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Monday, April 11, 2022

AN INTERVIEW WITH MYSTERY AUTHOR SHERRY MORRIS

Today we sit down for a chat with multi-genre author Sherry Morris who writes cozy mysteries, romantic suspense, time travel, and twentieth century historical mysteries. Learn more about Sherry and her books at her blog.

When did you realize you wanted to write novels? 

At the turn of the century.

 

How long did it take you to realize your dream of publication? 

About two years.

 

Are you traditionally published, indie published, or a hybrid author? 

I began traditionally published back in 2005 as eBooks were evolving. I have my rights back and am now indie published.

 

Where do you write? 

At home. Either on my desktop in the guest room or on my laptop in the dining room, family room, or outside on the lanai.

 

Is silence golden, or do you need music to write by? What kind? 

Silence is absolutely required. I can’t write with music on, I’ll start typing the lyrics. 

 

How much of your plots and characters are drawn from real life? From your life in particular? 

I usually start with a situation or character from real life, then my muse says and does things Sherry never would and the story takes hold.

 

Describe your process for naming your character? 

It usually takes at least fifty pages before I settle on the character’s name. I do a lot of search and replace.

 

Real settings or fictional towns? 

Both

 

What’s the quirkiest quirk one of your characters has? 

She shakes the pixie dust in her Tinkerbelle watch.

 

What’s your quirkiest quirk? 

I won’t eat anything that has a speck of mayonnaise in it or near it.

 

If you could have written any book (one that someone else has already written,) which one would it be? Why? 

Take the Monkeys and Run by Karen Cantwell because it’s as kooky as what I write, and it was set in Northern Virginia, where I raised my family.

 

Everyone at some point wishes for a do-over. What’s yours? 

I wish I wouldn’t have stopped writing ten years ago when I was rejected by my old critique group.

 

What’s your biggest pet peeve? 

I don’t like being singled out or told I can’t do something that everyone else is doing.

 

You’re stranded on a deserted island. What are your three must-haves? Sunscreen, matches, and an alpha male to protect me.

 

What was the worst job you’ve ever held? 

Hanging raison-colored sweaters in a factory.

 

What’s the best book you’ve ever read? 

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

 

Ocean or mountains? 

Ocean

 

City girl/guy or country girl/guy? 

Suburban girl

 

What’s on the horizon for you? 

Finishing a sequel to Inappropriate, finally finding my audience and marketing to them, becoming an awesome positive presence in my newborn granddaughter’s world.

 


Anything else you’d like to tell us about yourself and/or your books? 

I recently moved from Virginia, hoping to get away from a yard frequented by snakes (more than 2 dozen last summer) to Florida, where a cottonmouth snake greeted us the first week. Our new densely developed community is overflowing with alligators. We’ve also spotted coyotes, wild boars, and a bear.

 

Hundred Dollar Bill

A 20th Century American History Mystery, Book 1


She's a Secret Service Agent in FDR's Washington...


In Book 1 of the 20th Century American History Mystery Series, an alluring Secret Service Agent must apprehend a counterfeiter code-named Hundred Dollar Bill. He's a crooked cop with blue eyes deeper than the devil. She crosses a line and is framed for murder.


With no means of proving her innocence, she goes on the lamb. The agent tasked to apprehend her has a problem. He's crazy in love with this dame.


Meanwhile at the White House, Eleanor Roosevelt finds a pearl-handled pistol in the President's secretary's desk. Not wanting to alarm her husband, Mrs. Roosevelt puts the floozy under surveillance.


It's all a game of cat and mouse from Washington to the Florida Keys.

If you like Alfred Hitchcock movies, you'll love this historical action adventure.

 

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1 comment:

Sherry Morris said...

Thank you so much for this spotlight, Lois! I’m honored.