Author Interview: 10 Questions with Sherry Chamblee

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Our interview for today is with Sherry Chamblee. Thanks Sherry for being here today and thanks for agreeing to do this interview.

Sherry Chamblee

1. Question: Tell us a little about your “real” (Non-writing) life — family, job, church life. Does it give you inspiration for your writing? Does it get in the way of your writing, or are there times when you get help, from people or circumstances?

Answer: My husband and I live in Southern California with our six children, one granny, two dogs, and a cat. Besides being a full-time wife and mom, I am also homeschooling the kids and acting as caregiver for Granny. Needless to say, our schedule is usually packed so, yes, sometimes life does get in the way of writing. However, it also gives me lots of inspiration. More than one idea has come to me from some random conversation with the kids, or my husband. I also get so much encouragement to keep writing from my family. They are the ones who tell me they like my books, and want me to work on the next one.

Matchmaker Mathmaker

2. Question: Tell us about things you enjoy — what you do for fun or personal satisfaction?

Answer: I love to read, and garden when I can. I’m currently trying to nurture about twenty little rosebush cuttings into full-fledged bushes over the next few months.

Trouble at Lake Lorraine

3. Question: What is the “message” of your writing? (For example, is your purpose to encourage old-fashioned values, encourage romance, or do you have different purposes in different books?)

Answer: I’ve found that each book has its own message. If I go in with the intention of forcing a message onto a book, it comes out stilted, awkward. Instead if I just let the story naturally flow the way it’s meant to, then there will be a message there. Once the message is apparent, I do what I can to cultivate it. Generally speaking, in all I write, I want to glorify God.

Babels First Light

4. Question: Tell us one place you visited or person you met, that made a big impression on you, and why.

Answer: I had a teacher in third grade that was one of my biggest inspirations. She loved her students, and it shone through. She also loved people. Each summer she traveled to Kenya as a short-term missionary, and each year she came back with videos of her travels that she showed to the kids in her class. That inspired me to try to make a difference, and it’s shown me that we can have a long-term impact, even when our time is short.

Trouble at Leighton Hall

5. Question: Share something that makes you laugh, with just plain humor, or happiness, or because it’s so stupid.

Answer: What makes me laugh most is my kids. They say the funniest things, in the funniest ways.

Bible Paths to Salvation

6. Question: What’s the worst trouble you ever had with getting a book written (plots, finding needed information, getting a cover done)?

Answer: I have a series about a girl in Bible college who runs into mysteries and solves them. I’ve rewritten the first book four different times, and am currently in rewrite number five. I do still have high hopes for the series, if I can just get it right.

7. Question: What’s your next project? Tell us so we can’t wait for it to come out!

Answer: My next project is going to be a comedy romance. The Match – A single young man is hired by a church as the new 6th grade teacher for their school. Thing is, there are at least two eligible young ladies in the congregation, both with excellent qualities, and the older married ladies of the church know it. The married women rally behind the two girls, forming two distinct groups, and suddenly it’s a match-making war free-for-all, with the unsuspecting young man being the grand prize. These ladies are going to raise matchmaking to an Olympic sport level – may the best girl win.

8. Question: What is your current WIP?

Answer: The House on Wolfe’s Bay – more of a Romantic Suspense about a gardener who keeps seeing a young woman at the windows of a house where he works on the yard. Only he thought this house was empty. The girl wants only to escape, but her secrets will follow her wherever she goes.

9. Question: Are their characters/stories/scenes/etc based on anything in real life?

Answer: The Match actually came from a funny conversation I had with a friend. She had been hired by a church, and there were two single young men on staff there. We were joking that the ladies of the church would turn matchmaking into an Olympic sport, and a new book was born in my head.

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