About Shirley

I’m Shirley Holder Platt, and I’m a hopeless romantic and a voracious reader. This site is devoted to people who want to write romance stories. I also write contemporary women’s fiction and sweet romance stories.  If you’re interested in my fiction, check out my author page at Amazon.com.

I’ve written stories for my family and friends for most of my life. Now, I’m devoting full-time to writing. That means I’m learning not just how to write a good story, but a lot of technology to get stories out of my head and into the hands of readers. I hope to share some stories, musings, book reviews, and a little of what I learn about technology along the way via blog posts.

I once read a story about a man who was suddenly given the ability to see the world as other people perceived it. He was shocked to find a woman who saw every green petal full, pulsing, bursting with sensuality and life, where he saw only flat, two-dimensional forms. I’d like to think if you were given the ability to see as I do, you would find the world a place of magic – where life is full of endless possibilities, boundless grace, and unfathomable love.

When I was a child, living in a world of black and white, right and wrong, truth and lies, I had this urge – maybe I should call it a need, because I certainly could not repress it – to take experiences of my everyday life and make them richer, fuller, more fun, funny, vibrant when telling about them. I suffered terribly, believing that this irrepressible drive to show people the world as I wished it to be meant I lied about my experiences. Here’s a picture of me back then.

Over the years, with the help of many loving people, (and not a few therapists) I’ve come to believe that this view is a gift, not a curse. It’s what drives me to find heart shapes in everyday things like rocks, on cactus plants, in the clouds…everywhere. It whispers to me “write stories that have hope, the world needs them.” I think of it as romancing the mundane world. And when I write about it, I think I’ve found the write romance.

Thank you for coming to my website. If you find hope in even one of my stories,

I’ll have achieved my goal. Feel free to explore the pages and blog posts here and send me your comments and stories of how you are romancing the mundane. I’d love to hear from you.

Subscribe to my monthly newsletter list to get a free download of my book of short stories, “What’s Love Got to do with Green Beer?” The newsletter includes short stories, news about my books, reviews of great romance books I’ve read by other authors, plus writing tips I’ve learned along the way.

Click here for a link to my author page on Amazon.