Welcome to my blog today, Shari Elder. Be sure and check out Shari’s book, and follow her on social media. I’ll let her introduce herself.
Hello, I’m Shari. By day, I crawl out of bed, mainline coffee, walk the dog, get my kid off to school, hop on the metro, and save cities within the four walls of my office. Usually by email.
At night, the other Shari emerges. I take off the suit, curl up on the couch and let my imagination play, with words and images until stories take shape (while periodically checking on my teenager, hiding out in the bedroom and plotting world domination with her furry minions). As my alter ego, I save cities in a cape and spangled tights, wander space and time on a surfboard, fly over the Himalayas on feathered wings, make six-toed footprints in indigo talc snow on the sixth planet in the Andromeda galaxy or eavesdrop on Olympian gods while pretending to whip up a bowl of ambrosia.
In all these wondrous worlds, romance and passion blossom. I can’t resist a happy ending. And I am particularly prone to writing happy endings for those who have given up on ever getting one. That gives me immense satisfaction.
Join me on my journey. The best ideas emerge from team work.
The five questions Shari chose to answer.
If you had to describe yourself in one word, what would it be?
Persistent.
Ann: As authors, we have to be persistent or we’ll never get anything done! It’s a good quality to have.
What is the most romantic thing a man/partner has ever done for you? Have you put it in a book?
This story remains one of my most special and most poignant memories. When I was in college, I fell in love for the first time. We were not able to spend our first winter holiday together because my grandmother was taking my sister and me to Mexico over Christmas break. When we returned home from the airport, there was a giant box sitting in my driveway addressed to me. My boyfriend had driven to our house from another state and packed himself in the box to surprise me. He didn’t want us to be separated for our first new year’s eve together. It was an amazing gesture, and I feel extremely grateful someone would have done that for me.
I have not put it in a book. Yet.
Ann: All I can say to that is….sigh.
What is one of your favorite quotes?
Hands down, my favorite quote is Our Deepest Fear by Marianne Williamson from the Book A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
Ann: Wise words to live by for sure.
What’s the best advice you ever got…does not have to be about writing.
The best piece of advice I ever got was with regards to writing my thesis in graduate school but it applies to almost any goal. Another student told me that the biggest obstacle I would face would not be the intellectual challenge of writing the thesis, but the personal/psychological barriers that tripped me in life generally would flare up with a vengeance. He was right. Reaching a goal, in the end, is a psychological journey, more than just developing a set of skills.
Ann: Sometimes we just have to get out of our own way to accomplish things.
What’s the best advice you can give a new writer?
Learn to train your muse. A lot of research suggests that creativity is best stimulated by some degree of structure. Coming to the page with a pretty set routine—be it daily, tri-weekly, bi-weekly, whatever—is proven to enhance creative productivity. Counterintuitive maybe, but as someone who has to sneak their writing in between full-time work, sole parenthood, and other community, family and social obligations, establishing a writing routine is the only way I can get something done. And the fact it’s backed by research calms my android-type mind.
I think of it as training the muse. A bit Pavlovian? Maybe, but it seems creativity gets used to a routine. I write every morning. The alarm goes off at 5:00, I pull my butt out of bed by 6:00 and write for half an hour to an hour before breakfast, guaranteed. I may do some at night if I can, and on the weekends, but the morning is my writing time. So my muse knows that it’s her time to come out to play. I don’t wait for her, rather I create the conditions that invite her.
Ann: That’s excellent advice…if only I could do it!!
Unnatural Allies
A world in Transition
Violent fae encroachment on shifter land is heating up. With death tolls rising, the impossible becomes necessary – an alliance among predator and prey shifters.
An Inconceivable Love
Nicca Baron, lone wolf and wolf clan beta, finds herself under the command of Evan Grant, the rat alpha. In different circumstances, he’d be dinner. Or so her wolf keeps reminding her. Evan proves to be a perceptive leader, a skilled fighter and irresistible to her lonely heart.
To rule the rats, you have to rule the pack. Evan is a whiz at managing people and groups. Until he finds himself leading a mission made up of every single large animal that thrives on rat flesh. And not the kind between his legs. The only bright light is Nicca. Her storm gray eyes miss nothing, her brilliant mind comprehends everything and her succulent curves offers the perfect place for a rat to nestle.
An Impossible Future
In each other’s arms, Nicca and Evan discover love and a new perspective in an off-kilter world. But a wolf cannot mate with a rat, no matter the strength of the human attraction.
Buy Links
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0718ZTNFY
Evernight Publishing: http://www.evernightpublishing.com/unnatural-allies-by-shari-elder/
Bookstrand: http://www.bookstrand.com/unnatural-allies-mf
Hang out with Shari on the Web
Website http://sharielder.com
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ShariElderStories/
Twitter http://www.twitter.com/ShariElderBooks
Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/ShariElderBooks
Thanks so much for hosting me.