Shannon Johnson Author

Get to Know Me

Dr. Shannon Johnson

Dr. Shannon Johnson is an accomplished educator, creative professional, and author whose work is shaped by a lifelong love of learning, creativity, and storytelling. With a Doctoral degree in Education and a Master of Science in Fashion and Interior Design, Shannon brings together the worlds of education, design, and literature in a way that is uniquely her own.

As a teacher of art, fashion, and design, Shannon has always viewed the world through a creative and visual lens. That perspective naturally finds its way into her writing, where fashion, settings, relationships, family dynamics, and the smallest details help bring her characters and their stories to life. Her writing is rooted in the belief that the most memorable stories are those that allow readers to see themselves, their experiences, and their emotions reflected on the page.

Originally from the small town of Martinsville, Virginia, Shannon's journey has taken her through Richmond and Bloomington, Illinois, before eventually leading her to the suburbs of Chicago. Each chapter of that journey has shaped her understanding of people, relationships, family, community, resilience, and the unexpected paths life can take.

As an author, Shannon writes stories that invite readers to step into another time and place while connecting with characters who experience love, heartbreak, family, friendship, triumph, and second chances. Her stories are meant to make readers laugh, feel, remember, and perhaps see pieces of their own lives within the pages.

For Shannon, storytelling is more than putting words on a page—it is about creating worlds readers can enter and characters they can care about long after the story ends.

Because every story has a beginning, every choice has a consequence, and sometimes it takes Many Chances to finally get it right.

My Vision as an Author

My vision as an author is to tell stories that look beyond the surface of women’s lives and relationships and explore them through a lens that also gives voice to the black male experience. I want readers to see men not simply as characters who love, hurt, disappoint, protect, struggle, or make mistakes, but as people with their own perspectives, emotions, fears, expectations, and battles.

The male dialogue and perspectives woven throughout my stories are influenced by real-life conversations and interactions I have experienced with my spouse and male friends. These everyday exchanges have given me insight into the ways men communicate, how they see relationships, how they process life, and sometimes how differently men and women can interpret the very same situation. I bring those observations into my writing to create conversations that feel authentic, familiar, humorous, complicated, and real.

My stories are ultimately about people—women and men who are trying to navigate love, family, friendship, responsibility, mistakes, forgiveness, and the consequences of their choices. I want readers to understand that none of us gets everything right the first time. We make mistakes. We hurt people. We get hurt. We make choices we wish we could change. But we also have the opportunity to learn, grow, get back up, and fight another day.

That is the heart of what I want my readers to take away from my stories: life is not about getting everything right on the first chance. It is about having the courage to keep trying.

Sometimes we need a Second Chance. Sometimes we need Another Chance. Sometimes we are given a Last Chance, and despite everything we have been through, Chances Are, we still haven’t become who we were meant to be.

My goal is to create stories that allow readers to laugh, question, remember, relate, and perhaps recognize a little of themselves in the characters. I want my books to remind readers that mistakes do not have to define us. What matters is what we do after we fall.

We mess up. We get up. We fight another day, and we keep trying, because sometimes it takes Many Chances to finally get things right in our lives.