About Shani
Journalist, Publicist, Publisher, Author
More than two decades of telling the stories behind the people, and helping others tell their own.
About Shani
Writer of the People Behind the Story
Shani Fenderson is an award-winning journalist, publicist, publisher, author, and graphic designer with more than two decades in independent media. A registered freelance journalist in Texas since 1995, she covers music, books, business, food, and the communities that hold them together.
As News Editor of Viewpoints at Riverside Community College, she won first place for an opinion story on music and second place for a news story in the Riverside County college journalism competition, and she was on the staff that earned the Associated Collegiate Press National Pacemaker Award in 2004. She founded and published SouthSyde Magazine and SouthSyde Soul from 1998 to 2004, wrote for Yahoo! Shine, and has worked as an on-air personality, radio host, and commercial voice talent. She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, ASCAP, BMI, and the Project Management Institute.
Through May House Press & Publications LLC™, which she founded in 2004, Shani has supported publicity, sponsorship, and event marketing for entertainment and charity projects, and written bios and press kits for actors and recording artists. She founded AuricYield™, a financial literacy imprint, and is the author of the novels Solitaire and Destined and the books You Are the Product and Breaking the Broke Cycle, along with a line of journals, planners, and coloring books. She designs and illustrates her own covers, including the portraits in the Gemstone Journal Series.
She is Executive Director of Urban Argonauts™, a Texas nonprofit for youth and community outreach. She also leads Full Circle Consulting™, an organizational leadership practice, and earned a BS in Organizational Leadership from the University of Oklahoma, Class of 2026.
Books
The Breaking the Broke Cycle Series
Financial literacy in plain, non-judgmental language, published through AuricYield™.
Breaking the Broke Cycle
Healing Poverty Trauma While Building Financial Stability. April 2026.
View on Amazon
Staying the Course
The companion volume to Breaking the Broke Cycle.
From Employee to Owner
Building a business when you have no business background.
Love & Money
Merging finances and protecting yourself financially in love.
Publishing, 2004 to Present
May House Press & Publications LLC™
Shani founded May House Press in Texas in 2004 to help independent authors take a manuscript all the way to the bookshelf: format, design, distribution, and the publicity that gets a book noticed. The same team handled publicity, sponsorship, and event marketing for entertainment and charity clients.
What May House Does
- Self-publishing services for independent authors
- Formatting, cover design, and retail distribution
- Press releases, media alerts, and press kits
- Venue, talent, and sponsorship outreach for events
- Social media marketing for tours and launches