Sheila's Guests and Reviews

Today I'm delighted to welcome Belinda Frisch, author of a new contemporary romantic mystery, The Missing Year, to my blog, and she's staying for coffee, so grab a cup and join us as we chat on the sofa. (Don't forget, there's a great giveaway included with this post, so be sure to read on and find out how to enter too.) Hi Belinda, and welcome to my blog. I don't know if you drink coffee or not, but there's tea, juice, water. Please help yourself. Having seen your bio, I have to ask what branch of healthcare did you work in, and how does it influence your fiction? My background is in medical coding and billing. In 2005, I authored a textbook, Correct Coding for Medicare, Compliance, and Reimbursement , and moved into a teaching role at a regional hospital, training physicians on the importance of documentation. I love all things medical (forensic files, CSI, Bones, TLC) and took it upon myself to know exactly what happened in each of the hospi...

Today I'm delighted to welcome author Rachelle Ayala back to my blog as she tours the internet with her latest Sanchez Sisters novel, Claiming Carlos.  This time Rachelle's staying here long enough for a cup of coffee, so find a mug, add cream and sugar to taste, and join us as we sit on the sofa and chat. (Don't forget to rinse your cup before you leave, and don't miss the giveaway at the end of this post.) When did you first start writing fiction, Rachelle? I’ve written short stories for myself since I was little, but didn’t start a novel until 2010 when I decided to write a story about a Bible heroine, Michal. The words flowed and before I knew it, I had a first draft. Obviously it needed a lot of revision and help, so I went to Critique Circle and spent almost two years learning the craft, taking classes at Savvy Authors, and revising my novel. After that, I was hooked and here I am, ten books later. Ten books! That's pretty impressive. So what...

Some books just demand to be read. Their characters are so real perhaps, or their concepts so deeply intriguing. They may be non-fiction or fiction, but they draw you in with their questions or situations and invite you to think. They engage the head and heart, maybe even the soul, making you hear your own voice echo in characters or arguments. And you know they'll end with something deep that leaves you deeply fed. I wish Divide by Zero could be one of those novels. It felt that way as I wrote it. I knew the characters so well I'd walk around the neighborhood talking to them, arguing why and how, and asking them sometimes to change their mind. There's a dark secret in the novel which I didn't even know until I learned it halfway through. Then I had to go back and ask the perpetrator where he was coming from. I had to know more; after which I went forward again, mourning with the community, wondering how it would survive until a small boy, an imaginary boy, looked at...