Interview With the Author

When did you start writing?

Shawn: The first time I really remember trying my hand at story writing was in middle school. I remember we did a brief section in English class on creative writing, and it was the first time I ever felt a spark of interest in anything to do with the written word.

So you're saying that an interest in the written word didn't come naturally to you?

Shawn: Absolutely not. I struggled with my speech well into my elementary school years, I wasn't a strong reader either, and I ultimately spent my entire academic career faking summer reading. When I had to read it was a slow and strenuous process. As a result, writing wasn't even something I considered doing for fun early on. Both of my parents were always avid readers, especially my mom, she would read a few books a week, it was something I always wished I could do.

Unfortunately, as my fellow classmates moved right along, my pace just wasn't being met, so I learned how to fake it instead, and it reflected in my grades. I loved story telling, I just didn't have the skills to do it well when I was younger.

When I entered community college, I started getting all As on my English papers and I started reading for fun. I realized that my entire time in school had been spent believing I just wasn't academically smart enough to do well in these subjects, but really all I needed was just more time to develop my skills. As I played catch-up and grew to believing in my ability to write, I dove head-first into novel writing.

Is that when you wrote your first book? What was the book about?

Shawn: Yes, I finished my first novel in my first year of college, in 2008. At the time, my twin sister and I were each writing our own novels. It was a lot of fun. We took all of the same classes and spent our spare time--when we weren't at work--working on our books.

My first novel was called, "With Eyes That See." I'm actually going to keep the details of that one to myself for now. It's a story I'm really interested in re-writing one of these days.

The last novel you wrote was nearly eight years ago. Looking back, is there anything you would do differently with any of your first five novels?

Shawn: Honestly, no, but not because I think they're perfect. I could never take one of my previously published novels and do a re-write, which based on where my writing is now, is what they would each need. Even the thought of it makes me imagine trying to extract a soul from a body and placing it in a better one. Like the book "Old Man's War," which was amazing by the way. I actually tried to re-write "The Wanderer" to include changes I had made when I converted it to a screenplay (just for fun) and the attempt flatlined.

I can't read my own books, even though I wrote them so that I could enjoy these stories myself, and I published them so that I could experience them over and over. In the end, I'm just too critical of my own writing to enjoy it as much as I wish I could. In the beginning, I was still clumsily finding my way through the editing process as well as honing my literary voice, so knowing what I know now, I would change a lot, but in reality I just can't. I think a lot of people in the creative fields feel the same way about their earliest work.

My hope is that when people look back on my earlier novels they fall in love with the stories and the characters and can read them with grace. Those novels were written by a woman who was testing out her wings, not just in writing, but in life.

You started writing seriously during your husband's year-long deployment, correct? What was that like?

Shawn: Yes. His first duty station was Ansbach, Germany. It's a long story, but we ended up getting married through a double proxy (neither of us was there, it was performed in Montana) in January and it took a while to get me over there. I arrived in April, then he deployed that November. So, basically, I went very quickly from comfortable and sheltered in the life and town I'd always known to everything being new and different. Despite being half-German by blood, Germany was somewhere I never pictured myself visiting. Now it's still home to me.

Because I had already tried my hand at novel writing, it felt like a natural way to help pass the time. At the time, I was also taking online classes, which I eventually stopped taking to write full-time. I love love, so it's the easiest thing for me to write about. When my husband was gone, it was a really fun way to create and explore a different word with different characters. I wrote Volition and had started Severance during that deployment.

The Volition series is in the YA paranormal genre. Do you plan to write more YA or paranormal stories?

Shawn: I honestly don't know. The stories I currently plan to write next are contemporary romance, crime/thriller, and suspense/Sci-Fi. I have four pretty solid stories on my immediate back-burner in those various categories. All of which are, at their core, love stories. I don't pick which stories I'll write, they pick me. The creative process is always a bit different, but ultimately I'm just the builder, I work with whichever materials show up.

Why love stories?

Shawn: I think every writer has a spark for their writing. Some authors like to write thought-provoking stories that make people consider something they never had before. Some enjoy writing period pieces. Others like stories with a fan fiction feel. And so on. As I said before, I love love. Everyone has a love story, and everyone's story is different. I like to stay comfortable in what I write about because I don't want to give people cause to tear a story apart. I don't want to spark political debates or moral dilemmas, I just want to deliver a love story that is tangible, believable, and lovable.

I enjoy how much relationships allow us to grow as individuals. I also love the spark of attraction. When feelings are developing, but it's too soon to act. I enjoy living on that edge with my writing as long as I can before tipping over to a full on romance. It's not just about sex and flesh, it's about showing the reader the embrace that the characters hearts share before they ever experience anything physical.

If you had one piece of advice for hopeful novel writers, what would it be?

Shawn: I don't think one is enough, but if I had to pick, it would be, don't stop moving forward, but don't be afraid to step back.

I once read, "You're only a writer if you're writing." I forget where this was, but it really stuck with me, and at times it messed with my head. After having my son, I took a big step back from writing. I just didn't have the time to balance everything. And when you're building a skill like novel writing, it's not bringing in a substantial income until you've made it big. I wouldn't put my kids in daycare to stay home and not get paid. And I wasn't about to get a job just to work and make money. Money, honestly, just doesn't rank that high in my life. So there were times where, when I would try to pick up writing again and I struggled, that I thought I was a fake. Maybe I was a writer once, but I wasn't anymore. False. And the fact is, even as I prioritized my family and educating my kids, I was still improving my writing, and when I finally stepped back into it, it came much more easily to me. And now I can gauge my process and my needs as a writer more easily and accurately.

Without revealing too much, what's something you want to say about the latest novel you've been working on?

Shawn: The novel I just finished writing is hands down my favorite so far. "The Wanderer" previously held that position, and now this book does and I've come to realize what it is about my books that I really love building. Strong yet vulnerable male leads. Writing this book was a way of working through and coping with my mother's unexpected passing. I took a lot of what I was experiencing and put it into this story. Though my experience with loss was different, I thought it would be a challenge to show a character fighting with these feelings and finally learning to embrace them. I think this dynamic resulted in a very well fleshed out character and love interest and I can't wait for my readers to meet him.

Do you have any other tools, tips, or tricks when you're writing a story on how to create fictional characters that feel real?

Shawn: I create a Pinterest board, song play list or soundtrack, and I use actors or models to help give me tangible material to work with. I prefer to use actors because I can watch their movies or interviews and incorporate their mannerisms or certain personality traits to give my characters a more robust presence when I'm writing them. I based my latest novel's love interest Jack on actor Henry Cavill, for example and his "song" is "Hard to Love" by Lee Brice. You don't need to watch too many Henry Cavill interviews to know that he's a really grounded, deep, and well humored man. This was exactly the kind of traits I wanted for Jack. If I was stuck in trying to flesh out Jack more, I would listen to some of the songs that reminded me of him or watch a Henry Cavill movie or interview. As I drew inspiration, it was like focusing a lens on the image I had of who Jack was.

Last question, what are you working on now?

Shawn: I am currently putting together the bones of a companion novel for the one I just finished. I'm really excited about it because it wasn't something I expected to write. It was one of those situations where a character basically said, "I still have a story to tell." I need to figure out a few more major plot points before I sit down to start writing it formally, but it's a project I'm looking forward to diving into once all of the pieces fall into place.