About Lula

Lula White was a mother, wife, and homemaker who had three young children. In 1932, she decided to no longer be devoted to an unfaithful husband, and not to give him any more children. She proceeded with an abortion the old fashioned way. This attempt to reclaim control over her life and womanhood would cost her her life.

I am Shannon Humphrey, and when I began publishing romance novels in 2021, I decided to honor my great-grandmother with these stories of women savoring the love they deserve.

I publish and write for women who want more for themselves than what they're born into, or the circumstances they're given.

 

 

 

My grandma's backyard in Arkansas was never big enough. Though we had little, my family was big on fun, laughs, food, and music. What we lacked in financial means, we made up for with humor, music, television, and books.

 

My grandmother and uncle loved to read, and constantly brought home encyclopedias, magazines and Jackie Collins novels that I snuck to read when they weren't around. 

 

 

Magazines such as Essence and Ebony showed me what was possible for a Black woman. Books by Danielle Steele and Jackie Collins danced in my head, alongside more serious narratives such as Richard Wright's Native Son and Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. I loved stories of us, but the people who looked like me in fiction were so often being wronged. 

Why were white women held up as princesses to be cherished in castles and gardens, while we were maids and slaves? I wanted for us to be affluent and powerful, strong, purposeful. A state of constant suffering could not be our only reason for existing. 

We deserved beauty, tranquility, and to have our slice of Heaven on Earth. I intended to do my part and secure that for us. This was how I thought as a kid of about twelve or thirteen.

I found that success. Scholarships paid for my college. Pledging a sorority, working as a staffer on Capitol Hill, going to law school, reaching the Los Angeles District Attorney's office, becoming president of Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles,

I achieved one shiny title after another. And I'm blessed that I was in the position to help scores of families. I fought for justice on behalf of a lot of people.  

That thirteen-year-old girl who imagined herself running the world achieved just about everything she set out after.

But by age thirty-seven, she was miserable. To be so blessed, why was I always so unhappy?

Job success doesn't always bring fulfillment. We spend so much time striving for that pie in the sky only to finally taste it and find out it's bitter. 

At age 42, I walked away from all I'd worked so hard to achieve-- the respect of my colleagues, the "name" I'd made for myself, my identity as a "Los Angeles lawyer," solid health insurance, the prestige and status, and let's certainly not forget the six-figure salary it took a decade to finally earn. That's no easy move.

I didn't know the first thing about running my own business or what it would take to survive as an author. I only understood that I was empty, and my creativity that had gotten me far was languishing in me. I needed to blend my love of travel, culture, my experiences in beautiful settings, knack for research, and obsession with history, into stories that entertain and expand us.

I believe that's my purpose-- to paint that world I've always envisioned, where people who look like me are limitless.

I hope when you close my books, a multidimensional and limitless world is what you feel you can have, too.