The Write Way Café welcomes Sherry Lewis, who suggests authors learn to love the journey of writing, not the destination.
If Mr. Congeniality was made into a movie, who would play your main characters, and why?
Good question! If Mr. Congeniality was made into a movie, I’d pick Bailey Chase (Branch Connally on Longmire) to play Dean. That’s an easy pick for me because he’s got the look I had in mind when I was writing the character. Picking someone to play Annie is a little harder. Maybe Rachel McAdams. I really liked her work in The Family Stone several years ago and I think she has the depth to play Annie. Now I’m trying to decide whether those two actors would have the right chemistry to play opposite each other!
What or who has been instrumental in or to your writing journey?
I had a couple of mentors early in my career; one who encouraged me to write in the first place and then helped me identify my voice, and another who helped me learn about story structure so that I was able to write to the end of a book instead of writing 200 pages of nothing, chucking the project, and starting over. My love of books was certainly instrumental in my writing journey, especially once my grandmother introduced me to Victoria Holt and Phyllis A. Whitney and my mother introduced me to greats like Edna Ferber.
What’s the best writing advice you’ve been given? What’s your best writing advice for others?
The best writing advice I’ve been given? I’ve been given a lot of good advice over the years, but I think one of the most profound things anyone ever said to me was one day about 15 years ago when I was loudly lamenting what a difficult time I was having with a particular book. I remember feeling so frustrated with the plot, the characters, the corners I’d written myself into despite my best efforts to plot the thing out before I started so I could submit a synopsis. A writer friend listened to me for a while and then pointed out that it was the challenge of getting around those problems that gave me a feeling of accomplishment. She helped me see that if writing were easy, if words just dripped off my pen (or keyboard) like honey, I’d probably get bored and move on to something else.
My advice to others? Remember that being a writer is about the journey, not about the destination. Learn to love the process of writing, no matter how ugly or frustrating you may feel it is. Having written a book feels great, but it’s the act of writing the book in the first place that gives us the creative itch. It’s good to keep that in mind.
What “keepers” are in your home library?
How much time do you have? The Passions of Chelsea Kane by Barbara Delinsky; Stardust of Yesterday by Lynn Kurland; Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler; Penmarric and Cashelmara by Susan Howatch; Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer; the entire Poldark series by Winston Graham; John Adams by David McCullough; Blackberry Summer by RaeAnne Thayne; anything and everything by Agatha Christie, to name just a few.
If you could be a character in any book you’ve read (or written), which character would you be and why?
I’m torn. I might choose to be Scarlett O’Malley from Dead on Arrival because I like her. I like her spunk. I like her outlook on life. She makes me laugh when I’m in her head and I have a lot of fun when I’m working with her. But I also might choose to be Taylor O’Brien, the heroine in An Echo in Time because she gets to fall in love with Sam Evans. Interesting, isn’t it, that both characters are of Irish descent?
Characters often find themselves in situations they aren't sure they can get themselves out of. When was the last time you found yourself in a situation that was hard to get out of and what did you do?
Oh, goodness…do you want a funny one or a serious one? I get myself into trouble all the time. I guess the worst one in my life was when I tried to leave an abusive relationship I’d been in for about 9 years and my ex-boyfriend decided he wanted to remove me from the planet. He tried enlisting help from friends, offering to pay people $500 to shoot me (Seriously? I was only worth $500 to him??). He took our then-two-year-old daughter from me at gunpoint, and told me I’d never see her again, and also took my 14-year-old daughter away while I was at work. Luckily, he delivered her to her dad, so I knew she was safe, but he still had the younger one and I believed he meant it when he said he’d kill me if I tried to get her back. I had a choice. I could let him win, or I could fight. I chose to fight and I won, but it took a long time, working through legal channels. Even if I hadn’t prevailed, even if he had succeeded in wiping me off the map, I knew I had to do whatever I could to remove my daughter from that situation. Eventually, the police raided his home and returned her to me, and his parental rights were terminated after months of legal wrangling. It was a horrible, terrifying time in my life, but I’ve never regretted the decision to stand up to him.
What book do you wish you could have written?
Just about anything on my keeper shelf.
What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What has been the best compliment?
Again, how much time do you have? I think the criticism that stung the most was when I submitted a book to a publisher that contained a bit of humor. My editor (and the senior editor) called to tell me they didn’t think I was funny and told me they didn’t want me to write humor anymore. I officially quit writing that day. Luckily, my editor from my other publisher called the next morning to tell me how much she enjoyed the humor in the book I’d recently submitted to that publisher, so I hitched up my big girl pants and decided to keep writing
The best compliment? When one of my editors said I was one of the most talented authors she had ever worked with.
We’re adding books to our Café menu. Would your book be a drink, an appetizer, an entrée or a dessert? What would you call it?
I think it would be an entrée, but I have no idea what I’d call it. Probably Sizzling Fire-grilled Rib-eye served with Seasonal Mushrooms and Truffles. It would be a nod to Dean’s meat-and-potatoes palate and Annie’s gourmet cooking skills.
What is your favorite social media? Why?
Facebook for meeting and chatting with readers and other writers. It’s easy to carry on a conversation there with one person or several at a time. I’m not sure why the folks at Facebook think they know what I want to see better than I do, but it seems they do. I still hang out there, but it gets extremely frustrating at times. I like Twitter because, although it’s a bit harder to have conversations, unlike Facebook, people actually see what the people they’ve chosen to follow post.
Tell us about the book in your closet.
Hmmm… Well, there’s one I call Sullivan’s Crossing, which is the story of a woman who, after believing her father died when she was a child her entire life, suddenly learns that he was alive the whole time and died only recently. Over the protests of her mother and her husband, she travels cross-country on her own to find out about her father and his life.
Or there’s one I call What Women Want, which is the story of a hero whose mother, a lifelong feminist, conceived him through a sperm bank. The story looks at his identity issues resulting from his mother’s choices and his determination to be a real father should he ever have any offspring. That determination is challenged when a chance one-night stand with a woman whose values and goals are very different from his results in an unexpected pregnancy.
They’re not whole books. Nothing in my closet is a completed novel. I’ve been lucky enough to publish everything I’ve written to the end.
And now for the fun stuff!
If you were a punctuation mark, what would you be?
An exclamation point! I tend to think in exclamations and I catch myself using them a lot, especially on social media.
What is your biggest shopping downfall?
Books, if you can call my obsession with them a “downfall.” And maybe watches. I love them. Can’t own too many.
Are you a glass half empty or glass half full personality?
I’m probably a half-empty person in reality, but I like to think of myself as a half-full personality.
If you had to write with a pen instead of a computer, what type of pen would be your preference?
Bic Round Stic, medium point, blue ink.
What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done in the name of love?
I told one co-worker, on whom I had a huge crush, that I liked to go hiking in the mountains. Nothing could have been further from the truth, but I desperately wanted him to ask me out. He did, and we set a date to go hiking. I made it about five minutes up a very small foothill, before he realized I was no hiker. He took me home and that was that—which was a very good thing because a few weeks later, the police came screaming into the parking lot at work, surrounded his car (parked under a huge shade tree), and released a young girl he’d apparently locked in there. There but for the grace of God…
Do you have any strange writing habits (like standing on your head or writing in the shower)?
I don’t think this is odd, but, some people might disagree. I have a very difficult time writing and revising a book entirely in digital format. I really need to print out the pages and work on hard copy when I’m editing or revising. I have always worked best when I allow my creative side to use the computer to create and require my internal editor to use hard copy.
Dean Sheffield has been hurt-in more ways than one. The car accident that robbed him of his baseball career also took away the woman he loved. Now he’s starting over with a new business, the Eagle’s Nest Dude Ranch in Whistle River, Montana. He’s also been asked to take his teenage nephew for the summer, but Dean has no idea what’s in store for him. The only thing he does know is that women are the last thing on his mind.Annie Holladay is also starting over, gearing up for a new career and spending a few precious months with her daughter before Nessa moves in with Annie’s soon-to-be ex-husband. Annie also has her hands full working at the Eagle’s Nest for the summer, especially after she realizes that she and Dean are attracted to each other.
It’s too bad they agree it’s not the right time to start a relationship because the attraction between them is becoming a distraction for them both.
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About Sherry: Sherry Lewis is a national bestselling, award-winning author who writes across several genres. Along with her writing career, she is the owner and instructor of Dancing on Coals Workshops for Fiction Writers, where she has been teaching writing workshops for more than 20 years.
In 1993 Sherry launched her mystery-writing career with the sale of her first three books in the Fred Vickery mystery series to Berkley Prime Crime. In early 1994 she sold her first romance to Harlequin Superromance, launching her career as a romance writer.
As Sammi Carter, she wrote the Candy Shop mystery series set in Paradise, Colorado and featuring Abby Shaw. As Jacklyn Brady she wrote the Piece of Cake mystery series set in New Orleans, featuring cake artist Rita Lucero. She is a long-time member of Romance Writers of America, where she served several terms on the board of directors, including one term as president. She is listed on RWA’s Honor Roll.
Originally from Montana, Sherry spent several years living at the base of Utah's Wasatch Mountains. She now lives a block from the beach along Florida's Emerald Coast. It's a dirty job, but somebody has to do it.
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