, and starts to see him in new ways. She quickly finds herself in a relationship with more depth and trust than she ever thought possible. Their connection is strong and deep, yet ends as quickly as it began.
Was it Tori? Was it him? Was it something they could figure out? Do the things she wants most in her life just not align? Isn’t this relationship what Tori has been working towards her entire life? Tori looks to her closest friends who know her best to help her untangle these questions, even though the answers lie with her.
Beyond the Pear Blossoms is a deep exploration into the heart of the relationships we build, our competing desires, and the decisions we make. It’s a journey through the moments of being lost, a reminder of the places where we feel found, and ultimately what it takes to choose our way.
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Author Bio:
SHAWNA GREW UP IN THE BEAUTIFUL ROGUE VALLEY of Southern Oregon in a family of six. This cultivated her greatest memories and love of the outdoors; running around the property out in the country and taking annual camping trips to a nearby lake. Her education and career led her on many paths and helped her discover that the lights of a cityscape could also fill her with awe. As an avid traveler, she is just as likely to be on a beach as in a bustling city or on the peak of a mountain. One of the greatest gifts of travel is that she finally slows down and finds the time to read.
Jane Eyre was a reading assignment for her freshman year in college and reading Charlotte Bronte was easily her favorite hours spent on homework. She loves characters that you connect with and stories that make you feel something. So it is no surprise that her favorite story will always be the winding, unexpected path that made sure she ended up with the love of her life.
She cherishes her dear friends, her council of confidants, that spread to the many corners of this country. The favorites being the ones who helped her load and unload during her multiple cross country moves. She is the founder of Grit 2 G (www.Grit2G.com), a community that supports women with grit giving themselves grace and using gratitude to help uncover what they truly want in life.
In 2017 when the world went sideways, as it sometimes does–she half-jokingly told her friends she needed to write or else the universe would keep giving her things to write about, and her first novel became possible. A part of her always knew that the many lessons life has brought her should make their way on to the page.
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FINISHING HER FIRST NOVEL was a dream come true for Shawna. Mere days after its completion, she received news that she and her partner’s families were being evacuated from their homes because of the sudden outbreak of the Almeda Wildfire in Talent and Phoenix, small towns in Southern Oregon. They were up most of the night waiting and taking calls, praying for the safety of those they loved.
In a tragic 24-hour period, the Almeda fire took over 2,400 homes from the community Shawna and her partner had grown up in, leaving countless families homeless. The destruction and disfigured landscape of these small towns were staggering, but so was the outpouring of love and support. Southern Oregon is a community that looks out for one another.
After one of her visits in the recent aftermath, the synchronicity of finishing her novel and the deep needs of this community struck a chord with Shawna. She realized that this novel was a way she could give more and pledged half of the net proceeds from “Beyond the Pear Blossoms” to support the housing efforts for the residents of Talent and Phoenix affected by the Almeda fire in these initial years of rebuilding. There are no guarantees how much that might be, but she has big hopes to go along with her big heart.
The Almeda fire was labeled one of the ten worst fires of the last fifty years, and with stories from her family and friends of having mere minutes to leave their homes, of those who never made it back to their homes, and knowing an average of 100 homes burned every hour; it is easy to see why.