Wednesday, May 8, 2013

A Little About Me


I just returned a few days ago from the Romantic Times Booklover’s Convention. I had a wonderful and memorable time. Although I won’t go into too many specifics about the conference and people I met because this is a public blog, I will say meeting someone in person is completely different than following them online via social media (ie., Twitter or Facebook). With that, I came home with different opinions, some good, some bad and some neutral. Those experiences will allow me the chance to rethink my attack plan once I finish revising my manuscript and get ready to send it out to agents.

I was a finalist in the American Idol contest at the convention which both shocked and delighted me. I’ve been involved in writing since I was young, although I shared that fact with relatively few people. I was never really involved in the social scene in high school, instead preferring to spend my time holed up in the library. This decision killed any chances I may have had at being cool.

The librarian was wonderful, and while I may have forgotten her name, I will never forget her allowing me to hog the old Mac computer. She also gave me extra floppy disks because I couldn’t afford them at the time. I wrote my first book in that library, something I have also told relatively few people about. Almost every day after school I would head over until dark and write. It was something I looked forward to…knowing where I wanted my character to go and figuring out how to get there.

At the time, I was obsessed with Danielle Steel’s Message from Nam. It was a poignant, beautifully written novel that followed a reporter during the Vietnam War. I decided to write about that war and while my book was meticulously researched, it was also pretty terrible. I still have it stashed somewhere and remember some lines of it verbatim. Not that I really want to remember because it’s pretty cringeworthy, but it did show me I had the fortitude to put forth the effort and accomplish something like that.

Growing up was the hard part and my writing became lost in life. I think everyone can relate to getting caught up with some of the curveballs life can throw, and I have had some doozies, just like everyone else. But now…now I finally have the ability to say I don’t have too many distractions anymore. However, that’s not to say that life still doesn’t get in the way. It always will and I’m okay with that. There are more important things to me than writing, although it’s definitely in my top 5.

I am currently working on a paranormal mystery and have started outlining my second book, a contemporary “women’s fiction” novel. Although I have to admit I hate that label. It’s chicklit, folks, a genre I adore, but for many people saying the word “chicklit” is like talking about the dirty uncle that drinks too much at the family Christmas party and gets a little handsy. Anyhow, I embrace it, but you can bet when I send that one out, I’ll make sure it’s labeled as women’s fiction.

A big thank you to all the people who headed over to my page. It is greatly appreciated. Facebook used to be free, but with pages they won’t allow everyone to see your posts unless you pay them. Free with Facebook is definitely a technicality these days. It’s free with conditions. So, if you are not receiving my posts and would like to ensure you are notified, please hover your mouse over the like button and click “Get notifications.” That way you’ll see them in your newsfeed. I’ll try not to inundate you with stuff.

Enough for now.

“But onward, upward, till the goal ye win.”

 Sheryl

Monday, May 6, 2013

Wait for it...

Hi everyone!

I have a brand new blog happening soon. Currently waiting on some graphics and I expect that will take a little while. Once I'm up and running I hope to post about my writing journey and what I learn along the way.