Looking out the Window: Sherri Stewart Talks About Her New Book, A Friend in High Places. Gives Away Two e-Books.
Sherri will give away an e-Book of A Friend in High Places and Come Out of Hiding. To enter to win leave a comment and an email address below.
Thank you, Gail, for inviting me to be part of your blog family.
It’s my pleasure to have you. First, tell us a little about yourself.
I’m a fairly new widow and getting used to the idea. The Lord has been so there for me through the last year and a half. I live near Orlando and nearer still to Disney. I go to its parks to walk a couple times a week. I write mainly in the historical romance and romantic suspense genres. My favorite part of writing is the research—I love travel and visiting the places in my books to make sure my facts are authentic. However, I had to cancel the trip to LA to research A Friend in High Places. Stupid Covid. I live with my son and dog, Lily, who is the best sleeper in the world. She’s got it down to a science.
So sorry for your loss and the covid. Lots of writers were avid readers as children. How about you? If so, what did you read?
I sure was an avid reader, starting with the Bobbsey Twins, then moving into Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden. Reading is so important for young kids. It broadens their world, engenders their imagination, and helps them to become independent thinkers.
Tell us about your latest book.
A Friend in High Places is my first attempt at time travel romance. Now don’t worry. It’s not sci fi or fantasy. Kelly Thomas must settle her Aunt Claudia’s estate. She stays in her aunt’s Pasadena bungalow while she plans the funeral and goes through her favorite aunt’s things. During the burial service, she notices an elderly gentleman standing next to a tall red-headed man away from the crowd of mourners, so she approaches them to introduce herself. What she discovers about the man’s identity rocks her world apart. Aunt Claudia has always been her hero, and Kelly’s modeled her life after her independent aunt. Now she’s confused. She’d thought her aunt’s husband had died in the war decades before. Kelly enlists the help of Chris, the young man with Mr. Collins at the cemetery, to help find the truth. And what they discover is that a simple misunderstanding led to the demise of a beautiful romance. If only she could go back to the sixties to fix it.
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What do you love about A Friend in High Places? And what do you hope readers will tell others about it?
What’s wonderful about time travel is that it connects the present day with the past, so the characters are dealing with the same issues as the reader is. Armed with knowledge of the present, the main character can hopefully help their loved ones avoid heartache. In this book, a niece helps her great aunt reconnect with the love of her life. It was a God moment when the #MeToo movement came to mind. What if actresses of the sixties were warned about their so-called auditions ahead of time? What if the producers were warned?
In three words describe your style of writing.
Faith-based romance
How do you get to know your characters?
Each of my main characters has a bit of me in them. They are believers, but there is some issue they’re dealing with like grief, envy, guilt etc. In this book, Kelly has grown up resenting being her parents’ second-best love. They are missionaries, working with Aids children in Nigeria. She knows they are doing important work, but she wants a more normal life, so she spends her summers with her Aunt Claudia, who is an assistant producer at a studio in Hollywood.
What is your writing schedule and where do you write?
I have an editing business, which keeps me very busy. I edit authors’ novels before they’re turned in to their publishers. Since March when the pandemic started, I’ve been swamped with business, but I’m grateful to God that He’s taking care of me in this way. Having said that, I have to fit in my own writing after hours of staring at a computer screen. So I try to write 500 words a day, six days a week. It’s not a difficult goal, but it moves me forward.
Do you have to juggle writing with a job, family responsibilities or other obligations? If so, how do you balance it?
I’m a list maker. I cannot go to bed until I’ve accomplished the things on my list. Today’s list:
1. Finish this blog. 2. Make an appointment with a piano tuner. 3. Edit 2 books. 4. Write my 500 words. 5. Walk in Animal Kingdom. 6. Go to Bible study at 6:30. 7. Be home for the handyman to fix my bathtub this afternoon. 8. Practice Dutch and Welsh. 9. Walk dog.
Are you a plotter or a pantzer?
PLANTZER. I write a very sketchy plot and hardly ever refer to it. I usually just go with the story. I ask myself, what would reasonably happen next? Then what would happen next that would knock the reader’s socks off?
Does your faith affect your writing? If so, how?
Absolutely. How could I not? My worldview is guided by the precepts in the Bible. It would be irresponsible to write about a character from a secular or nominal worldview. At the very least, the characters have to be grappling with issues of faith.
Do you put yourself in your books?
Yes. In my first book, Come Out of Hiding, the lawyer was dealing with cases that I had dealt with in my law practice. In my latest book, A Friend in High Places, Claudia is dealing with settling the estate of her aunt. That is something I had to do a year and a half ago with my husband. It’s a hard thing to do.
What are you working on right now?
I’m working on a sequel to my book, A Song for Her Enemies, that comes out on March 2nd. The new book is a historical romance about a married couple of Messianic Jews who survived the holocaust in the Netherlands and now must deal with forgiveness and starting a normal life.
About Come Out of Hiding
Slightly agoraphobic Julie Richards, an immigration attorney, just wants to be left alone in her fortress-like house. But someone is watching her—she can feel it, or is it just her imagination playing tricks on her? She has more than she can handle with a case she’s working on involving Crista Bauer, a Guatemalan teacher and newlywed, whose husband Marcus is trying to kill her. Crista and her baby Sofia must go into hiding. But he always finds her. It doesn’t take Julie long to realize that Marcus is out to harm her as well, and her fortress becomes a place of danger. Add to that, a new client—Sun Lee, a teenager from South Korea, who has come to California for a summer vacation with a childhood friend. But her vacation-of-a-lifetime becomes a nightmare when she is stripped of her money, phone, and identification and forced into human trafficking. Will Julie be able to overcome her fear, come out of her shell of a house, and help rescue Crista and Sun?
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Bio: Sherri Stewart loves a clean novel, sprinkled with romance and a strong message that challenges her faith. She spends her working hours with books—either editing others’ manuscripts or writing her own. Her passion is traveling to the settings of her books, sampling the food and visiting the sites. Sadly, her trip to Wales and London was cancelled due to COVID, but she did visit Atlanta, and she’s still learning Welsh and Dutch for future visits. A recent widow, Sherri lives in the Orlando area with her lazy dog, Lily, and her son, Joshua, who can fix anything. She shares recipes, tidbits of the book’s locations, and pix in her newsletter.
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