Sandi Kahn Shelton

Kissing Games of the World

Sandi Kahn Shelton’s family life was steeped in the Southern storytelling tradition. Growing up in Jacksonville, Florida, she learned quickly that the best way to command her family’s attention was by spinning a good yarn. When she wrote a story and sold it to some neighbors in exchange for ice cream money, it put her on a path toward a writing life, although not a straight one.

From Kissing Games of the World:

“He’d tell anyone: if you want to stay young, keep up with a toddler when you’re in your sixties. That’ll either kill you or keep you going. For him, it had been the tonic he needed, saved him from all the guilt that gnawed away at his insides.”

After her first marriage ended, she took a job as a writer at the New Haven Register. When she found that most of her colleagues had no inkling of what life as a single parent was like, she began writing a column and started a novel too, but her journalism and parenting obligations meant that she could only work on the latter sporadically. Seventeen years passed before the book was published. The deadpan wit of What Comes After Crazy earned the author comparisons to Erma Bombeck, the ultimate American voice of harried housewifery.

After two more novels with thirty-something protagonists, Kahn Shelton wanted to write about women at a later stage of life, with other concerns beyond falling madly in love. She wrote these books under the pseudonym Maddie Dawson.

A longtime Connecticut resident, she lives with her husband, Jim Shelton, and their three children. She teaches creative writing and is working on her next novel.

ALSO RECOMMENDED:

The Stuff That Never Happened (written as Maddie Dawson). Offered a second chance at an unforgettable love, Annabelle McKay must decide between a man she loves and the husband who has stood squarely by her side.

Between the Sheets*

Chosen in honor of Jamie, whose bed is where the grandfather in this fun novel meets an untimely end.

3/4 oz. brandy

3/4 oz. rum

1 oz. Cointreau

1/2 oz. lemon juice

Olive

Pour all ingredients except olive into a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake well. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with olive. Serves 1.

*As made on BookGirlTV video interview with Sandi Kahn Shelton.