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Spring Time!

It’s been a tumultuous couple of months here in the US. The constant news headlines have made it hard to find a creative space to let my imagination wander, but I told a group of students last week that this is an important time to put our thoughts to paper, to wrestle with our characters, to emphasize through the conflict in our stories what we as humans believe is right and good and truthful. Because truth comes across in fiction — not a literal truth but a truth so deep that our souls recognize it.

I’m excited to have a new market: The Atlantic Journal. My story, “Sunday Reverie” was published and met a warm reception at the launch party.

The story begins: “When I was a child, we played hide’n’seek among the tombstones of the Southern Baptist graveyard. While our parents were inside studying the mysteries of religion, we were feral children running our hands along the rough tops of the markers and along the smooth fronts, our fingers picking out lines that formed letters and noting numbers that had no meaning, no heaviness.”

From the Launch Party at Bird in Hand, Baltimore

I was also glad to partner with my friend Jen Chandler, an educator in Harford County, who put together a Future Focus Day at a local high school. I was one of the speakers and I had an opportunity to speak to two sessions of youth who’d signed up to learn about what it means to pursue a career in writing. We talked about AI and how marketing is changing, whether readers can separate art from artist, and how to get started. Some asked specific questions about their own work and others wanted to know whether they had to live more, experience more, before they could tell a story. (Spoiler: No)

The only thing that we didn’t touch on that I’m currently obsessed with is Severance. My family (well, my oldest has watched the entire thing. She’s the one who recommended the show) is watching it together and it is really mind-bending.

I have a couple of appearances coming up. I’ll share them here because cons and festivals are always nicer when you know someone. And, if you see me, I will talk about more than Severance. Probably.

Shore Leave 2025 July 11-13th Lancaster, PA Wyndham Resort and Convention Center

Book Fair at Bel Air August 23rd Bel Air, MD Bel Air Armory (37 N. Main Street)

*I’ll be sharing a table with author Tim Baldwin

Bel Air Festival for the Arts September 14th, 2025 Bel Air, MD Shamrock Park (39 Hickory Avenue)

*I’ll be sharing a table with author Xenatine

That’s all I’ve got for now. Feel free to reach out if you’d like me to be a guest speaker for your group or activity.

Love,

Sherri

Happy New Year!

Like most people, I experienced 2024 as a roller coaster. When I was little there was an animated show that would air right before we started chanting with the crowd in Times Square as the ball dropped. I don’t remember much except the last image. The old worn-out man in a robe, hunched over with a white beard to his knees passing a torch? a balloon? something symbolic to a chubby, happy baby in a diaper marked with the new year.

The point to this image (that I apparently don’t remember as well as I thought I did) is that January 1st we get to start over. I’ve heard that our New Year should be in spring because people aren’t motivated to do anything in the dark and cold of January. We are supposed to be hibernating and reading books and eating yummy soups. Okay. But what if it is less about immediately DOING and more about BEING.

Here is one of my favorite quotes to read at the end of a yoga class:

For a seed to achieve its greatest expression

it must come completely undone.

The shell cracks, its insides come out

and everything changes.

To someone who doesn’t understand growth,

it would look like complete destruction.

by Cynthia Occelli

So I won’t bore you with details about how our “Grandfather 2024” got the last laugh requiring two cars to being taken to the mechanic and an emergency water heater replacement in the last week. Or how my father had to be taken to the ER (he is stable and making dad jokes in the group text chat so appears to be on the mend).

Instead, I’m going to focus on the positive. I made a scrapbook of my oldest daughter. I imagine some of you raising your eyebrows because you were expecting something spectacular. It IS spectacular for me.

We have a tradition where we take a photo of each child AROUND their birthday (clears throat in a non-guilty way) in a specific outfit or with a certain piece of sports equipment or in a specific pose. I have four children so it’s a little different, but you know what I mean. I drag my feet about making scrapbooks for the same reason I drag my feet on writing. My perfectionism makes me procrastinate and procrastination builds the tension. It sucks the joy out and leaves guilt. There is no external deadline and so the nostalgic time to enjoy looking through years of my daughter wearing my wedding dress as she grows turns into a stressful to-do that creates anxiety. After having this on my list for THREE YEARS I finished it in time to order before Christmas and surprised her with the book.

Another positive moment occurred at the end of 2024 as well.

Thank you to everyone who purchased a copy of Postcards from a City of Monsters. If you forgot or need more copies, here is a link: Purchase. The award really boosted my confidence because the book hasn’t received a lot of reviews.

That was Grandfather 2024. What news from Baby 2025?

I have a new story out! The fantasy and science fiction magazine Abyss & Apex purchased “Where the Kelpies Swim” and its here, available to read for free. I am so excited and proud to be in their pages for a third time. This magazine was my FIRST professional sale back in…2012. Wow. Back when I was a baby writer. I love that the editors embrace mixing genre elements and the freedom of speculative fiction as long as it serves the story. I also love the way the editors take spend so much time and attention on each story.

I wish everyone a Happy 2025! May this year bring success, growth, and kindness to all.

Love,

Sherri

Another NEW RELEASE

August has been very exciting because I had TWO books release and they were both about cryptids, a monster from folklore.

Postcards from a City of Monsters is intended for children and their families or friends and is fully illustrated and was released by Improbable Press. Available here.

Mother’s Instinct is a different beast (I’m sorry). eSpec Books produces the books for Cryptid Crate, a quarterly subscription series that includes a t-shirt, a Challenge Coin, a stackable figure, and my book.

I had the pleasure of writing about a Dobhar Chu. Not sure what that is? I wasn’t either. Even though my Master’s Capstone was about Irish mythology, I had not heard of this “otter-alligator” that lives in both fresh and saltwater, is protective of their young, and will attack humans without fear. Once I had the setting: a mysterious island off the west coast of Ireland, and the characters: a mother researching for her dissertation and a young daughter with a special connection to animals, the plot began coming together.

I talk more about it in my interview with Paul Semel here

The book is available wherever books are sold, including from eSpec books here.

If you are local, I’m happy to sign your book. Also, I’ll be at the Bel Air Festival for the Arts on Sunday, September 15th in Shamrock Park and will have copies for sale. Thank you for the support!

Love,

Sherri

NEW RELEASE: Postcards from a City of Monsters

It’s finally here!!!! My first children’s book — reading age 7-12 years.

From the publisher’s site:

A finely-told, full-color illustrated book about childhood cancer

WOULD YOU LIKE TO FLY WITH A GARGOYLE?

Toby didn’t ask to move halfway around the world to the Czech Republic with his mom and step-mom. He certainly didn’t ask to get sick.

But now, at the start of fifth grade, Toby finds himself being treated for cancer in a hospital far from his friends and familiar surroundings. He starts feeling trapped until a strange creature offers him an escape.

A feline-shaped gargoyle has come to life! All Toby has to do is step through the window.

Follow Toby on his night of adventure as he flies over enchanting Prague with his gargoyle guide, and learns he’s not alone at all.

Written by author Sherri Cook Woosley, and illustrated by artist Elena Moroz, Postcards from a City of Monsters is part of Improbable Press’ “Postcards” series, an imaginative fantasy set talking about issues important to kids, and which includes Postcards from a Lake Monster, a book about autism.

Book publishes – and sale ends – August 29, 2024

There’s a sale right now — 20% off on pre-orders until AUGUST 29th. ORDER HERE.

Let me know if you order a copy so I can personally thank you. I appreciate all the support for this topic which is very close to my heart.

Love,

Sherri

Summer 2024

Hey! I hope you are enjoying the pool, eating ice cream from a local dairy, and reading some intriguing books. I recently read The Pilgrim (thriller) by Terry Hayes and I’m about halfway through Godkiller (fantasy) by Hannah Kaner. I post my progress on both Goodreads and Storygraph like I’m a hunter and the books are my prey.

Mid-July and I’ve recovered enough optimism to start planning again! I’m excited to share that Mother’s Instinct will be released August 21st by e-Spec books and Postcards from a City of Monsters will be released August 29th by Improbable Press. Mother’s Instinct was fun to write because it was a What If? novel. Many people know that my Master’s Capstone centered on the role of women in medieval Irish and Welsh mythology. Okay, so what if I’d stayed in academia? What if I got to pursue sightings of an actual creature still haunting a remote Irish island? What if I took my daughter with me and she developed a connection with this deadly cryptid?

Postcards has been a long time coming. If you’ve followed me then you know I first started posting over two years ago. The publisher nominated this story for a Pushcart prize (yaayyyy!!) back when it was included in the anthology Dark Cheer: Cryptids Emerging and it represents an important part of my life….when my daughter’s cancer treatment affected everything. So this story draws on both my experience of living in Prague (I went there to be an English teacher when I was 19 years old) and being a mother of a child with cancer. But the story is about a boy who wants to escape the hospital and the gargoyle who helps him. The illustrations by Elena Moroz are fabulous. Simply breathtaking in the way she captured what was in my imagination.

Each publisher chose the date so it is a coincidence that they are releasing only a week apart. For Postcards, the publisher is timing the release to coincide with Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month. This is also right as I’m starting a new school year… so I’m trying to promote the books now. What does that mean? Well, pre-orders are WONDERFUL THINGS. Preorder Here If you purchase a copy of Mother’s Instinct NOW then it pushes my book higher on the release day so that more people see it. If more people see it, then more may buy it. If more people buy it then my publisher is happy. If my publisher is happy then they may invite me to write another project for them. Then, and only then, do I get to be happy.

I’ll post again when Improbable Press has their preorder page up — should be at the end of July.

In the meantime, I’ve also put together my schedule of appearances for the rest of 2024:

Fri. July 26th/Sun. July 28th Shore Leave 44 Lancaster, PA

Sat. September 15th Bel Air Festival of the Arts Bel Air, MD

Sat/Sun September 28-29 FrightReads Millersville, MD

Sat., November 2nd Authors & Artists Bel Air, MD

Sun. November 17th Books and Brews Market Street Brewery Havre de Grace, MD

Nov 21-24 National Council of Teachers of English Boston, MA

Finally, I sold another story to Abyss & Apex and that story about kelpies will be coming out online on January 1st, 2025.

For fun: a throwback to the summer that I taught Goat Yoga.

Love,

Sherri

Summer Appearances

I had an opportunity to travel to Europe with my family this summer for three weeks and we went to Switzerland, France, Germany, and Italy with our niece, Izzy. The trip was full of many adventures and memories, but we are now back to reality — newly inspired for short stories and novels.

This was a fun moment where we stopped in the middle of the Swiss Alps for expresso and chocolate during the return from Milan.

Now I’m on my way to Shore Leave 43 as an author guest and I’m looking forward to speaking on panels and seeing author friends!

On Saturday, August 26th I’ll be selling books at FaunFest in White Hall, MD.

And, on Saturday, September 30-Sunday, October 1st, I’ll be returning to sell books at FrightReads Book Festival in Millersville, MD.

If you’re local, please come out to support authors and artists!

Love,

Sherri

Balticon 56

I had a fantastic weekend at Balticon in the Inner Harbor of Baltimore (this is exactly what gets burned down in my book Walking Through Fire, by the way). It was nice to see people again, to snack on cannolis in Little Italy and enjoy a paleta, a Mexican frozen treat made from strawberries and then dipped in chocolate.

My panels (and fellow panelists) were fun and we had spirited discussions.

I moderated: Keeping Your Anitheroes Likable

I moderated: What Should I Read Next

I was a panelist for: Magic in the Ancient Mediterranean

I was a panelist for: Gods as Characters

I also had a reading and chose to read from “Swan Dive” in Musings of the Muses and then the first chapter of my upcoming novel, Ashes of Regret.

One note about reading the first chapter. I asked certain of my high school students to critique the content and I was pleased as an author to receive the feedback about what was confusing or what could be changed, but as a teacher I couldn’t have been more proud. Seriously, I’m amazed by my students and the skill and energy they bring to working with language and determining the elements of a story.

So, without further ado, here is the cover for Ashes of Regret. I will launch the novel at Shore Leave this July.

Love,

Sherri

FARPOINT 2022 SCHEDULE

I’m happy to be returning to Farpoint as a guest author this weekend in Hunt Valley, Maryland.

Here’s my schedule:

FRIDAY

Climate Fiction As Activism – Fri 4 PM – Salon C

Book Fair – Fri 10 PM – Hunt/Valley Foyer

SATURDAY

            Author Autographs (Woosley) – Sat 11 AM – Author Autograph Table 002

            How To Sell Books From Your Website – Sat 1 PM – Salon C

            Sci-Fi And Fantasy Evolution (mod) – Sat 3 PM – Salon C

            Author Readings (Gribble/Woosley) – Sat 4 PM – Derby

SUNDAY

            Gender Tropes And How To Avoid Them – Sun 10 AM – Salon C

            Magic as a Character — Sun 11 AM — Salon C

            Author Readings (Povey/Gribble/Woosley) – Sun 12 PM – Derby

Author Autographs (Woosley) – Sun 1 PM – Author Autograph Table 002

I’ll be reading from my most recent story in Dark Cheer: Cryptids Emerging.

And, maybe, from my first novel, Walking Through Fire, since the second book (Ashes of Regret) will be releasing this summer. Or should I read from Ashes as a preview?

Hope to see familiar faces and meet new friends this weekend!

Love,

Sherri

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I love this time of year! Friends, family, and food are the heart of the holiday and I appreciate the emphasis on gratitude and the opportunity for me to grow by choosing to focus on the good and not the setbacks. For example, this year has been the year of anthologies for me. I have short stories in: Black-Eyed Peas on New Year’s Day, Thrilling Adventure Yarns 2021, Once Upon a Dystopia, Dark Cheer: Cryptids Emerging, AND an acceptance for an anthology forthcoming in Spring, 2022.

Check out this beautiful cover!

My short story “Gargoyles of Prague” is being included in the anthology DARK CHEER: CRYPTIDS EMERGING Volume Blue. The story is based on my experience of being a mother of a child with a life-threatening illness and the year I spent teaching English in Prague, Czech Republic. It will be released in early December by Improbable Press. Please enjoy this excerpt:

When the hospital door closed behind his mothers, Toby stepped closer to the window. In the gloam, the urban landscape had morphed from buildings into mysterious shapes. Grit – rock against brick – scraped outside his seventh story window. Curious, Toby leaned his forehead against the cold glass to see better. No locks on windows this high; only solid panes.

Suddenly gray claws came into view and dug into the brick wall to find purchase. Wings the same shade smacked against the window. Then a gray face, chiseled, filled the window. A feline face with carved nose, eyes, and whiskers. Wings pressed tightly to its back. Sharp teeth and a tongue that hung out in mid-pant. A statue. One of the creatures that decorated so many of Prague’s ancient buildings.

            “Come out,” the gargoyle said. The voice sounded like it looked: coarse and solid.           

            Toby’s hands trembled. “I don’t know how.”

            “Yes, you do.”

More good news! Improbable Press has chosen to turn my short story into an illustrated children’s book! I will share details soon, but I’ve seen the artist’s portfolio and I can’t wait to see what she does with Toby and my gargoyle and the incredible Charles Bridge.

AND…I have another story acceptance for an anthology centered on Greek mythology and history.

For those who have stuck with me after reading my novel Walking Through Fire, I have the rights back from the publisher and I sent off the draft of ASHES OF REGRET (Book 1.5 that features Tamaki) for a final editorial readthrough. I’m also working with a graphic designer for the cover and a map!

Finally, I had the opportunity to be a guest on MOUTHFUL OF GRAFFITTI, a podcast for musicians and authors hosted by Brad Cox. Take a listen here as I talk about our pandemic chickens, local festivals, and more about the inspiration for “Garygoyles of Prague.”

I have a lot of plans for 2022 in the works and I can’t wait to share them with you as we get closer.

Enjoy the holiday and enjoy a good book!

Love,

Sherri

Upcoming Appearance at Balticon 55

The Baltimore Science Fiction Society will hold Balticon 55 as a free virtual convention Memorial Day weekend, May 28-31, 2021. The guest of honor is Seanan MacGuire. Seanan was the winner of the 2010 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and her novel Feed (as Mira Grant) was named as one of Publishers Weekly’s Best Books of 2010. In 2013 she became the first person ever to appear five times on the same Hugo Ballot. To prepare for the con, I’m currently reading her novel MIDDLEGAME.

I’ve had the honor of participating in this convention for several years. This year I will be a moderator, a reader, and a panelist. I’m incredibly excited about my panel topics. Check out my schedule:

Friday, May 28th

2:30 PM Traditional Storytelling and Genre Fiction

Why am I a panelist: My Master’s Thesis was on the role of women in medieval Irish and Welsh texts. The myths began as oral stories and I’ve been trained to recognize techniques in the books that are a result of that origin

4:30 PM Reading: Sherri Cook Woosley

Should I read from an upcoming novel in my Misbegotten series or should I read from a short story?

Sunday, May 30th

11:30 AM Tell Me What to Read Next (Moderator)

Why am I a moderator? As part of the Charm City Spec reading series, I have a familiarity with contemporary speculative fiction. I hope everyone leaves our discussion with a huge To-Be-Read list!

2:30 PM The Motivations of Monsters

Why am I a panelist? I love the idea of discussing how monsters have evolved in fiction to represent fears of each generation. My background in world mythology and fairy tales will help to be specific about monsters from various time periods and various cultures.

7:00 PM Writing Compelling Villains

Why am I a panelist? This is a time ripe for writing anti-heroes and villains because of the rage against what is happening in our society. From Holly Black’s The Cruel Prince series to Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorn and Roses series to Baru Comorant, we have characters making devastating — and horrible — choices for the greater good. Does the end justify the means or is that just something that villains say?

I hope to “see” you at Balticon this weekend!

Love,

Sherri