Gentry's Journey

From Code To Clues: Sheila Lawrence On Cozy Mysteries And Faith-Fueled Writing

• Various • Season 7 • Episode 1

Share episode

A quiet paragraph about a coffee pot lit the fuse. Years later, Sheila Lawrence—career programmer, minister, and lifelong Birmingham local—has turned that spark into a distinctive mix of cozy mysteries and inspirational nonfiction that entertains without grim details and still delivers a satisfying jolt of surprise. We talk through the heart of her craft: how a body can already be on the floor yet the story remains warm; why clean, puzzle-first mysteries feel urgent right now; and how flipping the classic attorney-sleuth archetype opened space for fresh representation and a strong sense of place.

Sheila walks us inside her process, from outlining “bones” to honoring the moments when characters hijack the wheel. She shares why cold cases fascinate her, how she balances believability with that essential jack-in-the-box reveal, and where her minister’s voice subtly plants seeds of hope even when the plot turns dark. The conversation turns practical as we dig into the power of community: Sisters in Crime write-ins, submission calendars, and prompts that transformed constraints into creative oxygen. You’ll hear how culinary cozies led to “killer chili” and spiced-cider mischief, how historical guidelines reframed her own memories, and how flash fiction nods from Alfred Hitchcock’s magazine built momentum.

We also explore the life around the writing: the Magic City’s arts scene, on-call programming nights, devotional projects like A Sip from the Well, and the Alabama Writers Cooperative’s upcoming Birmingham conference. Sheila’s message is simple and generous—plant good seeds, finish the draft, and let stories offer light where you can. Ready to rethink what a mystery can feel like and how your routine can actually work for you? Press play, then share your biggest takeaway, subscribe for more conversations with working writers, and leave a review to help others find the show.

SPEAKER_05:

Hello everyone, this Carolyn Coleman. Welcome to Gentry's Journey. And our guest for today is Sheila Lawrence. She is an author, and I'm really anxious to hear about a lot of the things that she has done and is doing. So she writes both fiction and nonfiction, and she has won various awards, and she's going to tell us about her journey in being an author. Sheila, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_04:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_05:

Thank you for having me. You're more than welcome. Now, tell us about your fiction and then tell us about your nonfiction. Or just introduce yourself first and then tell us about your fiction and your nonfiction.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay, well, um, my name is Sheila Lawrence, and I think I don't even remember what age I started, started late writing. Uh, I've always written, but I never thought that I could have a career as a writer. So I went to school for computer programming for computer science, and that's what I've done for the past 45 years. But writing always had a grip on me, would not let me go. So um I write anytime something comes up and I think it'll make a good story. That's what I do. I take notes and I write about it. And finally, I got the nerve up to um finish some stuff and start submitting. And lo and behold, I had some acceptances. So that um is how I stumbled into my journey as a writer.

SPEAKER_05:

That's wonderful. Now I'm saying where what does your fiction comprise of?

SPEAKER_04:

Mysteries, cozy mysteries, uh, mostly. I uh joke and tell people romance would be too far stretched for me because I've been single all my life. So, but uh mysteries and and I write cozy because um cozy's uh three things, they don't have uh profanity, they don't have um sex, and they don't have violence. So uh in cozy mysteries, the bodies already on the floor, so to speak, and just solve who did it. And that's the kind of mysteries I write.

SPEAKER_05:

So is it similar to those um dinner theater movies? Well, mystery uh when they have that. You go in, you you know, you have dinner in a movie basically, and the actors come out and you know set the stage. Okay, okay, great.

SPEAKER_04:

And I love those. Um, I I remember when we had one in in Birmingham. Um, but for me, I used to watch Perry Mason and Madlock, those guys, they were attorney sleuths, you know, they have different people who are not necessarily professionals who solve mysteries, but I like uh the Perry Mason series. And that's what um yeah, that's what prompted me into saying, well, I'd like to see somebody that looks like me doing that. Okay, now I write a Danny Cobb series, yeah, where my my sleuth is an attorney, but it's a male, a black female.

SPEAKER_05:

Uh no, uh, you know, you create. I mean, that's the purpose of writing your fiction. You create, you create the characters and I just flipped the go ahead.

SPEAKER_04:

I flip the script. I wanted to make it fun, even though you know murder is a serious thing, but I wanted it to be entertaining, nothing heavy, nothing dark, nothing grim. You know, I tell people, well, they were gonna be dead anyway, so I might as well, you know, solve the mystery around it. So that's kind of what cozy's are. It's like, uh oh, you stumble upon uh uh a murder, you stumble upon some kind of crime and go about solving it.

SPEAKER_05:

And I see where your backdrop is basically the magic city.

SPEAKER_04:

Yes, yes. Um this is all I've ever known. I've never lived anywhere else. And I love Birmingham. I love the magic city. It has a lot, um, a lot going on here, a lot to offer. I love the history. Um, you know, I love to visit some of the old um old landmarks around town. Um so for my series, this is the day cry.

SPEAKER_01:

That's great. That is great. Now when did you start writing?

SPEAKER_04:

I think it was my freshman year to college. Um I was a student at Jeff State and we had an English net class. It was actually in a break room. I just want to see where you all are. And there was a coffee pot on the counter. She said, I need everybody to write a paragraph about this coffee pot. And I was sitting there thinking, like, is she for real? So anyway, after um, we had about 15 minutes. So after about 13 minutes, I finally started writing and I wrote a paragraph really fast. And when she read it, she liked it. And she was the one who encouraged me to go into writing. I didn't, but uh, she planted a seed at that point. That was many years ago.

SPEAKER_01:

That's wonderful.

SPEAKER_04:

Now you know, I came from one of those families where uh my mom would be, you need to get something that where you're gonna be able to make a living. You can't make a living as a writer, you can't, you know, and so um I never pursued it as a profession. But it always was in me. And so, you know, those things that are in you, you tend to come back to.

SPEAKER_05:

Perfect timing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Don't you think so?

SPEAKER_04:

I think so. I think so, because I've enjoyed what I did choose as a profession, programming computers, but now that I'm about to retire from that, writing is definitely going to be my next um because I enjoy it, and uh it it keeps my mind sharp because I have to stay one step ahead of the readers.

SPEAKER_05:

So absolutely, but like I said, when it's fiction, you you it's yours anyway, so you really can take the to play with it, you know, if you will. Um yeah, your characters do what you want them to do or what you feel is needed at that point in time.

SPEAKER_04:

And you know it's funny, sometimes they do what they want to do, and I'm like, oh, really? I'll be writing and be like, oh, okay, that's what we're doing. It's like the writing takes on a life of its own. It does. And oftentimes, you know, if I start writing a mystery and I think I know who the culprit is, it may or not end up being that person once I get into writing and I decide, well, I think somebody else did this. So yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, that keeps you on your toes, it keeps you writing, and it it keeps um it the story is ever evolving, yeah. And that's what you want, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

It's almost after you've created these characters, then they kind of speak to you as to how they're gonna behave.

SPEAKER_05:

True, absolutely. Um, and that is the joy of creativity and the joy of your writing. Um and one thing I like about writing, like I say, you create your character. And yes, you may start off in one direction, you know, you may start off in on uh east and then you might move all the way north. Absolutely. But I think it's just things that are just going to the pen kind of dictates what's going on, absolutely, so you know, that that keeps you sharp and that keeps you kind of motivated to that story, and to um, you know, you want to make it believable in my heart.

SPEAKER_04:

Believable, yes, you know, in my heart, but not too predictable. Oh no, no, yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_05:

No, you got to have something, you got to have that jack in the box jump up at some point in time, yeah. Take everybody's mind off and like uh the who done it. Um I couldn't sleep, and so you know how you channel serve, and I ran up on this show. Oh my goodness, uh clothes case. Okay, because the case it reopens when someone brings new information, cold case, o a o d case. Um, and so that one it and it keeps you on your toes, it really keeps you on your toes.

SPEAKER_04:

Absolutely. So um those it's so interesting to me. Now I'll say that I'm already interested when you say cold case, because that means this thing has not been solved, but we know somebody did it, yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

And even the people who were in the movie, so to speak, uh, kept telling this one investigator, it's over, it didn't happen. You're not that's not how it happened. And he said, Somebody had to do it, absolutely, it didn't do itself, and so he was the only, you know, he believed so much in the evidence. He said, Well, why this and this doesn't match? Yeah, it's not her handwriting, and so he, you know, he wouldn't give up. Everybody was like walking away from it, some of them we're just not gonna be able to solve. He said, But we can solve this. He believed in it, so he believed in the story, he believed in what happened, and um, and he found uh the individual, you know, that that committed the crime. But that's what you have to do, you have to have that stick to it-ness, and uh some people are ready to just give it up because why not? You know, let's move on, it's cold anyway. But no, you know, that's one thing I enjoy about the show, and I used to watch it um several years ago, but like I said, it was on last night. I was like, let's see what they got for me today. So um, so yeah, so it can go whichever direction you want, and a lot of times it's not in the direction that you would assume.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, and that uh reminds me, I've always been so curious about uh what's a little girl named uh Joan Bene Ramsey, that case. It's like I just want to know what happened.

SPEAKER_05:

You brought that up. We discussed this in the hair salon just the other one. Okay, okay. And I was just taken aback by it's not been like three of us in there, and um, I was just kind of taken aback by everybody else's opinion because I'm like, is that how you think they went down? And they were like, Yeah, it made it's just it just makes sense. And I'm like, no, it doesn't. No, nothing about it makes sense, nothing about it made sense, and so um, so it was it it's that type of thing, you know. So it's it's to me, it's one of it that is truly a cold case, right? Yeah, yeah. Um, because I don't think if I mean correct me if I'm wrong, but we never found out how, no, or who, no, okay, no, yeah. So um sometimes things will be cold cases, um, you know, so it's it's a lot to unpack. Yeah, some days it's a lot to unpack. Yeah, so uh yeah, so you know, so I've given you two good ideas, but anyway. Now you also do nonfiction writing as well.

SPEAKER_04:

I do.

SPEAKER_05:

Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, um, I am a minister, so um I often look to encourage people and to um just uplift folks' spirits. You know, we all when life gets to life and sometimes just need a word to encourage us. And my nonfiction is inspirational nonfiction. Um, I used to do a blog called A Sip from the Well, inspired by the woman at the well that went, you know, and got the water that she never thirst again. And so uh what it was as we opened this, it was a scripture and it would just be a thought, but it would be something to encourage people. And I actually gathered all those uh posts together and put them in a book so that I could have them at hand. But um I did another one called If I Can Help Somebody, same type thing, just um what you could read in a few minutes, it so that people wouldn't have to dedicate a whole lot of time to it, you know, a scripture and an encouraging word to get you started on your day or whatever. So those are the kinds of nonfiction things I did, just um inspirational.

SPEAKER_05:

And that's wonderful because we need that as well.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, I need that.

SPEAKER_05:

I know, I know I do. You you need something to have truly hang your hat on. Um yes, it's great to be entertained, but the um the point of it all is eternal life.

SPEAKER_04:

Absolutely, absolutely that's that is truly the point, and and even in the nonfiction, I try to um uh sneak messages in there, you know, encouragement, uh uh hope or something positive, because not everyone who reads the inspirational will read the fiction, and not everyone who reads the fiction will read the inspirational. So I try to make sure that there's some redeeming value in anything that I write, because it all points to Jesus, and it makes people think, yeah, uh-huh, yeah. You you want to be done with something because you know there's a scripture where uh one plants the seed, another waters it. Uh, and so if I could just plant the seed, somebody else could come behind me and water it.

SPEAKER_05:

So and you know, I'd use that um the other day. Um I was talking to someone, I said, well, don't forget the seeds you sow coming up again, yeah. You know, so you know, um, you know, we have to be mindful of what we say, how we say it. Yeah, because we're planting seeds as we go and as we grow. And I want to plant as many good seeds as I can. Absolutely, you know, and I said, so we have to be mindful um of that, you know, the the seed time and harvest, because you know what you plant growing now. So absolutely, how do you you can't plant an apple seed and get a peach? So you got to plant the right kind of seeds, absolutely, and you know, you might want to be able to eat that fruit, okay? And if you can't eat that bitter fruit that you planted, then um what was it for? Yeah, what was the purpose? Absolutely, you know, you think about things of that nature. When you when you're thinking about um life, absolutely when you think about life, um, you know, how you really want to be remembered.

SPEAKER_04:

That's that's exactly right, and and that's why I entitled one of the books, If I could help somebody, because I love uh behavior used to sing. If I could help somebody as I pass along this way, then my living hasn't been in vain. I don't want my living to be in vain. When it's all said and done, I want to have something credited to my name that was good.

SPEAKER_05:

You know, um, one of my aunts um would sing that often. And sometimes when I stop by and see her and you know, close enough to people where I don't didn't have to call before I went, I just drive by and jump out the car, knock on the door, ring doorbell, whatever. And um we would chat. And um, her thing was if I could just help somebody, then I knew my living would not be in vain. And she said, Kay, I just want to help somebody. And you know, she was always faithful in helping more than somebody, she helped uh many people because she just loved to see people smile, or she, you know, if there was a need and she could feel it, then if she was able to do so, she did so, and it was without regret. That's a beautiful thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

It is, and uh, like you said, no regrets when you leave it, you don't have regrets that you know you would have, could or shoulda, but that you did what you could, all you could, while you could, yeah, absolutely, because you fill the void, yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

You know, um, I don't care who it was or you know, if I could help somebody, yeah. She's I you know, that way I know my living would not be in vain. And so sometimes she would just get so so full of the you know of the of the spirit, and she just you know, just you know, just weep and I, you know, like your living won't be in vain, you know, not that I had to say anything to her, yeah, but I would think it because when you're in that moment, you know, with the Lord, you don't want to interrupt what that person has going on, and I would just say to myself, your living won't be in vain because I've seen her in action. Okay, you know, it wasn't just you know, I've seen her in action, the fruit of a labor, yeah. Yes, yes, yes, yes. And um and and thankful to be able to be a witness to it, you know. I am grateful for that, but that was one of the things that she would say often. Absolutely. Yeah, now tell us about Sisters in Crime.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh um, Sisters in Crime, I love Sisters in Crime because I didn't really have a writing routine. Some people, you know, say, oh, I get up early in the morning and write, or I write in the evening. I didn't really have a routine. I wrote anytime I found time available. But Sisters in Crime is a community of writers. They're not all mystery writers, some are poets. Um they're all kinds of writers, but they have write-ins, and I love it on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7 a.m., 10 a.m., 2, 5, and 8, we write for an hour. You could join any or all of the write-ins. And after joining them, you know, it causes me to set my alarm and take a break, whatever I'm doing, and work on something that's uh writing, you know, whether it's researching, writing, editing. But if I don't get a chance to any other time for that hour, you know, we're writing and um we're not sitting, we're not chatting. We open, uh, the hosts were open, they're the only ones on the camera and on the bike, and the rest of us, we're in the chat. But then they set the tiring and we write and we come back. So it's kind of accountability. You know, you come back and say what you did. Some days I had to admit, I didn't do very much, but uh other days I got a lot done. So I just like it's a community of writers and it says sisters, but they're men who are also uh a part of the community.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, that's great because, like you say, it does give you time to um have an accountability. Let me go ahead and do what I need to do because I will speak for myself, I will raise my hands that 19. Okay. Yes, I have several projects that are open.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, then you might be interested in this. In January, you don't have to be a member of Sisters in Crime, and they are going to do January jump start, and they are going to have every day from the 5th of January to the end of January those same writing slides. Normally they're on Tuesday, Fridays, and Saturdays, but every day at 17, 2, 5, and 8, they're gonna have write-ins, and you don't need to be a member to be able to uh join the link and write. So you might want to join in some days and just do your own thing.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay, I'm gonna keep in and I need a push, I need a push.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, yeah. And I and I like that you don't have to be a member in January to do that because it may interest some people in joining and it may not. Uh you get to try it before investing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Absolutely. So, and how long have you been a member then?

SPEAKER_04:

Only a year. Okay. And and I always I, you know, I knew about them, but for some reason I didn't think that I um you know that I qualified because I wasn't, you know, this grandiose author or whatever. And so I, you know, a year ago I just decided I'm gonna join and see what it's about. They have webinars on different subjects. And I really thought it would be, and it is a learning thing, um, where people will lecture on different topics, and I love learning. I'm a forever student, and I've learned a lot, and it's been well worth uh the investment.

SPEAKER_05:

So well, that's wonderful, yeah. Um the accountability is important, yeah. You know, but life sometimes jumps up and gets in the way.

SPEAKER_04:

Absolutely, but I can credit them with all of my success this year, and um I've had three short stories accepted in anthologies. June they had the same type thing, June scrolled every day in June. I did those three stories during those times, those write-in times. And after June was over with, because of the markets that I learned about in the write-ins, they say this one's accepting um submissions. I submitted to those places they suggested, and those are the three places that accepted those three short stories that I wrote in June. So I before then had not written short stories, I wrote novel leams. And uh so I credit them with the success that I've had. That's all only the success I've had in 2025, those three short stories. But uh, it was because of the write-ins and the um information I got through the Sisters in Cry network.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, um, it is success, even if you finish and it's not accepted at this point in time, it's still your work, it's still what you did, and it came from you, it came from your heart. So it it congratulations on it. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04:

I can't tell you how many unfinished pieces I have, but I finished those three.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, I like I said, I have several at this point in time, yeah, and uh they're going to get done.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, I believe it, I believe it.

SPEAKER_05:

They're going to get done. Yeah, it's just uh a matter of time and getting that energy back. And yeah, um, because right now I just feel like I got a block, that writer's block.

SPEAKER_04:

And you know, I have ebbs and flows, and when I feel it flowing, I try to write as much as I can during that time because I know in a little while I'm not gonna feel like writing again. And when I don't feel like writing, I don't write. I think about it, but I don't write. But when it starts flowing and I get into that where I just really gotta write, I try to take advantage of it and write as fast as I can until it dries up again. Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_05:

And I think I I know I did that, and not thinking I know I did that, did a lot in um, I can't even tell you what the time span was, uh, but I did a lot, and I was like, okay, it's time for me to complete some of the things that I have started because I was doing parts of an anthology, I was a part of anthology, and they were um the anthologies were uh number one best sellers, which is wonderful. Oh, congratulations. Thank you. Um, you know, that that's a feat among itself. Um, but to be a part of what some someone else's project is um is great, yeah. You know, for them to think enough of you to invite you in and then um accept your work. I mean, you sure we got to go to the through the editing and all of that. That's wonderful, you know. But it is it's it's it's experience, it's things I never thought I would do. So, you know, I I am um appreciative of it, very much appreciative of it.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_04:

And see, the three stories that I did in uh June were things I'd not done before. One was a historical, I had never written historical fiction before. So, you know, I had to look up just what qualifies as historical fiction, and I gotta tell you, my feelings were hurt. Historical fiction, it said it was anything uh prior to 1970. I'm like, 1970? Wait a minute. You mean 60s? My childhood was historical, so yeah, I've gotten to the age where uh my early part of my life is historical.

SPEAKER_05:

So that is funny, but I get what you're saying, yeah. Okay, and then you have the cooking up death anthology. What's that?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, well, and they had an open call for cozies, but the murder had to be through food or drink anything ingested, and so um, yeah, I I I what did I oh, I had a cider recipe that I made, and um my mode of murder through that was I'd seen something a long time ago where someone was killed with eye drops that that tetra, yeah, the the whatever that is in eye drops, if it will poison you if enough of it's ingested. So yeah, so that was uh the story I came up with that um that they were in an old folks' home and they were having a Christmas celebration. And uh one of the ladies in particular was fond of the cider. She kept drinking and kept drinking, and then somebody poisoned her. So yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

She was drinking too much, so they decided some people don't want you to have any pleasure in anything. She enjoys the cider, so they decide, okay, you won't enjoy this part.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, but I I had fun with it because I had not uh dealt with murder by food or whatever. So um, and that's how I challenged myself when I heard about the different submissions. I looked to see what the guidelines were, and I wrote those stories specifically geared toward the guidelines. Okay, they've got to have uh food as a part of the murder weapon. One of the anthologies, it was for seniors, and that's why I had it set in uh a nursing home, and these older ladies were friends, and um yeah, and the third one, the historical, you know, that I had to look up and saw if it was before 1970, it was historical. So I geared it toward the guidelines. Um, and it was a challenge. It was a challenge to myself uh to see if I could do it. And I don't think anybody was more surprised than me that uh I managed to write and finish it and submit it and have it accepted. So it was uh yeah, it was a whirlwind.

SPEAKER_05:

Now the right cozy culinary anthology.

SPEAKER_04:

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_05:

What what is that about?

SPEAKER_04:

Um, it had a cooking thing too, and the story that I submitted for that was uh uh a chili. Um I call it killer chili. Uh and yeah, and and and well, it had to do with the cheating spouse and how the wife managed to get rid of him. But um I I found out about it through Sisters in Crime. Uh one of the ladies who's hosting Sisters in Crime is in Scotland, and she's so entertaining. She has a publishing uh company, and she said, I'm doing an anthology. They have to be killed with the food. And, you know, she gave the guidelines, 5,000 words or whatever. And I thought, I'm gonna try and write something that would, you know, qualify for that. Lo and behold, she accepted the story. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

That's right. I mean, that's great.

SPEAKER_04:

And it helped because, you know, sometimes you have your own ideas about stories you want to write or whatever, but in these cases, I geared it toward what they were looking for. Yeah, I started with a clean slate, and and it's like, okay, this is what they're looking for. Let me come up with something that meets this. And yeah. So I don't know if it's easier to do it geared toward guidelines or do it toward sparks of imaginations, you know.

SPEAKER_05:

Give you an outline on what you need to do. You know how we did lit in school.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

You have to make your own outline of what you really wanted to write about. Yeah, earlier we were talking about I need a I need my little notepad. Absolutely, I need to do.

SPEAKER_04:

And and that's how I started. I got my notepad. I said, now these are the things I know that need to be included. And then I just started filling in, fleshing around uh the the bones, those are the bones, and I started adding flesh around it, and and that's how I came up with those stories.

SPEAKER_05:

So now that's good. Now tell us about. I didn't know Afric Hitchcock had a magazine.

SPEAKER_04:

Yes, Afric Hitchcock and Elder Queen, uh, they're kind of companion pieces, and um every month they have a a photo that they put in there and they uh allow you to submit a flash fiction piece, which is 250 words. So you see a picture and you write a story about it in 250 or fewer words, and I have actually um uh uh won in a couple of them. And and the first time I thought it was spam. I was like, why are these people playing with me? And I was like, oh my god, it's after Hitchcock. And I was not the first place winner, let me clarify. Uh but they only print the first place winner story, and then the other five or however many they mentioned, but just to be mentioned in African Hitchcock was like, you know, I I had arrived. I I loved it. Even though my story wasn't in it. And I start, I tried again this year, and lo and behold, uh the month of May and June, they accepted it, you know. So it's kind of an honorable mention, I guess. You know, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, you know, anything that you accomplish.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, anytime somebody else likes something that I wrote, I counted a win, you know. I got yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

I'm the same way, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Because everyone tell people I write for me, yeah, but if somebody else likes it, then it's like, oh, that's the gravy.

SPEAKER_05:

Absolutely, absolutely. Now, the Alabama Writers Forum, and you're tell me about that.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay, I'm not as involved with the Alabama Writers forum. I keep my membership up, and but they are organization. Um, authors are part, they allow you to announce um your work and different things. They do have, they keep you abreast of conferences and workshops and those kinds of things that are going on. But I'm also a member of the Alabama Writers Cooperative. Uh, it used to be the Alabama Writers Conclave, and they changed Conclave to Cooperative because they felt that uh, you know, and with everything starting to be so politically correct, they didn't want to be offensive to anybody if I said conclave. So I'm on the board there, and we actually are having our conference in Birmingham next year. I'm excited in September. Uh the last couple of conferences were in Orange Beach, but they'll be in Alabama, and I'm actually on the committee trying to help um find fun things for the writers to do that will be coming to uh Birmingham in September.

SPEAKER_05:

That's great.

SPEAKER_04:

So yeah. But just another writer's community, you know, where writers share, and we have um stories, um what do you call webinars, we have lectures, we have uh classes, you know, those kind of things to help um enhance your skills.

SPEAKER_05:

That's good.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, I said I love it. I love to learn, and anytime I can get in situations, especially where I can look at a webinar or read a book or whatever, and it improves me, then uh I'm all for it.

SPEAKER_05:

That's good, as you should, you know, because you want to home your skills.

SPEAKER_04:

Absolutely. And when I go without writing for a while, it's almost like starting over again. I'll sit and I'll be like, okay, what do I know? What are the elements that would make a good story? And I have to sit there and uh just almost relearn everything. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Now now you're really trying to push me.

SPEAKER_04:

Um, and that's because there were such big gaps between my writing. I know that's what I'm saying. And I sit there and just stare at the page and be like, okay, now how do I start this?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, where do I begin? Yeah, where did I end? What do I really want to say? Yeah, all those questions come to mind, but I think once I put pen to paper, it'll be okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Um, so those are great. I mean, I have um you're you're you're teaching me stuff, which is great. I mean, I am a forever learner as well, so that's a wonderful part of it. Now, when you're not writing, yes, what are you doing?

SPEAKER_04:

When I am not writing, I am on a Hallmark junkie, I watch Hallmark movies. Okay, and um of course, like I said, I'm also a minister, so a lot of times I will be wanting to write on my projects, and I'll have an assignment to preach or whatever. So, you know, I have to switch my hat and be like, okay, that's a different kind of writing, you know. Um, and and I work a job that's not um a nine to five or eight to five. Um, often on call, and on call is brutal, you know, especially when you get to a certain age and your phone ringing at two, three, four in the morning because there's problems.

SPEAKER_00:

Sure.

SPEAKER_04:

And um, so uh, you know, that takes up a lot of my time, a lot of my mental space because I am a programmer, it deals with logic, and uh there's not ever any time when I feel like I just don't have anything to do.

SPEAKER_05:

My time is yeah, yeah. Yeah, but you know, sometimes we need a break.

SPEAKER_04:

Absolutely. And I like to travel, I don't travel um like um far a lot of times. I'll I'll go to where I can drive and just get out and do things, you know. Um recently, like this year, I did things like muscle shows and I took the tours of the uh recording studios and and I went to uh maybe a market in Athens, you know, those kind of things. Um yeah, and and I really enjoy those. Give me like a hardware store or an antique store, and hey, I could get lost all day.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I have a friend, she used to love antiquing, and I'm just walking around like, when is this gonna be over? Yeah, you know, so I'm just saying, and you know, yeah, it and it perked her up. I mean, it perked her all the way up, so I could stay longer because I enjoyed seeing her in her elephants. Okay, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna put water on on your fire, right? But everything is not for everyone, right? She would just, I mean, it like lit a fire under her to go aunty. Oh, look at this little tea kettle, and and you know, and I'd be like, Yeah, it looks nice, you know. I'm not buying anything, it's not because I didn't like what I saw. Where I don't have a place to put it, you know what I'm saying? That type of thing. So I'm looking at that aspect, but she was that person, and um, and like I said, I enjoyed just seeing her when we would um eat lunch and then go antiquing or go antiquing and then eat lunch, so it just uh made our day, yeah. So um, and when you have a friend, you got to embrace some of the things that they're doing, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

To embrace what they're doing, I get it, I get it.

SPEAKER_05:

Absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04:

And I also I love the theater, so I would go to Alabama Shakespeare Theater or some of the local theaters, like in Leeds or Homewood or different places. Um, I love plays, I love theater.

SPEAKER_05:

Um that's great, that's great. So you're just a lover of the arts, and that's and and Birmingham is an artsy town.

SPEAKER_04:

It is, it is. Virginia Sanford Theater, like I say, Leeds Homewood, uh BFT. We got um quite a few little community theaters, and I love them.

SPEAKER_05:

That's great. Now, where can the audience how can they reach you? Where can they get your books?

SPEAKER_04:

Uh, probably the best place will be Amazon. It has all my titles out there. Um, and and um it's it's amazing how if you Google yourself, you'll be like, who are these people selling my book? Which I did just before we started this, and there was somebody I was like, okay, they got that price a little high, go to Amazon. So yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_05:

Absolutely. Okay, and they can find your books under Sheila Danae Lawrence.

SPEAKER_04:

Yes, because there is a Sheila Lawrence that um I went out there, I was like, I don't know what she writes, but um, you know, just to keep it unique, most of mine will be under Sheila Danae Lawrence.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, and that's that's what we need. That that's what this audience needs to know. Yeah, they can find your books on Amazon and under Sheila Danae Lawrence.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes.

SPEAKER_05:

Well good. Okay, do you have any closing comments for the audience?

SPEAKER_04:

Uh no, I just thank God for being able to do what you love and and to bring some kind of hope, some kind of joy, some kind of amusement to people, you know, because as our conversation earlier, um those things, that's what's gonna last. If we can help somebody, if we could uplift somebody, you know, if we could speak life into somebody, we never know what people are going through, what they're dealing with. Um, but if we could give them hope, then we've given them the best that we've got to give.

SPEAKER_05:

And that is so true, because um you never know what type of day a person is having.

SPEAKER_04:

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And if they could just laugh at my foolishness, and you know, it it lifts their burden, then you know, I've done my job.

SPEAKER_05:

You have done your job, and and that's what they needed. They didn't need anything dull or they didn't need that that cold water hitting them in the face. They needed some light, they needed some joy, and you just never know where a person is. So let's try to meet them with kindness.

SPEAKER_04:

And you know, the Bible says laughter is good medicine. So if I can make anybody smile, laugh, whatever, then you know that's a dose that, yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

That's great. Well, thank you so much, Sheila, for being a guest on Gentry's journey. We have truly enjoyed having you.

SPEAKER_04:

It's been my pleasure. It's been my pleasure.

SPEAKER_05:

Great, great. And um, I'm so glad we met at the uh at the library at the at the author expo.

SPEAKER_04:

Absolutely, absolutely so much.