Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve written two books now, and i’m about a third of the way finished with the third book. I love fairies and always have, but could never find books about fairies the way I imagined them. so I decided to write about the fairies I’ve always imagined to be real.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is Call of Sunteri. I was inspired by a minor character in the first book, who I thought would make an interesting addition to the existing characters and storyline: Tib. He has since become one of my most favorite characters. Tib has a lot of anger and resentment. He’s also being controlled by something, but he isn’t aware of it at first and that makes for some very fun storytelling. I wanted to expand on the concept of the Wellsprings, the sources of magic in my world, and show what could happen if one of them died. In Call of Sunteri, the Wellspring of Sunteri has died, and its only remaining steward takes desperate measures to restore it and save his fellow fairies.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m not sure how unusual it is, but I don’t plan ahead. I have no outlines to follow. I just sit and write and let the story unfold, and I worry about continuity later on, in the editing phase. I think a lot of authors, especially when starting out, get hung up on planning and worrying about the best phrasing of their first sentence, paragraph, etc, that they never get their story off the ground. For me, I just let the writing come out and I worry about fixing it later.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Probably like most fantasy authors of my generation, I really look up to J.K. Rowling. I love how her books are so easy to read, and yet so full of depth and rich characters. The author of the Divergent series wrote a little piece of advice in her first book that said something like, just spew out your words. Dump them out and fix it later. That really helped me to get started. I also have to shout out to my author friend Ellisa Barr, who inspired me during NaNoWriMo and then walked me through my first manuscript very patiently.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on the third book in the Keepers of the Wellsprings series. I have lots of plans for this book. I’m already on Chapter 12 and Azi and her friends have a long journey ahead of them. I’m getting to the point where I’m deciding whether to stop the series at a trilogy or keep going. We’ll see!
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m still fairly new at promoting, and also very bad at it, but when I released Call of Sunteri last week, I decided to make Call of Kythshire free this week. Kythshire has had several hundred downloads in just a day, so I’m hopeful that those who read it will want to move on to Sunteri and eventually to Book 3. Fingers crossed!
Do you have any advice for new authors?
I said it above. Don’t get hung up on the perfect phrasing. Look at the big picture. Write your story and edit it later. Get your manuscript written, and make it pretty later. You have nothing to lose, you can always fix things!
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Do what you love, and the money will come to you. Live your life with a grateful heart, and you’ll never feel deprived.
What are you reading now?
I have a long list of books that I want to read, but I don’t like to read while I’m writing because I don’t want others’ stories to leak into mine. Some books I’m looking forward to reading once I’m finished writing are:
Outage by Ellisa Barr (and the rest of her series)
Space B!tch by Grig Larson
The Saga series by Brian K. Vaughan
Faerie’uckers by my twitter pal @writerdoll
What’s next for you as a writer?
My plan is to finish book three of the Keepers of the Wellsprings series and see where that leads me. I might branch out and do some spin-off stories once the main story is told. I’ve even been playing with the idea of releasing a serial on my blog.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The Cay by Theodore Taylor
The Bible
The Lord of the Rings trilogy (cheating, I know, but still!)
Author Websites and Profiles
Missy Sheldrake Website
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