Smashing Interview @Sherry Gloag

I'm so very excited to share with you an interview with a fabulous author! Sherry's books are thrilling and will leave you with a need for more! Let's get started and find out more about Sherry and her writing style!


What’s your favorite thing to do to relax?

I enjoy working with selinte crystal and make various gift and jewelry items.  It’s a bit like writing and gardening for me, when you ‘are in the  zone’ everything flows.

If you could go back in time to when you were seven years old, what wisdom or advice would you pass on to yourself?

Fight to visit a the local library.  Looking back I find it hard to understand why a prolific reader like my mother never allowed me to enter a library.  I even became afraid of them.

For what are you grateful?

For the beauty around me and the gift of sight to see it.  For the wonderful bird songs and other beautiful sounds and the gift of hearing – restored to me in childhood.


What authors had an impact on you growing up and as an adult?

Georgette Heyer’s Regency romances to the extent I have just written too.

Did anyone in your life influence you or encouraged you to be a writer? (teacher, family member, friend)

DH always joked about how I should ‘sit down and write a book’. No one was more surprised than he was when I took him seriously.

What is your favorite aspect or writing? Your least favorite?

Running with an idea that consumes you and you know you have to get it written down, is my favorite  I’m not a naturally fast writer, so if I don’t hijack myself by leaving things to the last minute I enjoy ‘ savoring’ the writing process.

I least enjoy the promotion side, simply because I don’t trust my ability to succeed with it.  It is a challenge to overcome. I’ve had advice and no end of help but there’s something holding me back. When I get a handle on it, I may even enjoy the experience. I can live in hope, anyway :)

What aspect of writing would you most like to improve on?

I have been blessed to work with some wonderful editors who accept me and that I am grammatically challenged.

Do you have any “must haves” with you while you’re writing?

I prefer quiet to noise. Sometimes I do listen to music but it has to be set low.

Do you have a common theme or item that appears in each of your books?

There are two themes that run through many of my books and yet I don’t know how or why they keep creeping in!  There is often a connection to a charity in some way, even if it’s just a mention in passing.  And horses!  Don’t even begin to ask me why these turn  up so often in my books because, although I think they are beautiful animals, I know next to nothing about them, and have to badge ‘horsey’ friends for information to the point where they start running the other way when they see me coming!

What have you learned the most from being in the writing business?

What a wonderful community the writing community is. People have gone out of their way to explain, share their knowledge and celebrate success.  To be honest I can’t pick out one thing because I have learned so much from so many people.

Tell us about your latest release: 

Blurb: Will whispers of treason be enough to see Honor dispatched to Tyburn or can Vidal save her again?
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When plunged into a world of spies, agents and espionage during the Peninsula wars, Honor, Lady Beaumont, flees for her life when the French capture her husband at Salamanca, and relies on his batman to arrange her safe passage back to England.

Viscount Charles Vidal is ordered by Robert Dumas, the First Lord of the Admiralty, to travel to Spain and escort the only woman he’s ever loved, Lord Devlin Beaumont’s widow back home before the French discover her whereabouts.

Their journey is fraught by danger, least of all knowing whether they are surrounded by friends or foe. Will they survive long enough to explore the possibility of a future together or will whispers of treason be enough to see Honor dispatched to Tyburn first?

Excerpt:

While Vidal joked with his cousin, the viscount scanned the room. The smell of fine wine, whiskey and cigar smoke blended into a rich aroma that was as much a part of Whites as the card games, the background chatter, and outbreaks of lewd laughter from the younger members of the club. 

One member in particular interested Vidal tonight, and he watched Robert Dundas, second Viscount Melville, and First Lord of the Admiralty, take leave of his friends and head in his direction. 

He wondered why the man spent the best part of the night watching his every move, and paused in the act of fobbing his snuff box while he waited for the viscount to join him. 

“Take a walk with me?” Although couched as a question, Vidal noted the quiet steel of command in the other man’s voice. Dundas laid a hand on his arm; a companionable gesture for anyone interested enough to observe the two men leaving the club together. “I believe I live not far beyond your own house. I’d appreciate your company, and this is not the place for such a discussion. ” 

With an indolent twist of the wrist Vidal returned the modish lacquered box, unopened, to his pocket and nodded agreement. A man’s club was no setting for private conversation, and it was plain the man wanted to talk about something away from flapping ears. 

Together they strolled across the room stopping to take leave of several mutual friends.
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How did you decide on your story plot?

With this particular story I had several false starts. Then suddenly this one was ‘just there’ and I convinced me to run with it.

How did you choose your characters names and location for your story?

My hero came first, and he gave me the heroine’s name and the book title – Vidal’s Honor.

Do you have a favorite scene? Why?

There are few scenes in this story I don’t like but the final scene gave me a great sense of satisfaction when it unfolded. There are several ‘real people’ mentioned iin Vidal’s Honor and it was a challenge to blend fiction with fact seemlessly.  I just hope the final scene does this successfully.

Do you have a character that you identify with? Who and why?

The whole plot in Vidal’s Honor revolves around the mysterious death of one of the characters, and I connected with this character very quickly and felt very guilty when I had to bump-him-off.

Thank you for inviting me to join you today. :)
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Links for Sherry Gloag and her latest regency Vidal’s Honor, released by Astraea  Press November 1st 2012.

Web: http://www.sherrygloag.com

Blog: http://sherrygloagtheheartofromance.blogspot.co.uk/

FB: http://www.facebook.com/sherry.gloag

twitter: https://twitter.com/SherryGloag

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To buy links --
Amazon.com  http://tinyurl.com/bpu7o75

Amazon.co.uk  http://tinyurl.com/cgonnnk

smashworlds  http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/250882

B&N http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/vidals-honor/1113726614?ean=2940015900422

Book Strand  http://www.bookstrand.com/vidals-honor

Kobo  http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Vidals-Honor/book-pGNWcYHNukSsEwGrXE4TnA/page1.html?s=_AyuW9PrgUe6i8iafiHdSw&r=9

Kobo http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Duty-Calls/book-xKbd85N-i0GAyS_3boUQRQ/page1.html?s=6QB2_jmGp0C8JZqlrsuqVQ&r=4

All Romance https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-vidal039shonor-987501-152.html

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