I would like to welcome a wonderful author and friend to my blog today, Sarah S.R Mallery. Please introduce yourself and tell us a bit about yourself and your books.
WHO I AM:
I
have worn various hats in my life.
Starting out as a classical/pop singer/composer, I moved on to the
professional world of production art and calligraphy. Next came a long career
as an award winning quilt artist/teacher and an ESL/Reading instructor. Currently,
I am still teaching ESL part time, tutoring English, writing, editing, and
cherishing my family and friends to no end.
My sewing machine, however, lies dormant off to one side of my studio.
My
short stories have been published in “descant 2008,” “Snowy Egret,”
“Transcendent Visions,” “The Storyteller,” and “Down In the Dirt”. Unexpected Gifts, my debut novel, is
currently available on Amazon, as is Sewing
Can Be Dangerous and Other Small Threads, a collection of short stories. Both books are published by Mockingbird Lane
Press.
1) What
genre do you like to write?
I
tend to write mostly historical fiction, although I also enjoy writing action,
murder, and mystery in a more current time frame.
2) How
long have you been writing? What
prompted you to start writing?
I am
a late bloomer. I didn’t start writing
until I was well into mature motherhood and wifedom. Any earlier than that was seemingly out of
the question for me. Coming from a
family of authors, journalists, and a television writer, I had unconsciously
thought (if not verbally expressed) that I wouldn’t touch that profession with
a ten-foot pole. But when I finally
decided to try my hand at writing a short story (“Sewing Can Be Dangerous”), I
instantly discovered a newfound drug of choice.
I couldn’t be stopped.
3) What inspires you to write?
A
whole slew of things. Just watching a
person’s/people’s behavior(s) on the street, at a restaurant, or maybe a party
makes me want to delve deeper. Looking
at photos can conjure up plots/motivations/characters. Music is a powerful
source of inspiration for me––in fact, while I was writing “Unexpected Gifts” I
was constantly listening to music of the various time periods, which spurred me
on to so many ideas about how I was going to write scenes, develop characters
and their viewpoints. But above all,
what gives me the greatest inspiration is reading about history. I love
exploring interesting events that happened in the past and then including them
in my stories.
4) When a story idea pops into your head,
how long does it typically take to write it (from start to finish)?
This
is a hard one. An idea percolates, often
helped by research and Living With It.
If it’s a short story, the process is obviously much shorter, a novel,
far less so. I’ve written flash fiction
in a day or so, but my novel, “Unexpected Gifts,” because it included various
time periods, took about three years to complete.
5) What
did you find to be the most difficult part of the writing process? Easiest?
The
most difficult part is running into the brick wall of ‘My brain has shut
down’. I used to get upset by this, but
have since learned to accept it as part of the creative process. I’ve also learned to walk away and do
something hopelessly mundane, like washing dishes, dusting or vacuuming to the
strains of Pandora; grocery shopping, gardening, or watching something on TV or
my Kindle Fire.
6) Of
all your characters whom do you most relate to?
Well,
I did feel a gravitational pull towards one of my “Unexpected Gifts” characters,
Daria, the Irish lass who married my 1930’s character Tony. I have always been drawn to the Irish for
some reason (although I don’t have a drop of Irish blood in me). The lilting, rhythmic language, their music,
and the poetic take on life all entice me. Anyway, she touched me more than the other
characters and each time I worked on her chapter, whether it be in the writing
stage, editing, or just a quick run through, I would read it out loud with an
Irish accent, making it that much more authentic and personal.
7) Is there one of your characters that you
did not like when you started writing about them, but found yourself liking by
the end of the story?
This
is a great question! I suppose my 1900’s
father, Andrei from Bulgaria. I wanted
to present him as a disgruntled, frustrated immigrant who took out all of his anger
on his daughter, but as I established what happened to him before coming to the
U.S. and then had him try learning English, it made me feel more sympathetic
towards him.
8) What
is your least favorite part about writing?
The Most?
The least: Working on my style. Plots and characters are second nature to me,
but how I present it all is something I’m constantly trying to improve.
The most: Taking the germ of an idea and
building it into an entire story or complete novel. I love living with the characters and always
thinking about plots, characters, and motivations, whether it be in the shower,
gardening, or driving somewhere (probably not the safest thing to do, btw!).
9) When
you are not writing or editing what do you do for relaxation?
I read
books, watch TV (mostly movies or series), hang out with family and friends,
both physically or on the phone, garden, or just sit in my backyard and soak up
some negative ions...
10) What
genre of books do you like to read?
I am
fairly eclectic. Although I write
historical fiction, I also enjoy crime drama, psychological thrillers, a
well-written romance, nonfiction history, and recently have discovered that if
the writing is good and the characters appealing, paranormal or fantasy
books.
11) What
author(s) do you enjoy reading? Why?
Again,
I’ve been reading various authors, but what basically draws me in, besides good
prose, are the characters. If they are well
defined and engaging, I’m in.
12) Tell
us about your books and where can people find them?
UNEXPECTED
GIFTS:
Book
Trailer: http://bit.ly/18cSWUG
Synopsis:
Can
we learn from our ancestral past? Do our relatives’ behaviors help mold our
own? In "Unexpected Gifts,"
that is precisely what happens to Sonia, a confused college student, heading
for addictions and forever choosing the wrong man. Searching for answers, she
begins to read her family’s diaries and journals from America’s past: the
Vietnam War, Woodstock, and Timothy Leary era; Tupperware parties, McCarthyism,
and Black Power; the Great Depression, dance marathons, and Eleanor Roosevelt;
the immigrant experience and the Suffragists. Back and forth the book journeys,
linking yesteryear with modern life until finally, by understanding her
ancestors' hardships and faults, she gains enough clarity to make some right
choices.
SEWING
CAN BE DANGEROUS AND OTHER SMALL THREADS:
Amazon:
http://amzn.to/1coUKMl
Book
Trailer: http://bit.ly/1g37MAb
Synopsis:
The
eleven long short stories in “Sewing Can Be Dangerous and Other Small Threads
combine history, mystery, action and/or romance, and range from drug
trafficking using Guatemalan hand-woven wallets, to an Antebellum U.S. slave
using codes in her quilts as a message system to freedom; from an ex-journalist
and her Hopi Indian maid solving a cold case together involving Katchina
spirits, to a couple hiding Christian passports in a comforter in Nazi Germany;
from a wedding quilt curse dating back to the Salem Witchcraft Trials, to a
mystery involving a young seamstress in the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist
Factory fire; from a 1980’s Romeo and Juliet romance between a rising Wall
Street financial ‘star’ and an eclectic fiber artist, to a Haight-Asbury love
affair between a professor and a beautiful macramé artist gone horribly askew,
just to name a few.
NETWORK LINKS:
Facebook: S.R.
Mallery (Sarah Mallery): https://www.facebook.com/pages/SR-Mallery-Sarah-Mallery/356495387768574?ref=hl
My Thoughts:
Unexpected Gifts by S.R. MalleryMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Can an old trunk in the attic help the wayward Sonia find her true path? Will learning about her ancestors’ joy and suffering lead her to understand who she really is? You will just have to read this fantastic book to find out.
I would classify this as a comfort book. This is a book you can keep on your shelf to read over and over just because it makes you feel better. Sonia and her family seem so real you almost forget they are not your own kin. Filled with laughter, history, suffering, love and joy, this book will make you laugh, cry, and want for more. I would recommend it to everyone who likes to read a good romance or historical fiction.
View all my reviews
Sewing Can Be Dangerous and Other Small Threads by S.R. MalleryMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book is a collection of short stories with an underlying theme of the sewing art. That said, these stories are rich in history, thoughtfulness, and intrigue.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes history, sewing, weaving, and tales about people’s survival. This is all-around a good book. Some of the stories are better than others, but that is why they are a collection. Alone they are just another story, but together they weave a thread of understanding which will cover your thoughts and keep you wanting more.
View all my reviews
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