Shannon Bates creates

I have been playing the saxophone for 25 years, and the flute for 17. The styles I have played include big band jazz, be-bop jazz, swing, classical, dixieland, funk, alternative, ska, punk, rock, soul, R&B, reggae, afrobeat, and Latin. I earned a Bachelor of Music (composition) from Pacific Lutheran University. I have recently been sitting in with bands like The Bankhead Press, Science Fiction, and Team Abraham. I played for two years with an afrobeat/funk/soul group called Society (nominated twice for SDMA), and I also recently played a string of gigs with Rebel Tree. I played in recent years in a band called Insight (R&B/groove/Latin). I played in riboflavin' (alternative rock/ska/funk) for five years, and I have played or sat in with several bands over the past couple of years, including Agua Dulce, Saturns Day, Paper Saloon, Able Minded Poets, and Ghetto Sage.I have written fiction and poetry in some form for most of my life. Two novels are under my belt and awaiting representation (one of which has earned me two offers of representation), and a collection of short stories and a slew of poems are also gathered in anticipation of publication. Currently, I am past the 265-page mark on one new novel-in-progress, and about 100 pages in another. I attended the Maui Writers' Conference in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008, and the San Diego Writers' Conference a few years earlier. I was a finalist for the Rupert Hughes Prose Writing contest in 2005. I have read and featured as a writer at poetry and fiction venues all over Southern California, and I hosted an open mic in Old Town San Diego for a year. I have a short story called "Burden" published in an anthology put out by EditRED, called Late-Night River Lights.