reading

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

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