Interview with Author Sylvia Shults:
Hi Sylvia. Thank you for doing this interview. I would like to welcome you to the Romance at Heart Interview and Author Grilling session. *bg* We are interested to find out as much about you as we possibly can, so lets get started...
- Please tell us about your latest book.
My latest romance book, Timeless Embrace, is actually a collection of three novellas in one book. The stories all center on the three great civilizations, Egypt, Greece, and Rome.
Here's the dish on the stories!
Romance is timeless, love is eternal. Come experience love through the eyes of three ancient cultures in this trilogy of novellas from the imagination of Sylvia Shults. Let yourself be lost in a Timeless Embrace.
What You Wish For: Egyptian prince Ankh-Kheperu had been dead for centuries, until museum curator Emily Chase coaxes him back to life with the help of text from ancient Egypt's The Book of the Dead. What kind of girl could say no to being seduced by a dark, handsome, exotic Egyptian prince?
Love 101: Someone is stealing ancient Greek artifacts. When sexy detective Tony Saals signs up for Professor Becca Hellenga's art history class, he thinks that he'll learn something that will help him catch his man. But Becca is about to catch a man of her own!
Through A Glass Brightly: When American Angela Woods moves to Europe to pursue a job as an English teacher, she never expected to find herself caught in a menage a trois with two attentive Italians, both dedicated to pleasuring her to utter writing fulfillment. The problem? One of them is a ghost!
- What can we expect from you in the future?
Right now, I'm working on a horror novel called Borrowed Flesh. It will be due out in October 2009. After that, I've been asked to write a collection of ghost stories entitled Ghosts of the Illinois River. When that's done, I'll be working on another romance novel. I've already got the basic story, I just need to flesh it out some. It's about a young modern witch in Salem, an obnoxious TV producer, and what happens when the ghost of a woman hanged during the witch trials decides to do some meddling!
- How do we find out about you and your books?
I would absolutely love it if you'd visit my website, www.sylviashults.com. There are all sorts of goodies on it, including a sneak peek at my latest romance collection, information on all my books, and reviews. My web goddess has set it up so that you can email me through the website. Please do -- I love to hear from readers!
- Do you have a favorite comment or question from a reader?
This is about a horror novel: I just had a review of The Dreamwatcher in which the reader said that the book made her not want to get out of bed to use the bathroom because something under the bed might grab her. She took to reading it only during the daylight hours. That, my friends, is power.
My favorite comment, one that I've heard from many people in many different forms, is "I couldn't put it down." A friend of mine, who read my first book [Golden Horus], stomped in to the library where we both worked at the time, slammed the book down on the counter, and growled, "I was up until three o'clock this morning reading that! I just had to keep on turning pages to find out what happened next!"
- How much of your personality and life experiences are in your writing?
Oh, loads, probably too much! I have to fight to make my characters different from me. I feel comfortable letting them appreciate good food and music, but I do have to let them have their own likes and dislikes!
- What about your family, do they know not to bother you when you are writing - or are there constant interruptions?
The cats will jump up into my lap at any old time -- not much I can do about that. My husband, though, is very good about leaving me alone when I say I need to get a chunk of writing done. Every so often he'll stick his head in and cautiously ask how it's going, and I grunt absently, and he goes away. He knows, though, that if there is a Dr Pepper in the fridge, that means I'm close to finishing a project, because that's my reward to myself. I flat-out adore him for figuring that out!
- What do you do to relax and recharge your batteries?
I read. Voraciously and omnivorously. A nice soak in a hot bath helps too. That's how lots of my characters unwind. I figure if it works for them, it ought to work for me.
- Do you feel humour is important in women's fiction and why?
Oh, humor is absolutely important! I could say that we all need to laugh at ourselves once in a while, and that's true, but you know what? I think reading humorous romance is so much more fun than plodding through something that has no humor in it. And writing it is much more fun as well. Here's a good story: when I started writing romance, I knew absolutely nothing about it! I had an idea that had been floating around my head for literally over a dozen years. I finally wrote it down, and it went in a completely different direction than I had predicted it would when I'd first thought of it so long ago. It came out funny. I pitched it to a publisher, who liked it so much that she asked me to write two more stories to go along with it. I agreed, then panicked a little! I still thought I knew nothing about romance -- all I knew was that I had a lot to learn, and quickly! I asked a friend of mine to suggest some reading, and she steered me towards humorous romance. It was then, reading all of the books she suggested, that I realized that this was what I wanted to do. When I write horror, I want to scare the paste out of people. When I write romance, I want to make them laugh, and sigh, and smile. Mostly, it's because that's what -I- want to do when -I'm- reading romance.
- What are some of your favorite things to do?
I love to garden. I'm also really big into wild-foods foraging. I'm all about puttering around in the kitchen -- I bake, make wines and cordials, and I also make cheese. I'm into canning and preserving as well. I'm super interested in herbal medicine. I've used a bit of that knowledge in the romance novel I'm currently working on, called "Double Double Love and Trouble". The heroine is a modern witch who lives in Salem, and that's her specialty, herbalism.
- Who, if anyone, has influenced your writing?
My mentor, Jay Bonansinga, is an absolutely fantastic horror writer. The day I met him, he gave me a piece of advice that I've treasured ever since. We were at a writing workshop, and we were discussing revision. Jay said, "Think of revision as a second chance -- a chemistry set you can play with and create explosions with. Play with it!"
I've also been influenced, believe it or not, by someone who doesn't write -- an artist, not a writer. For my part-time job, I work as an art model at the local college. Every semester, the teacher I usually work with does a portrait class. During one of these classes, I decided to listen to what he had to say, and see if I could apply it to my own work -- see if creativity could cross barriers, so to speak. He said, "When you draw a face, don't just draw a circle, and sort of a triangle for the nose, and shady scribbles for the hair. You have to work from the skull upwards. Draw a circle for the skull...then add the jaw in too. Draw the eye sockets, and center the eyes within the sockets." Basically, he was saying that you have to start with the basics, then work into the details. I decided to apply that to my writing. So now, instead of just scribbling down whatever pops into my head, I start with an outline. Then I take that outline and flesh it out. Only then do I start writing text, after I've started with the basic skeleton and hung some bones on it, then muscles on bones, then skin and details over all. Doing this has made my writing so much richer and more finely nuanced. And what's really cool is that this technique works for any length of work, from a short story, to a novella, to a full-length novel.
- What do you think of critique groups in general?
Well, that's a tough question. I know we're all supposed to be slobberingly grateful for critique groups, even when they tear our work apart. I gotta say, though, that I'm not a big fan of them. I'm a writer, so I've got a tough skin, but I honestly don't like putting my work out for other writers to see before I'm finished with it. And it's not a question of "will they steal my ideas", either. It's that every writer has his or her own agenda, and I don't believe it's very useful to look at other people's unfinished work, especially when you're in the middle of your own project.
I do have a couple of first readers, whose opinion I value very, very highly. But neither of them are writers. What they are, is readers. Both of these women are tireless, insatiable readers. When they read a story of mine, I ask them what's missing, what doesn't flow well in a first draft. And because they have read so extensively, they're able to tell me what needs polishing, what the story needs more of. Their input is invaluable to me.
Thank you very much for taking the time with us and answering our questions. I really appreciate this interruption to your busy schedule. Good Luck, and we will be looking forward to the next delightful creation from your talented imagination!
Yours in good reading,
Rose!
Author Links:
Sylvia's Website Sylvia's MySpace
RaH Links:
Interview Review Review
Purchase Links:
Sylvia's Linden Bay Romance Page Sylvia's Stone Garden Page
Buy Sylvia's Books At Amazon
Buy Sylvia's Books at LindenBay Romance
Buy Sylvia's Books at Stonegarden.net Publishing
