Writer’s Window: Sherrinda Ketchersid
Many of you already know Sherrinda through her regular visits to this blog, along with her insightful posts about her own writing journey on her own blog as well as at The Writers Alley. I love watching new authors discover the joys (and frustrations) of the writing journey, so it’s been with great pleasure that I’ve gotten to know Sherrinda over the last few years.
Sherrinda blogs about the writing journey/process/industry at http://www.sherrindak.blogspot.com
What do you like best about being a writer?
- I love that I am using the creative bent that God gave me. I love the thought of spinning a story that might give another person an entertaining escape. I love daydreaming and creating a love story that makes me sigh.
What do you like least about being a writer?
- So far, what I like least is editing and revising. It is the hard business of writing, in my opinion.
Pop, Soda, or Coke? What do you call it, and what’s your favorite variety?
- We call it Coke here in Texas, but my Coke of choice is a Diet Dr. Pepper. Oh, I will drink a Diet Coke if I have to, but I absolutely love my daily dose of my DDP.
Describe your favorite pair of shoes.
- I usually go barefoot when I am at home, but if I have to put a pair of shoes on, I wear a pair of cute little flip flops. For Sundays, I have a pair of black wide strap heels. Heels make me feel thinner, for some strange reason.
What’s the most fun/interesting/crazy/scary/unique hands-on research you’ve done for a book?
- Well, seeing as I’ve only written a medieval, I wish I could say I’ve done some time traveling. But alas, I have not. The most unique thing I’ve done is gone into the children’s section of our library and perused the history books of the Middle Ages. Great information in a short, easy to understand way. And there are lots of pictures, which I love!
Candles. We all have them. But do you burn them? What scents are your favorite?
- I love candles and my favorite scent is vanilla. Yeah, I’m a plain Jane kind of girl. I love any scent that makes my family think I’ve been baking…you know, sugar cookies, birthday cake, snickerdoodle. My house smells wonderful and then they get mad because there’s nothing to eat. (I do have a mean streak, I’m afraid.)
Have you ever re-gifted something someone’s given you?
- Oh yes I have! When I got married, I received 8 deviled egg trays, which I promptly began giving away. For one thing, I didn’t even LIKE deviled eggs at the time, and I really didn’t need 8 of them!
If you were to write a novel about what your life would have been like if you’d become what you wanted to be at eight years old, what kind of character would the story be about?
- Well, it would either be about a school teacher, a mermaid, or a centaur. My dad is an artist/author and would draw me color pages with mermaids and centaurs. I lived in a fairy tale quite a bit.
What makes you happy?
- Besides the normal family answer, I would have to say reading a good book during a thunderstorm, wrapped in a blanket with a candle by my side.
What makes you nervous?
- Money…or lack of it. Singing in front of people even though I do it every Sunday. Walking into a crowded room where I don’t know anyone. (Yeah, I would be really nervous at a writer’s conference.)
What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received?
- Write with your heart, rewrite with your head. It’s freeing to let yourself go, turning off that crazy internal editor, and just write the story.
What’s your biggest dream for the future?
- I’ve fulfilled my first dream of writing a novel. Now my dream is to get published. How fulfilling it must be to walk into a bookstore and see your book on the shelf!
Tell us about what you’re currently writing.
- I am about to start a new story, but I am struggling with which one to write. One is the first of a series about three sisters labeled in their youth by an old busybody at church. Each sister must come to terms with their ‘label’ and learn that no one can label them and make them into someone they are not. The other idea I have is a paranormal. I know, I know, that is totally weird and not a viable option if I want to be published in CBA, but I have a cool idea that I may just run with for the fun of it. I’m still a newbie writer and have lots of manuscripts to write before I get published.
Where can people find out more about you/connect with you online?
- Blog: http://www.sherrindak.blogspot.com
Group Blog: http://www.thewritersalleys.blogspot.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/sherrinda
______________________________
Sherrinda Ketchersid is a pastor’s wife, a mother of four (and mother-in-law to a wonderful young woman!), and holds down a full time job in the office of a local elementary school. She’s had a love for reading since a young girl and knew one day she wanted to write stories that would provide others with the joy and escapism she experienced with a book in her hands.
Sherrinda is a member of ACFW and finaled in RWA/FHL chapter’s Touched By Love contest this year. She has completed one historical/medieval book, and while loving all things medieval, she is going to try her hand at either a contemporary, Regency, or paranormal next. At least until medievals become in vogue in CBA.
Still feeling like a newbie, Sherrinda is devouring writing craft books and honing her skills as a writer, trying to find time in her busy schedule to pursue her dream of publication. You can follow her progress and her thoughts on life at http://www.sherrindak.blogspot.com, http://www.twitter.com/sherrinda, or http://www.thewritersalleys.blogspot.com.
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KayeDacus.com 
I love medieval and there are a few in the CBA market. This was posted on seekerville on the weekend: SaraMegibow of Nelson Literary Agency :” Do you have a medieval romance? Completed. Polished. 100K words? Query me.” It was a tweet from the RWA conference.
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Oh Kav, that is great news about Nelso Lit. Agency needing medieval romances! I will check them out! Thank you for the tip!
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Yay–yes, you should definitely check them out!
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Kaye, my sister-in-law was just telling me yesterday how wonderful your books are, and then I see Sherrinda is guesting over here today. I think God’s telling me to pick up one of your books!
Sherrinda, your 8-eight year old career choices made me laugh. Mine were equally impractical. You already know my love of Dt. Dr. Pepper too!
Follow Sherrinda on Twitter and she’ll always have an ice-cold Dt. Dr. Pepper for you!
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Jill, you will LOVE Kaye’s books! They are fantastic, both contemporary and historical!
And yes, day dreamers tend to be a bit impractical at times, don’t you think? And guess what I stopped to pick up before I went in to work? A HUGE Route 44 Diet Dr. Pepper from Sonic! Sigh….delicious.
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As we used to say in New Mexico, where I grew up, Dr. Pepper is my favorite flavor of coke. 🙂 Now it’s Diet Dr. Pepper. And when I get it at Sonic, I usually have them add cherry flavoring to it. Yum!
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Thank goodness I’m not the only person that goes into the children’s section to research. But you’re so right. Easy to understand with all the most important things stuffed into a short explanation. Plus they have much cooler pictures!
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Linda, don’t get me wrong…it’s not that I don’t like research, but I get impatient so it’s easier to find in the kid section. Plus, I look soooo cool squatting in the kid’s section, browsing for books. 😉
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Two of my favorite research books for the Regency era are sort-of meant for children—the Jane Austen paperdolls book (which has the names of each of the pieces of clothing in it) and an illustrated cross-section of a Royal Navy ship that gives some good facts and a lot of neat little tidbits and pictures of what life aboard one of those ships was like. For the rest of it, though, I’ve had to stick with adult books. (Thank goodness for all of the peripheral material available on Patrick O’Brian’s books! Those have been life savers.)
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Sherrinda, it’s great to learn more about you! I am always so impressed with anyone who can write fantasy or about a period of history about which little is known. As a friend of mine, Trish Milburn, tweeted once, “World-building is hard work!” 🙂
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I knew “a lot” about the Regency era when I started writing the Ransome series. Or so I thought. The research I’ve had to do, especially for books 2 and 3 with all the shipboard stuff, has been almost overwhelming at times. So, even though I LOVE medievals, I’ll leave that up to people like Sherrinda . . . and then just read and enjoy their books!
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Sherrinda, Great to learn more about you after seeing you around the blogosphere.
Eight deviled egg holders?! Wow, is all I can think of to say.
I would love to see more medievals. I’ve had one on the back burner that I’ve been researching for a while.
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Julia, isn’t it fun to find out more people? It is always fun to see familiar names in cyberland. And yes!!! 8 Deviled Egg trays. Crazy, huh? That must have been the “gift of the year”. Weird.
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I go through phases with deviled eggs. Doing Atkins (when I’m actually on program, which I’ve got to get back on to see if I can get any of this extra weight off before ACFW), deviled eggs are one of the favored breakfast/snack ideas. However, after a couple of weeks of those, there comes a point where the thought of eating one more deviled egg (or even a hard-boiled egg) makes my sick.
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Sherrinda!! Love it, why didn’t you tell Pepper to put it up on the newstand on the Alley? Anyway, great interview!! I love that peice of writing advice you were given, write with your heart edit with your head. Love it!
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Regina, I always love seeing your comments on Kaye’s blog. You seem like someone I would love to know. 😉
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Casey, my dad gave me that advice and he got it from the movie, Finding Forrester. A great movie for writers to see. 🙂
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Sherrinda, I love your “spunk!” Go for the paranormal 🙂
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Kathy, spunky, huh? I love that!!!! I’ve always been a very laid back kind of gal, but I do have a VERY mischievous side to me. I even have an evil laugh, which Pepper Basham just LOVES.
Muwahahahahahhaa!!!!!!!!!
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YEAH SHERRINDA!!! So good to see you here with the lovely Kaye Dacus. I’m with Casey. Why didn’t you let people know. I’m heading over to the Writers Alley RIGHT NOW to edit my post. Really.
Remind me to slap you later 🙂
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oooops. To be honest, Pepper, with starting back to work and finding out that we are going to have to move this month (during my hardest work month), well, I kinda forgot about it!!!
So you can slap me….if you can catch me. 🙂
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Kaye!!!! Thank you so much for having me today. Your blog is one of my must reads and I am honored to have gotten to be a part of it.
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I’m so glad you were willing to do this. It’s been a lot of fun for me to get to know a bunch of people better through this process!
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SHERRINDA!!! What a fun inteview — great job to both you and Kaye!
And your premise for the three sisters sounds REALLY cool … but then, I like sister stories, I guess! 🙂
Hugs,
Julie
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JULIE!!!! Aren’t you sweet to stop by! Thank you! I’ve been mulling over the sister idea for quite awhile and I KNOW you happen to LOVE sister stories. 🙂 And you write them WELL! 🙂 I just loaned your books to my mother-in-law and made her promise to get them back to me. She may never want to let them go. ;
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I like the three-sister idea, too (y’all know I’m a lot like Julie when it comes to tying stories together with family members—but she does it a lot better than I do ;-)). But I love the idea of more paranormal fiction coming from Christians. Even if it isn’t Christian fiction, knowing there’s someone with a Christian worldview behind it would make me feel better about reading it.
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