Pump Up Your Book Chats with Sheila Roberts

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Sheila Roberts lives in the Pacific Northwest. Her novels have appeared in Readers Digest Condensed books and have been published in several languages. Her novel Angel Lane was an Amazon Top Ten Romance pick for 2009 and her holiday perennial, On Strike for Christmas is slated to be a Lifetime Channel movie presentation this December. When she’s not hanging out with her girlfriends or hitting the dance floor with her husband, she can be found writing about those things dear to women’s hearts: family, friends, and chocolate.

Her latest book is The Snow Globe.

You can visit Sheila at her website (http://www.sheilasplace.com). You can also find her on Twitter (http://twitter.com/_Sheila_Roberts) and

Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/reqs.php#/pages/Sheila-Roberts/76502579853?ref=ts)

Q: Thank you for your interview, Sheila. Can you tell us why you wrote your book?

I love Christmas. It’s my favorite time of year! So I wanted to write a Christmas book that would be an enjoyable and encouraging holiday read. I hope I’ve done that with The Snow Globe.

Q: Which part of the book was the hardest to write?

Getting started was the hardest. I originally wanted to go in a slightly different direction, which would have made the book a little darker. I thought it was a great story idea but my agent and editor convinced me I should lighten up a little. So I did. And I’m very pleased with the results. The book still has plenty of heartwarming moments but it’s also a fun read.

Q: Does your book have an underlying message that readers should know about?

I suspect readers will pick up on the underlying message pretty easily, which is to be open to life’s possibilities.

Q: What was one of your favorite books as a child?

Gosh, I had a ton of ‘em. Loved Nancy Drew books. Devoured Anne of Green Gables. And I loved any book with horses in it because I was completely horse mad as a child.

Q: What is your favorite book as an adult?

You want only one? Let’s go for a couple. Maybe three. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Katherine Neville’s The Eight, and Georgette Heyer’s The Masqueraders. I also love Victoria Holt, Elizabeth Peters and Donald E. Westlake.

Q: What are you reading now?

Just starting the last book Donald E. Westlake wrote before he died: Get Real.

Q: Do you remember when the writing bug hit?

Some time around third grade. I think. It’s hard to remember back that far!

Q: Besides books, what else do you write? Do you write for publications?

I was a songwriter before I became a writer. I still love to write songs.

Q: Do you have a writing tip you’d like to share?

Always be reading a book on the craft of writing!

Q: Would you like to tell us about your home life? Where you live? Family? Pets?

I have a great life –wonderful husband, kids who still want to hang out with me even now that they’re old enough not to have to, awesome extended family and great friends. I currently live on a small lake in a modest house we built three years ago. Did all the landscaping myself (and that was part of what inspired my book, Love in Bloom). The landscaping has come a long way since we did our uTube promo movie for the book – all the bare spots of filled in and I have a gorgeous English garden setting and lots of edibles. Talk about sweat equity though. Gardening is not for sissies! No pets any more. Love cats but I’m waiting to get one when I’m about seventy-five. That way I don’t have to watch another animal die. I’ll will it to my daughter and she can deal with it. Hey, what are kids for, right?

Q: Where’s your favorite place to write at home?

I don’t know if it’s my favorite place but it’s where I work – in my office at my desk.

Q: What do you do to get away from it all?

We love to travel. But there’s really no “all” I have to get away from. I’m happy with my life right where I am.

Q: Were you the kind of child who always had a book in her hand?

Not really. I loved to read – but I also enjoyed playing outside and goofing around with my friends.

Q: Do you remember writing stories when you were a child?

Oh, yes, and I remember reading them to my grade school class. Those poor, poor kids.

Q: What was the first thing you did as far as promoting your book?

I’ve been doing this a long time, like before the Internet (Yikes, how scary is that?!) So my first promotions were book signings. I still love doing book signings. We make ‘em like a party and have so much fun. And I love getting to meet readers in person. Those early signings were pretty funny though. I would come all decked out in my favorite celebrity author outfits like my purple gaucho hat and matching purple bolero with the black sequin trim and then wonder why people in the mall cut a wide swath around me. Sometimes a customer would come up and ask me where the bathroom was. Ah, those were the days.

Q: Are you familiar with the social networks and do you actively participate?

Yes, and I do have fun getting to know people on Facebook. I’m not such a good tweeter. That just takes too much … dedication or something.

Q: How do you think book promotion has changed over the years?

Obviously, now an author doesn’t have to drive from store to store. She can, thanks to the fun of blog tours, hop from blog to blog… and do it all in her jimmies. I still have my gaucho hat though and could put it on if persuaded.

Q: What is the most frustrating part of being an author?

Getting reality to keep step with my dreams. It takes years to become an overnight success J

Q: What is the most rewarding?

The simple act of spinning out a story gives me joy. And probably the most rewarding of all is hearing from readers when a book has touched them.

Q: How do you think book publishing has changed over the years?

Obviously, with e-books becoming increasingly more popular, books are coming out in new ways, and I’m sure that will continue.(Although I have to say, much as I love my new iPad, I still prefer to hold a good, old-fashioned bound book in my hands when reading for pleasure.) Bottom line though, there will always be a need for stories and story tellers.

Q: If you had one wish, what would that be?

Okay, are we talking deep or shallow? Oh, let’s go shallow: Getting to be on Dancing with the Stars. I love that show – have always loved ballroom dancing. It’s probably a blessing in disguise that wish hasn’t come true – one attempt at doing the splits and I suspect I’d never walk again.

Q: If you could be anywhere in the world other than where you are right now, where would that place be?

Other than where I am right now? Hmmm. Cuz I’m pretty happy where I am. I do have a fondness for Germany, so let’s put me in a castle on the Rhine. Either that or living in Nashville, which is songwriter heaven.

Q: Your book has just been awarded a Pulitzer. Who would you thank?

God. If I ever won a Pulitzer it would, indeed, be a miracle J

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Question of the Day

How do you make sales happen for you?

A lot of hard work! I sponsor a lot of on line parties, festivals and contests. Book sales don’t magically happen, believe me. An author has to work hard to earn her readers. And then she has to work hard to keep them by giving them something they’ll enjoy reading. I try hard to make my books worth a reader’s time.

-- Sheila Roberts, Author of Winter at the Beach