Carolina Writers Speak
Carolina Writers Speak
Sherri Hollister Author
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Cushing Publishing is excited to announce that have published The Applegate Mystery Series Book #1for Sherri L. Hollister! How to Sabotage a Wild West Sowavailable now!
Sherri is an only child, married to her romantic hero for over 30 years, raised six sons, has 23 grandchildren, and published 12 books. She has been writing since she was ten years old. She is the chairperson for the Pamlico Writers’ Group . A member of RWA (Romance Writers of America) and VP of Communications with Heart of Carolina chapter. She is also a member of the Kiss of Death RWA chapter and an ambassador for AlLi (Alliance of Independent Authors). Sherri also has many books published and for more information please go to www.SherriLHollister.com
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To be a wordsmith is defined as a person who writes, an author, a journalist, a person who commits their thoughts to paper. But I believe it is so much more. The ability to craft a story, to change lives, to transport the ordinary life to an extraordinary place. To put words on paper and awaken the imagination in ways that the reader never dreamed possible. Yes, to have the ability to see what isn't there and make you see it too. To awaken the senses in new and amazing ways, like feeling a cool breeze on a hot summer day on your cheek. To smell wildflowers as they bloom. To taste the delicacy on foreign soil. To feel like you've never felt before. Touching places long forgotten. Connecting your soul in new ways. That's what writers do. It's my pleasure to host Carolina Writers Speak. A new podcast. A chance to hear actual writers' voices. Hear what inspires them. Experience their trials and their struggles and realize that we all have a story and it's worth telling. Hi, I'm Rose Cushing. I'm the host of Carolina Writers Speak. My guest today is Sherry Lupton Hollister, and Sherry has a brand new series coming out with the first book called How to Sabotage a Wild West Show. So Sherry, thanks for being on our show. I'm excited to be here, Rose. We're excited to talk to you and learn all about this Wild West show and why would anybody want to sabotage it?
SPEAKER_01Yes, why would they want to sabotage it, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um for some reason I come up with some of the weirdest ideas, and uh uh I wanted to write a cozy mystery, and uh my husband's um grandfather was in a Wild West show, and uh that kind of inspired the idea, and uh so I thought, well, what would happen if they found out uh the main protagonist's father was in line to be Duke, and so uh you know somebody is trying to keep him from reaching England and uh finding out that he is uh heir to a dukedom or one of the heirs to a dukedom. And uh so uh we're having a lot of fun. You know, I can't write anything without blowing something up, so you know I have to I have to blow things up and you know commit commit a few murders and you know have a little fun along the way.
SPEAKER_00That keeps it interesting for sure. So tell us a little bit about you, and then we'll get back to your book.
SPEAKER_01Okay, well, I have been married to my husband for 32 years now, and we have six sons. Uh they are all grown, thank God. We uh got them all grown, and I have I think at last count we have 23 grandchildren, and we have one more on the way, and uh my son is dating a girl with a child, so we may uh gain two more by the summer.
SPEAKER_00Nice, very nice. So the Applegate mystery series. Um Winnie Applegate is an intriguing character. Can you tell us a little about Winnie?
SPEAKER_01Winnie is a 17-year-old protect uh Lakota. Uh she's half Lakota Indian. Um Wild West show that's run by her grandfather. Um to, I don't know, when you have a business that's run by a family member, you find yourself wearing many hats. And I think this is this is witty. She is doing whatever job needs to be done from helping take care of the animals and the other performers as a healer, which she learned hit the healing art from uh her great-grandmother. Uh her father is also the farrier for the company, so she, you know, he taught her how to take care of the animals. Um, she also has a certain uh talent for um, you know, taking care of people and animals, but then she is um always looking for new acts to do. She started out doing trick writing and throwing knives. Uh she does a little bit of target practice. You know, she's always looking for another gimmick that she can do to to help the show. She's always busy. And uh, I think that's just part of her nature. She she has to keep things going. And uh she's very smart, uh, very curious, and um a little on the bossy side. She's a big sister, so of course she's on the bossy side.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So she just kind of takes on all the responsibilities, whether they're issued to her or not.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think that's just part of her personality. Um, she's kind of a take charge person, and um, you know, uh I I base her a lot on on the family members I have that are the oldest in the family. She is uh she's taking care of her little brother when her father was off working. She takes care of her father and her grandfather's because she is the female in the family. You know, there's there's nobody else. And you know, she I think she also is looking for her place in the world. And her place seems to be that of caregiver, as well as her talents with healing and her talents with, you know, performing. She she enjoys the accolades she gets for both of those, you know. Uh they earn her a little bit of respect and a little bit of freedom.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, that makes sense. You know, you you'd want to be respected for all of your your work that you're doing. So she's about to embark on a journey all the way across the country and across the ocean, huh?
SPEAKER_01Yes, yes. And uh she finds love for the first time and yeah, a little bit of heartbreak along the way. But um the when the sabotages first half start, you know, they don't realize what's going on. They think it's just a series of accidents until one of the performers is killed. And her brother is accused of causing the death of the perform the fellow performer. And she knows that her brother, despite his head being in the clouds half the time, because he's an inventor, he's only 12 years old, and he loves to invent things, but she knows that if he's given any job, he will do that job. I mean, that's just how they were raised. They if you're given a task to do, you know, you do that task. And so she's out to prove prove that he is innocent. And in doing so, she uh joins forces with um a Lady Pinkerton who is there to investigate the death of her colleague, and um this mysterious handsome stranger that has come up and uh she kind of falls for him. And uh along the way, you know, they find out that it wasn't an accident, it was murder, and that the the the fellow performer was not the only intended victim.
SPEAKER_00Oh, so well the plot thickens. Yes, the plot thickens. Well that sounds fantastic. Now, how many books do you think will be in the series?
SPEAKER_01I have three uh in the works already, with um two more kind of niggling uh in the back of my mind. So I really think it's gonna be a five book series. Um maybe more, you know, because a lot of times when you finish one book, you're going, ooh, I have an idea for another book, you know. Yeah. So right now I have I have the second book finished. I'm working on the edits for it. The third book I have started, and I have ideas for the fourth and fifth, and I think that it could go on from there. You know, it might be some slight changes, but I I really feel like I have a five at least a five-book series.
SPEAKER_00That's fantastic. And I I have no doubt that it'll be able to hold our imaginations, you know, indefinitely, because the stories and the characters are so diverse.
SPEAKER_01Well, I also like the time period. The 1890s, so much was happening. Um, I was just reading a little bit about the um the atrocities that were happening with the Native Americans at that time. There was also the industrial um revolution that was going on, you know, with everything was going from steam to uh gas-powered engines, you know, everything was just changing. I mean, um, my third book, I'm planning to have a motorcycle in in the story. And I told my husband, I said, Oh, I want to have the first motorcycle, you know, in this story. He goes, Well, when were they invented? I was like, Well, they actually came out, you know, so I've already started doing some of the research for you know the the motorcycles and and automobiles and airplanes. When you think about the turn of the century, we went from you know, horse and buggy to all of a sudden we we we shot a man to the moon, you know, it was what 50 years, 60 years? So much changed in that time period. So much changes, yeah. So I really feel like you know, this is the time period that so much excitement is happening. And I could just pick anything at random and have a story about it, you know, and have a mystery. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, what a what a world of change. My father was born in in the 1890s, he was 60 when I was born, but he saw so much change in his life because he went from the invention of the automobile right up to, like you say, where the man on the moon and channels on a TV in the house, and so much happened during that yeah, that time frame is just crazy. And I guess it still does now, but we we don't realize it because we're living in our record.
SPEAKER_01Well, I know a lot of things still happen at a fast pace, but I don't think the changes are quite as dramatic as what they were back then. Um you just figure our moralities, our social norms, um, even even our life expectancy, all of that changed so much. And at this, I would say probably from the 1860s to the 1960s, that 100-year period was just, I mean, everything was just turning over.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And it pretty much was on a rotation, you know, every so many years it completely changed. And it completely changed, you know. You're absolutely right. It's a fascinating time period, and it's so cool in your book that you know, while there's modernization happening, you still got a Y West show. Yes, yes. So I love I love the whole premise of the the series. I think that's really fantastic. Now you've written a ton of books, so tell us a little bit more about your other books. I know you have a lot of of different kinds that you've written.
SPEAKER_01Well, um, my original series is a contemporary romantic suspense. Um, to me, the difference between suspense and mystery is the suspense, you a lot of times know what is happening, uh, where mystery you kind of have to uncover it. And I wasn't quite prepared to do the mystery at that time. Plus, contemporary, um it is I love I love contemporary stories, but I wasn't quite ready to write historicals at that time. We had lost our house to a fire, and I think my personality was in a dirt darker spot. So the stories that I wrote um for the Leeward files are a little bit darker. Um there was also some things happening in the news at that time uh with sex trafficking and everything. North Carolina was one of the highest in the nation in sex trafficking, you know, in human trafficking. And I think that really struck me. And that became part of my story uh for the first five books. And uh the spin-off from that series, uh, the Harold Family Chronicles was about one family trying to rebuild the community after uh all the devastation and and and everything that had happened. And I think that also lent to the time period we had had the fire on one year, and then the next year we had uh Hurricane Irene, which devastated our community. But then we started uh rebuilding in our community, and I I used that rebuilding as part of the rebuilding in my stories, and um my stories are loosely based on my community. I changed the name to Leeward to uh be able to have a little bit more creative license and uh freedom to you know change things as I needed to, but it was about eastern North Carolina, and uh I I really wanted to bring those personalities into play, you know. Um my sister-in-law uh loves the second book in the Leeward File series because she tells me that's hers, you know, that's her her story. But uh a lot of people will tell me that they recognize the places and the names and the different things in the stories because you know they feel like home. Well, they are they they are based on what I know, what I grew up with, what you know, what what was already around me, but I made a few changes to make it fit what I wanted it to fit, you know.
SPEAKER_00Right, right. Well that that every book you've written has been intriguing and and interesting. I I have noticed, you know, on your Amazon page, you got a lot of good reviews, and the things that I've read certainly have impressed me very much. Thank you. So with this new series, your book's gonna launch in the next week or so. I asked that laughing.
SPEAKER_01I know. We were hopeful, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we were hopeful that it will launch in the next week or so. Yeah. Um you know, you always run into little awkward problems when you're trying to get the printer to actually print it. And uh, but we're working them out and it'll be on the market very, very soon. And you have a book signing set up too in late February, don't you?
SPEAKER_01Yes, February 24th at the Blue Crab Boutique here in Aurora, uh, which is my hometown. Right. Before Vath has been a very big supporter of of mine, and uh she owns the the Blue Crab Boutique. Yeah, we will be there from one to four, and uh I'm getting excited about it. We're uh I've got a giveaway. I'm going to get together uh some cute little socks that I had picked up. It says uh this princess oh, something about uh forget glass slippers, this princess wears cowboy boots. I thought that was perfect for uh Winnie's character. And uh so I I'm putting together a giveaway and I'm gonna make it available online for um USA um readers. Uh and anybody signs up for my newsletter can have access to uh the contest. So we're gonna set that up here shortly. And uh hopefully the the day of the uh uh the event we can draw the name and see who wins.
SPEAKER_00Very nice. That'll be fun. And how do people find your newsletter to sign up? Uh yes.
SPEAKER_01Um I have I'll have to look that up because it's changed. Uh yeah it's a trick question. It's a trick question, but you know, you you get so used to doing things a certain way, and then when you change things, it's like, oh Lord, I forgot the answer to that question. My you can go to my um my website and you can find my information there. My website is Sherry L. Hollister at um at WordPress. And um the newsletter is welcome to the 1890s. I believe it is on my uh Applegate Facebook page. Um Welcome to the 1890s. Yes, welcome to the 1890s and uh I'm putting together uh a lot of my research that I'm doing, anything that I find interesting, like my crazy uh idea for the um uh one one of my uh characters, he builds a uh a motorized cart, you know. So I have to all the information that I can find about uh uh how he would have done that in the 1890s, what would have been available to him, and things like that, you know. So my husband is a mechanic, and my my children are all uh a little bit on the nerdy side, so we all uh kind of brainstorm over ideas for what I can add to the story, and then we start doing research on the history and everything. So it I it's kind of a family thing. Um, and my grandchildren have been helping me uh kill people off, you know. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, you know, it's fun to get their buy-in.
SPEAKER_01Oh yes. My my older grandchildren, it's become kind of a funny uh thing. We'll sit around here and go, okay, what's a new way I can murder people? You know that's cute. Where can I hide the body? You know, there you go.
SPEAKER_00Little little generation of little writers. Yeah, yeah. That's so cool. Now, as a writer, what's your biggest obstacle besides me in getting your book out there to the public?
SPEAKER_01Time for me, I think, is my biggest thing because I work a full-time job. And as I said, I have six children and you know, 20-some grandchildren, and you know, you want to spend time with everybody. Plus, I'm very involved with my community and very involved with my writers' groups. I'm I'm chairperson for the Pamco Writers Group and VP of Communication for my Heart of Carolina Romance Writers Group. So I am stretched thin, but I I love it. I mean, after raising six boys, it was kind of lonely over here. So uh I needed something else to do to occupy my time, and uh so I I think I I've always been active. I even when the kids were little, we did scouts and we did part we did stuff with the community and everything. There was always something going on. I think we went to three different churches and scouts and all of that when the kids were little, so plus sports, yeah. Uh so I I I I don't remember ever not having something to do.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I told my sister, my worst nightmare about getting older is being bored. I don't want to be bored.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I don't think there's anything. I don't know what I would do if I was bored. I know it's like what do regular people do?
SPEAKER_01I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. I never have time to be bored. There's always something to do. There's things that I don't want to do, like clean house. Yeah, I'm pretty good about anything but that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. The house is crying already, you know. Mine looks like a tornado's went through. And if I cook, I mess up every dish in the house. So there's always dishes. Um, I I love your work and I love working with you. And um, what advice would you give writers coming into the writing arena trying to learn how to to get their books out there and and get their mark on the world?
SPEAKER_01To me, I I think the best thing I ever did was join a writer's group. Um you learn so much from other people that have been there before you. Um if you don't have a writer's group in your area, um online is good. It's not quite the same as in person. But I have I have a couple of writers groups that I am involved with online as well as in person. But um my in-person groups have been they have taught me everything from formatting my books to um even even the little things like uh how to uh check for edits, you know. Um what what is the best programs to use for for writing in, you know. Um I also do a lot of YouTube videos. Um sometimes I want to know how to do something. I will listen to uh how to write mysteries by um Jane Kalmus over and over again because she gives you such a um precise way of doing it. Now I'm not an outliner, so outlining is not my uh thing to do, but I still want to know how she does it. Right. You know, I'll use bits and pieces to fit my own way of writing. Right. So you're a pantster? Most of most of the time I'm a pantser, but I do do a little bit of planning. Uh I I call myself more of a planner than uh a plotter or a pancer. Because uh I I have little notes about this is what I want to happen, that's what I want to happen. Um I do a fast draft of my story, which is probably an outline, but I don't call it an outline because that that makes my brain freeze. Yeah. But I do a fast draft of my story, and then I go back and I just hang fruit on it. You know, I I I fill it in, I get it, you know, everything's done with me with layers. Uh uh when I when I first write the story, I just get the story down. Uh as I'm going through, then I know how the character is going to act, and then I know how some of the emotions are going to be, and you know, some of the details, you know, what else is around, what would happen in that time period. Like because I'm doing the 1890s, what what is going on historically at this time? Yeah. So what what else can I add in, you know, to to make that story richer?
SPEAKER_00That's a very smart way to do it. And I know you do intensive research on all your books.
SPEAKER_01I I think sometimes I have a tendency to do too much research. I really go down that rabbit hole and it's like, oh, here's another one, you know, let's maybe follow this one down.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. I know you can kill hours before you realize it all of a sudden it's night outside. It's like, what happened? Yeah. When did the day go? Definitely so. So when your books are when when when your new book is out, it'll obviously be available at all everywhere that good books are sold. And how can people find your other books, Sherry?
SPEAKER_01Uh, they are available on all ebook retailers, and as far as print books, uh, Barnes and Doble, Amazon, and locally I have them at Next Chapter Books in Newburn, um, the Riverwalk Gallery in Washington, and the Blue Crab Boutique here in Aurora, and most of the local libraries can have access to them.
SPEAKER_00Very nice.
SPEAKER_01I always try to donate to my local library. We have uh BHM, which is Beaufort Hyde and Martin Library, and so I always take a book to them um when I whenever I publish a new book, and so that that has helped get me a little bit of uh a fan base. Absolutely. Paying it forward like that is so important. My librarians have been my lifesavers, I tell you. Uh they they have been my beta readers and my uh proofreaders and everything and help me with research. If I if I call one of them up and say, I need this information, one of them will go, Okay, give me a give me a few minutes and I'll uh I'll find that for you. Nice may take a couple days, but usually yeah.
SPEAKER_00So nice to have that support for sure. Oh yes, yes, I've been blessed. Yes. All right then. So how can people follow you?
SPEAKER_01I am on social media, I have a TikTok channel um that is just Sherry L Hollister. I have uh LinkedIn, uh Facebook, and Facebook. I am under Sherry L. Hollister or under Applegate Mysteries. Um you can find me on um Instagram under both names. And I think that's all of them.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01But uh just Google Applegate Mysteries and you should be able to find me. Very nice, very nice. Well, thank you so much for being on the show today. Thank you. I enjoyed it, and I love your red hair.
SPEAKER_00I think that looks good on you. Oh, thank you. I'm canning today, so I just plastered it to my head, but when it's looks when it's done something with, it looks a lot better, but thank you. Well, I think it looks real cute on you. Thank you. And as always, everybody out there listening, thank you for listening to us. Take care. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Everybody has a story. Just let your mind drift away and find yours. I know it's out there. What are you waiting for?