Southern fiction for a contemporary audience
Killer Shine
Blood flows just like moonshine in this colorful mystery thriller Killer Shine from Southern Fiction author Shannon O’Neil. Put your finger on the Florida/Georgia state line and drag it east until you hit the ocean. Right there, under the tip of your fingernail, is a tiny slice of paradise called Crab Island. This colorful and unique place is where Southern traditions and Sunshine State style have melded as one — seafood is served with sweet tea, kudzu grows next to the sand, and palm trees obscure the workings of a moonshine still….
About
Hey Y’all! My name is Shannon, I’m a Southern Lit author, sports lover, and beach bum — equal parts sweet tea and cold beer — some combination of Deep South values (family, faith, and football) and Floridian Lifestyle (laid back, sun-loving, and unique). I was born and raised in St. Augustine, a surfers-and-artists type laid back community on the north Atlantic coast of the Florida peninsula — but my heart has always been tied to my family roots in Alabama.
I really appreciate you passing through my little sunny-southern corner of the interwebs. While you’re here, pour yourself a tall glass of sweet tea and explore some of my favorite blog posts or check out my novels including my latest, Killer Shine.
Connect With Me
Things I Love
- First Coast Magazine
- Deep South Magazine
- The Lone Bellow
- Silas House
- Joshilyn Jackson
- Kentuck Art Association
- Florida State Seminoles
Blog
7 Tips for a Spooktacular DIY Halloween Village
In Florida, you can’t trust the weather to let you know when it’s fall. The calendar says that the autumnal equinox has passed, but the thermometer is still ordering up pina coladas and scheduling beach days. In such dire circumstances, I am left with no choice but to grab a pumpkin beer (Fat Tire’s Pumpkick is […]
9/11: What We Have Forgotten
I hate the “Never Forget!” rally cry of 9/11 …because sometimes I wish I could forget. I wish I didn’t know what it sounds like when a commercial airliner hits a skyscraper. Or the noise a falling body makes when it hits a roof. I wish I couldn’t still see the glowing screen on my 13? […]
Baptized into a Southern Summer
Even now, more than a decade after we said goodbye, she still finds me and takes me home. It always happens in an unexpected place, at an unexpected moment, but in the instant her ghostly fingers graze my heart, I willfully close my eyes and follow her to happier times. Most recently, she found me […]
Books
Killer Shine
Put your finger on the Florida/Georgia state line and drag it east until you hit the ocean. Right there, under the tip of your fingernail, is a tiny slice of paradise called Crab Island.
This colorful and unique place is where Southern traditions and Sunshine State style have melded as one — seafood is served with sweet tea, kudzu grows next to the sand, and palm trees obscure the workings of a moonshine still. … [Read More]
Shattered Shine
Decades after a dark tragedy occurred at the lighthouse on Beacon Key, Charley Dawson arrives on the island’s isolated shores, just south of Crab Island. While still struggling to put the pieces of her own life back together, Charley finds her hands full trying to manage the island’s lone resident, Miss Amelia Elmore. Just as Charley is finding her footing (and making progress on repairing the old lighthouse) Miss Amelia’s grandson, Ezra, shows up fresh off his latest failure to further complicate Charley’s delicate situation… [Read More]
Ancient City Christmas
Bailey Hamilton is — literally and figuratively speaking — in quite a bind. It’s Christmas Eve and she is being held in the custody of airport security after causing a ruckus in the ticketing terminal. But as Bailey will explain, she is not to blame for the situation at hand. Two decades’ worth of family Christmas catastrophes have led to this latest breakdown. As soon as Bailey can get the heck out of Florida, she’ll be gone for good…[Read More]
