Guest Blogger: Sharon Sala
Nicole: Tell us about your favorite reader moment from this year's convention.
Sharon: It's hard to pick a true favorite because my readers are like family to me. I share a very personal part of myself with people who read my stories, so I would have a hard time choosing one reader's comment over another's. However, I had a bookseller tell me something during the convention that made a tremendous impact on me. She told me that she'd been reading me since the very first book and had never ever been disappointed in anything with my name on it. That is a high compliment which I cherish. She added that, one reason she thought that was true was because I didn't keep writing the same stories. She said she felt that my skill in storytelling grew with each book I wrote, and that I wasn't afraid to change directions, even though I had reached a certain level of success with what I was already doing. She said, and I do agree with this, that to change is to grow, and the ability to grow with the genre is what keeps people in this business.
Nicole: What panels and events did you take part in?
Sharon: I was on a panel with Lori Wilde, Lori Foster, Ann Christopher and Christie Craig called CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE - Finding Fantasy In An Ordinary World. It was a great discussion on the "hooks" each of us use to create our stories. It's always interesting to me, and hopefully eye-opening to beginning writers, to find out that there is no "one" way to tell a story and that everyone has their own strengths to bring to it. We had great response and good questions from the audience members. Hopefully there were some hints we gave that will turn out to be helpful to each of them as they follow their own paths to being published.
Nicole: Who were you looking forward to seeing most while there?
Sharon: As always, it was to reconnect with the readers and booksellers, although this year was particularly special to me. I was notified that I'd won a Reviewer's Choice Award for the Best Paranormal Romantic Suspense for my book THE SURVIVORS. That book was particularly special to me because I was in the midst of writing it when Bobby, who was the love of my life and my childhood sweetheart, was diagnosed and then died from liver cancer. He died in our home, in my arms, and I wanted to die with him. The months preceding and then following his death were absolute agony for me. I couldn't think, let alone write. My publisher, Harlequin, and my editors, Leslie Wainger and Dianne Moggy, were wonderful. They gave me all the time I needed to turn the book in, even though that meant they had to pull it from their schedule and release it an entire year later. Even then, when I finally finished it months later, it was, like me, a mess. Leslie Wainger was the one who led me through the revisions and editing. Finally it became the story I'd meant it to be all along. I dedicated it to Bobby, too, so having it win in that category was bittersweet.
Nicole: Do you have a favorite Mr. Romance competitor?
Sharon: I have to say that John De Salvo would probably be my choice if I had to name one, but that's because he's been on so many of my earlier covers. He did a lot of the covers for my stories when I was still writing for Harper/Collins, which is now under the Avon imprint. And, those books have been some of my readers' favorites. The biggest would probably be a book I wrote called JACKSON RULE, but he was also on DREAMCATCHER, DEEP IN THE HEART, and several others. His work was outstanding on all of them, so I guess he wins my vote.
Nicole: What are your upcoming projects?
Sharon: My upcoming projects... hmmm... well, I have a book coming out in November of this year called BAD PENNY, which will be the last book in my female bounty hunter trilogy. That character, Cat Dupree, and her fellow bounty hunter, Wilson McKay, have turned out to be huge reader favorites, as they have mine. I also have an anthology with Janis Reams Hudson and Debra Cowan in the Silhouette Nocturne line that will be out in October. There's been some discussion regarding the title... ours got changed... but last I heard, I think the powers that be are calling it LIFE AFTER LIFE. And, I'm working on a book right now called THE WARRIOR, which will be a paranormal romantic suspense in the same vein as my most recent release, THE HEALER.
Nicole: Will you be attending the 2009 RT Convention in Orlando?
Nicole: I would like to say yes, but right now I don't plan that far ahead. My 88 year old Mother lives with me. She has no short term memory and some health issues that we deal with on a regular basis. Even though she can't remember to take her pills, or eat a meal (that's what I'm for) we still have a ball. We're together now just as we were when I was born - under one roof - one caring for the other. Only this time it's my turn to take care of her. She might not remember anything much, but she sure knows when it's getting close to the day for her beauty shop appointment and our "lunch date" afterward. That's the mark of a real woman. We might forget a lot of things, but we do remember when it's time to get our hair done and to go out to eat a meal someone else has fixed.
I do want to take this opportunity to tell everyone who took the time to stop and talk to me how much I enjoyed seeing you again. I'd been looking forward to coming for months because of the 25th anniversary of the Romantic Times convention. I have so much respect for Kathryn Falk and Carol Stacy. It was amazing to look back over the years and see how both the magazine and the convention has grown. I'm really glad I got to be a part of it.
Sharon Sala
http://romanceauthorspage.com/sharonsala
Sharon: It's hard to pick a true favorite because my readers are like family to me. I share a very personal part of myself with people who read my stories, so I would have a hard time choosing one reader's comment over another's. However, I had a bookseller tell me something during the convention that made a tremendous impact on me. She told me that she'd been reading me since the very first book and had never ever been disappointed in anything with my name on it. That is a high compliment which I cherish. She added that, one reason she thought that was true was because I didn't keep writing the same stories. She said she felt that my skill in storytelling grew with each book I wrote, and that I wasn't afraid to change directions, even though I had reached a certain level of success with what I was already doing. She said, and I do agree with this, that to change is to grow, and the ability to grow with the genre is what keeps people in this business.
Nicole: What panels and events did you take part in?
Sharon: I was on a panel with Lori Wilde, Lori Foster, Ann Christopher and Christie Craig called CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE - Finding Fantasy In An Ordinary World. It was a great discussion on the "hooks" each of us use to create our stories. It's always interesting to me, and hopefully eye-opening to beginning writers, to find out that there is no "one" way to tell a story and that everyone has their own strengths to bring to it. We had great response and good questions from the audience members. Hopefully there were some hints we gave that will turn out to be helpful to each of them as they follow their own paths to being published.
Nicole: Who were you looking forward to seeing most while there?
Sharon: As always, it was to reconnect with the readers and booksellers, although this year was particularly special to me. I was notified that I'd won a Reviewer's Choice Award for the Best Paranormal Romantic Suspense for my book THE SURVIVORS. That book was particularly special to me because I was in the midst of writing it when Bobby, who was the love of my life and my childhood sweetheart, was diagnosed and then died from liver cancer. He died in our home, in my arms, and I wanted to die with him. The months preceding and then following his death were absolute agony for me. I couldn't think, let alone write. My publisher, Harlequin, and my editors, Leslie Wainger and Dianne Moggy, were wonderful. They gave me all the time I needed to turn the book in, even though that meant they had to pull it from their schedule and release it an entire year later. Even then, when I finally finished it months later, it was, like me, a mess. Leslie Wainger was the one who led me through the revisions and editing. Finally it became the story I'd meant it to be all along. I dedicated it to Bobby, too, so having it win in that category was bittersweet.
Nicole: Do you have a favorite Mr. Romance competitor?
Sharon: I have to say that John De Salvo would probably be my choice if I had to name one, but that's because he's been on so many of my earlier covers. He did a lot of the covers for my stories when I was still writing for Harper/Collins, which is now under the Avon imprint. And, those books have been some of my readers' favorites. The biggest would probably be a book I wrote called JACKSON RULE, but he was also on DREAMCATCHER, DEEP IN THE HEART, and several others. His work was outstanding on all of them, so I guess he wins my vote.
Nicole: What are your upcoming projects?
Sharon: My upcoming projects... hmmm... well, I have a book coming out in November of this year called BAD PENNY, which will be the last book in my female bounty hunter trilogy. That character, Cat Dupree, and her fellow bounty hunter, Wilson McKay, have turned out to be huge reader favorites, as they have mine. I also have an anthology with Janis Reams Hudson and Debra Cowan in the Silhouette Nocturne line that will be out in October. There's been some discussion regarding the title... ours got changed... but last I heard, I think the powers that be are calling it LIFE AFTER LIFE. And, I'm working on a book right now called THE WARRIOR, which will be a paranormal romantic suspense in the same vein as my most recent release, THE HEALER.
Nicole: Will you be attending the 2009 RT Convention in Orlando?
Nicole: I would like to say yes, but right now I don't plan that far ahead. My 88 year old Mother lives with me. She has no short term memory and some health issues that we deal with on a regular basis. Even though she can't remember to take her pills, or eat a meal (that's what I'm for) we still have a ball. We're together now just as we were when I was born - under one roof - one caring for the other. Only this time it's my turn to take care of her. She might not remember anything much, but she sure knows when it's getting close to the day for her beauty shop appointment and our "lunch date" afterward. That's the mark of a real woman. We might forget a lot of things, but we do remember when it's time to get our hair done and to go out to eat a meal someone else has fixed.
I do want to take this opportunity to tell everyone who took the time to stop and talk to me how much I enjoyed seeing you again. I'd been looking forward to coming for months because of the 25th anniversary of the Romantic Times convention. I have so much respect for Kathryn Falk and Carol Stacy. It was amazing to look back over the years and see how both the magazine and the convention has grown. I'm really glad I got to be a part of it.
Sharon Sala
http://romanceauthorspage.com/sharonsala
posted at 11:52 AM
1 Comments:
Oh, dear, big hugs Sharon.
The story about losing the love of your life, wowsers, that made me tear up. I don't know what I'd do without my hubby.
And then... about your Mom.
THAT's what romance is about. The relationships.
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