Shaping Shannon

Jo Ann Swahn

Description

Shannon Swenson is determined not to repeat the mistakes of her ancestors. She will never allow any man to dominate her or make decisions for her or control her intellect and creativity. Her resistance to letting anyone get close defines her life, but leaves her missing something. She doesn't even know what it might be until she meets Graeme, a South African tennis star descended from Boers, settlers of the previous century.

Now she is faced with a difficult choice. Can she surrender the independence she has thrived upon until now? Does Shannon have the strength to let herself be vulnerable? Can she allow love to shape her future instead of fear and anger? Shannon finds answers not only by looking back, but also by imagining a life better than anyone in her family ever dreamed possible.

Jo Ann Swahn weaves a masterful tale of Swedish families who settled early Texas and survived the changes and challenges each generation faced–wars, crop failures, racism, and at times, devotion as deep and wide as the ocean they once crossed on their way to America.

Sujets

• Historical
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 06 mars 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781456640415
• Langue: English

Extrait

Shaping Shannon
 
 
 
 
Jo Ann Swahn
This is a work of fiction. Except for authentic historical persons, none of the characters or events is based on actual people, living or dead, or their lives or circumstances. Any similarities are a coincidence and purely unintentional.
 
Copyright © 2022 by Jo Ann Swahn
Cover design by Kim McBride
All rights reserved.
 
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
 
 
ISBN: 978-1-4566-4041-5
 
 
Dedication
 
 
To Lou, my best friend
Contents
I. SEED
II. ANCESTORS
The Great Swedish Migration
Texas Roots
The Swedish Farmer and the Car Hop
III. DESCENDANT
The Cost of Freedom
Her Wall Crumbles
Thorneside
June 16, 1976
Happiness Has a Shelf-Life
The Swedish Farmer and the Car Hop Final Chapter
IV. LEGACY
Thorneside Farms Winery
That Was the Easy Part
V. HARVEST
About the Author
 
I. SEED
 
 
 
The ground must be prepared before the seed is dropped in. Yours to prepare the soil—Mine to drop the seed-blessing into the prepared soil.
 
From “God Calling,”
edited by A. J. Russell
 
 
 
 
The sounds are what stuck in her memory. Dull thuds, marked by sounds like air forced from lungs. Shouts and screams had ceased a good bit before. Now it was just the thuds of fist against flesh with occasional moans. “Oscar, please not there. Not in my stomach.”
At last, Shannon could stand it no longer. She summoned all the courage her fourteen-year-old petite frame could muster and dared to enter her parents’ bedroom sanctuary, breaking a strict rule never to come into their room when the door was closed.
Her first sensation was the heat from the open-flame gas heater hitting her in the face. No windows were open, and the room was stifling.
Shannon was shocked to see her mother, Beth, lying prone on the bed, naked, with her father weighing her down, straddling her. Beth’s pregnant body was exposed, and her father was pounding her swollen belly, causing the dull thuds Shannon had heard, sounding something like hitting a drum.
“Shannon, please turn off the heater,” her mom pleaded, her voice husky, little more than a whisper. “I can’t breathe.”
Her father glared at her, rage distorting his once handsome Swedish face, cold blue eyes boring into his daughter. “Get out of here,” he hissed.
Shannon turned off the heater and, without saying a word, returned to her room.
But the sounds stopped.
Shannon lay in her bed, wondering why and when this all started. She couldn’t remember her mother without black eyes or bruises or a time without the shouting. Her mother Beth was either furious with her father Oscar or hysterical, crying. Was her father ever sober? She’d peek out the window each night, at the sound of his truck on the driveway, and study him as he got out and staggered to the door. His walk and his expression told her if he were in a silly mood, if he would pass out, or become a raging bull. Then she would rush into her room, hide under the covers, and pretend to be asleep.
Their lives teetered from soberness to drunkenness and what lay between.
Unable to return to sleep, Shannon struggled to understand why her parents were this way.
“How can people live like this?” she said aloud. “When Mom was little, did she ever think she’d be lying in her bed, pregnant, with her husband beating her? Did Dad ever see himself as a drunken excuse of a man, his family terrified of him? What kind of man hits his unborn child?”
That night proved to be the death of her innocence. Born in its place was a force of nature. Determined. Defiant. Disciplined. She would invent the person she wanted to become.
“Someone has to be in control,” she vowed, “and that person will be me! I will never be like my mother or father. And no man will ever frighten me.”