Author Interview Featuring
Barbara Sheridan

Timeless Wish

I want to thank Barbara for doing this interview with MV.

MV
1. How long have you been writing?

Barbara
Pretty much since I read Anne Rice's Interview With The Vampire waaaaay back when it was first out.

I disliked the ending wrote my own and realized that making up stories was even more fun that reading them.

MV
2. Have you written in other genres?

Barbara
Yes I did some horror/dark fantasy and horror reviews for small press magazines a few years ago.

MV
3. What is your average writing day like?

Barbara
Being between real jobs it's just a basic mom duty day with school hours spent at the keyboard.

MV
4. What are your priorities in your writing life and how does it contrast or parallel with your personal life?

Barbara
They're basically the same. What needs to be done first gets done first. For example I recently received the copyedited manuscript for Silver Rain my second Berkley release. That had to be reviewed and commented on within a week so I did that and put working on new projects, etc on hold.

MV
5. How do you prepare for your stories and do you use a different process for novels than short stories?

Barbara
For me writing begins with either a person or situation or even a line of dialogue that raises questions in my mind--how did this happen? Who are the people involved? How would this sequence of events change someone or make them react?

MV
6. Do you mold your heros after anyone you know? In physical appearance and emotional makeup.

Barbara
Yes and no. For me fictional characters are made up of bits of pieces of myself and people I've known or come into contact with.

MV
7. Same question for your heroines?

Barbara
I think more of my personality goes into my heroines the emotions they experience certainly though the situations that trigger those emotions may be like nothing I've ever experienced.

MV
8. Are your ideas influenced by other writers and their books?

Barbara
No. I have more ideas constantly popping into my head that I can ever put to use.

MV
9. How long did it take you to write Timeless Wish?

Barbara
About 3 months or so. It's actually a sequel based on a straight historical so the setting and many of the characters were already in place so to speak.

MV
10. What advice would you give other writers?

Barbara
I have no idea. I'm pretty new with regards to being published so I think I could probably use more advice than I can give.

MV
11. Is there something that draws you more to the Time Travel than other genres?

Barbara
I've always been fascinated with the mid to late 19th century so I guess it's my way of getting back there and experiencing it first hand as it were.

MV
12. How much research did it take to get all you wanted and felt you needed to know to write Timeless Wish ?

Barbara
As I said the book is actually a sequel so I knew my fictional world pretty well. I only needed to do some research to help bring Laura and her interests to life.

MV
13. If you were to give an aspiring writer any advice what would it be? (could be different for those who are just starting out as opposed to question 10)

Barbara
It would have to be don't give up. Timeless Wish was rejected by another publisher days before it was bought by Berkley. The other house told me something like, "this is not up to our usual standards...."

MV
14. What writing process do you use, are you a plotter or a fly-by-the-seat-of-your pantser? Do you write straight through and revise later, or do you revise as you write? How do you feel about your writing at the different stages?

Barbara
I start with a basic skeleton beginning, middle, and end and pretty much let the characters and their actions dictate how they get from point A to point B.

I can't do draft after draft. I try to get it right the first time through. I don't recommend it but it works for me.

I don't think I'm ever really satisfied. It seems that the story in my head never quite is the same on paper. I always think it could be funnier or more suspenseful, etc.

MV
15. Have you ever had writer's block? If yes, how did you get through it? If no, how or why do you think you avoided it?

Barbara
Did I ever! After I sold Timeless Wish I couldn't write at all. I could write but I couldn't seem to stay focused enough to finish anything worthwhile.

How did I get through it? Signing the contract for Silver Rain and knowing that 30 pages and a synopsis was not going to fulfill said contract. An image of big scary lawyers knocking on my door with "You did not live up to your side of the deal" tumbling from their lips and pushed those words out of my subconscious. Fear is a great motivator I think. *grin*

MV
16. What research resources do you rely on most? Why?

Barbara
I think the Internet is fabulous for finding things quickly but I still love looking through reference books and talking to people who have first hand knowledge of places and things I want to write about.

MV
17. Where do you do most of your writing and with what tools?

Barbara
In my office which is a corner of the diningroom. I use my computer and trusty WordPerfect8 that I bought for myself after selling Timeless Wish . I figured that since I was a professional I needed professional equipment.

MV
18. What are the three most valuable books you've ever read? Why?

Barbara
looking around at stacks and shelves and piles of books near me

Only 3 huh? In terms of what I'm writing now (romance) I think Susan Johnson's Silver Flame. It was the first of her Braddock-Black series that I read and as soon as I finished it I knew that I wanted to blend characters and history like that.

The Rise and Fall of the Choctaw Republic by Angie Debo is also incredible because I grew up with the old cowboy movies and stereotypical Indian characters and the Debo book pretty much opened up a whole new world that school history books and movies never even hinted at.

For a writing book I think I might pick the first one I ever bought How to Write a Romance and Get it Published by Kathryn Falk. It made writing seem like something that I could actually do instead of the magical thing I assumed it was as a kid getting swept away in the library.

MV
19. Who most influenced you as a writer, as a person? Why?

Barbara
That's a tough one. As a writer maybe every author I've read and been entertained, engrossed by. As a person I suppose my parents. I lost my mom when I was very young but she's the one who gave me the books I lost myself in when I felt alone. My dad was there until my mid-twenties and he was always supportive, never openly critical, though I probably deserved it a few times at least.

MV
20. What is your theory of time and how it relates to time travel. Do you see time as linear, and if linear, does you think that a change in the past will significantly alter the future? Or can time be changed indiscriminately in the past if her theory is that time is immutable and will correct itself?

Barbara
I don't have any real theory on time travel but for my particular purposes I saw it with past, present, future co-existing somehow through a quirk of Fate or whatever. And while I wouldn't try to make grand changes with something like a major war or the San Francisco Earthquake I think small changes could be done, small miracles made to happen. Such as in Timeless Wish when my heroine Laura is shot in 1899 and her present day friend Jake reads the account in an old newspaper and uses the meditation he and Laura once practiced together to help her recover.

There was a quote in the Dean Koontz book Lightning that I can't remember word for word but the idea but I believe the idea was something along the lines of: "Fate will put to rights what time and man have disturbed." (Anyone can feel free to correct me if I'm wrong)

Author's comment:

I think I'd like to say to anyone who has the desire to write to go for it. I have no big deal college degree. I taught myself by reading everything that interested me and knowing the type of story I liked to read. Also join a professional organization in your favorite genre. RWA dues are expensive and I put off joining for the longest time, and I'm sorry I waited because once I joined RWA and the Outreach chapter and came into contact with those folks who'd been where I was and could offer advice it became much easier. Invest in yourself and your dream---you're worth every penny.