Shannon Yingst is a woman with dreams far beyond her reach. Not because she isn’t ambitious, but because she is short, and her dreams are on the high shelves. On her tip toes reaching for those dusty aspirations, she hopes to achieve the daunting task of entertaining the masses with the written word. Shannon likes to write while listening to Star Wars soundtracks, stand outside while it snows, and get confused playing board games. She would love to spend her days reading on the beach with a waiter bringing her frozen margaritas and snacks as the sun moves about the sky, but for now, she will continue to work at her desk in Jersey.
If They Can’t Kiss Right: Surviving Online Dating is her latest book.
You can visit her blog at https://waitstophelp.blogspot.com/ or connect with her on Twitter.
Thanks for stopping by! What attracted you to the creative nonfiction genre?
I took a creative non-fiction class as part of my undergraduate program and fell in love! My life has always been like something out of a sitcom, so it
was very easy to relay it onto the page. I love being able to tell people about my life in a way that makes them laugh and maybe even relate.
Do you write in any other genres?
I dabble in fiction, but not the way you would traditionally think. I like to mix fiction and non-fiction – taking real life people I know and placing them into fiction worlds. For my one-year anniversary with my boyfriend, I wrote the both of us into a superhero drama story and continue to work on it to give him bits every year until it is a finished piece. We just passed our two-year mark, and I did not give him any new excerpt, so I am obviously very on the ball with my writing.
What inspired you to write If They Can’t Kiss Right: Surviving Online Dating?
After all of these very comical dates and hook-ups, I would tell my friends. We would talk on the phone while I drove home or text about it while I sat in bed dumbfounded by what just happened. They told me time and time again that these stories need to be written down. It came to the point where I needed a thesis for graduate school and the only parameters it gave were how many pages it needed to be. I pitched the idea to my advisor, and it was approved. I wrote the first draft of my book as my graduate thesis.
Can you give us your book blurb so others can find out what your book is about?
Warning: Adult Content
Online dating: the new way of life. It seems
like the only logical way to meet people anymore. The rest of our lives are on
the internet, so why not our love lives too? Because if you wait for your
friends to set you up, you'll only be disappointed with their choice of Roger
from accounting, the epitome of mouth breathing, booger eating morons.
Fortunately, there are no Rogers from accounting
in this tale. There are, however, many other bad choices. But along the way, I
learned what I want, and what I don’t want in a relationship. I learned good
qualities to seek and bad qualities to leave behind. I also learned a lot about
myself in the process, too. The biggest gain I got from my foray into online
dating, though? Writing this book and passing along some of the life lessons I
discovered through a painful trial-and-error process.
If you think your dating life is bad, take a
gander at mine. Relive the awkward moments, soak in the unnecessary drama, and
don't forget to learn a thing or two. Men and women alike will be able to read
this and take home solid dating advice for the future.
Laugh. Learn. Love. Question why some humans are
so insane. Maybe even see yourself in some of the pages. But above all, take to
heart all the things I figured out along the way. It’ll save you the heartache
and trouble. Trust me.
How can readers discover more about you and your work?
I have a Twitter
account which I think has hilarious content: @syingster
I also have an Instagram account, but that is less my work and more my everyday life: @syingster
I have a blog as well, but post sporadically on there, mostly when I have an idea. I do want to start a fan fiction type story series. One of those things we did as early teens when we were obsessed with something and needed to write about it. That project has been started, stopped, and restarted so many times that my laptop is probably getting pissed off with how many Word docs are named “new fanfic idea”. My blog is: https://waitstophelp.blogspot.com/
Where can readers buy your book?
