Shari: I’d be happy to, thanks for having me today. I’m a Missouri girl, born and raised. I have an undergraduate degree in biology and love being in the great outdoors. I also love to read and write and I’ve been writing for about seven years.
Shari: Dangerous Charade is an historical romantic suspense novel that follows a young female investigator through her first undercover case. She makes the grave mistake of falling in love with her number one suspect and ultimately must decide if his feelings for her are true or contrived.
Jen: At what age did you discover writing? When were you first published? Tell us your call story.
Shari: I got serious about creative writing in various forms in my late 20’s. This is my first published novel. It’s a story I worked on in spurts over a few years. My road to getting published is a fairly typical one I think. Write the novel, send out query letters, receive a few requests for pages, then a few for the entire manuscript and then eventually an offer. Mixed into this process are the dreaded rejection letters, of course!
Shari: Fun, romantic, suspenseful
Shari: 100% plot it out. I found early on that flying by the seat of my pants does not work well for writing a full novel, too many potential places to get off in the weeds with different characters storylines.
Shari: I just love to do it. And I’m thrilled when my work entertains someone else.
Shari: I’m dipping a toe into YA on a WIP as we speak, it’s been a lot of fun. I will probably never attempt to write a western as I don’t generally read them and would likely mess it up beyond all recognition!
Shari: Sometimes I use the name of someone in my own personal universe, other times I go with a name that “sounds” right.
Shari: Amanda Quick, Mary Higgins Clark, Janet Evanovich…and many others.
Shari: Yes, a little happy dance! Beyond that, I have a wonderful family and friends who are very supportive of each milestone along the way so many dinners, impromptu gatherings…any excuse for a party!
Shari: Would I sound really one-track minded if I said finishing my next book and getting a publishing contract for it too?
Shari: A paranormal YA novel. This one will be set in present day, U.S.
Shari: www.elizabeth-means.com
Shari: Since this is what I’m working on now…I’d love to know what they find to be their favorite paranormal characters: werewolves? Ghosts? Vampires? Fairies? Demons?
Contest details:
- The prize is an e-book of Dangerous Charade
- The contest is open to anyone over the age of 16.
- You must leave a meaningful comment for entry. This means your comment needs to be more than “please enter me in the contest”.
- A valid email address needs to be included in your comment. If you’re worried about spam, please modify your address, such as admin.bookblog AT gmail.com. You can also send a message to this email after your comment has been posted.
- While following the blog isn’t required, it is appreciated.
- The contest ends on Saturday, December 24.
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