Ask the Author: Sherry Thomas
Answered Questions (18)
Sherry Thomas
Hi Aly,
If you are wondering whether Charlotte Holmes will have a romantic HEA, my answer is probably. I've only just finished book 2 and it will take a while yet. And I'm totally not opposed to writing historical romance, just as soon as I have a good idea!
Thanks for your questions!
If you are wondering whether Charlotte Holmes will have a romantic HEA, my answer is probably. I've only just finished book 2 and it will take a while yet. And I'm totally not opposed to writing historical romance, just as soon as I have a good idea!
Thanks for your questions!
Sherry Thomas
Watching BBC Sherlock. That was a great modern adaptation which got me to ask myself, hey, has anyone done Sherlock as a woman yet? :-)
Sherry Thomas
Hi Vanessa,
The series is a trilogy so ends with book 3.
Cheers,
Sherry
The series is a trilogy so ends with book 3.
Cheers,
Sherry
Sherry Thomas
The genesis of the Elemental Trilogy was an email from a YA editor to my agent. They had met at a book conference and the editor, having read my romances, expressed an interest in seeing me write YA fantasy. At that time I had no such plans, so I said that I’ll keep her interest in mind and moved on.
Some months later, my agent forwarded me another email from the editor. She was still interested. Did I have anything for her? I didn’t have anything for her. But that afternoon, as I crossed the parking lot of Costco, a sentence dropped into my head: "On the night I was born, stars fell".
What I would have done with that genesis of a story, if I didn’t have someone hoping to read a book of fantasy from me, I have no idea. But I did have that editor interest, so this germ of an inspiration turned into the Elemental Trilogy.
As for other fantasy books, have you read Megan Whalen Turner's the Queen's Thief books? You can also try my book The Hidden Blade, which is nothing like the Elemental Trilogy, except it also has young protagonists. :-)
But anyway, thank you for your question and I'm so happy you enjoyed these books!
Some months later, my agent forwarded me another email from the editor. She was still interested. Did I have anything for her? I didn’t have anything for her. But that afternoon, as I crossed the parking lot of Costco, a sentence dropped into my head: "On the night I was born, stars fell".
What I would have done with that genesis of a story, if I didn’t have someone hoping to read a book of fantasy from me, I have no idea. But I did have that editor interest, so this germ of an inspiration turned into the Elemental Trilogy.
As for other fantasy books, have you read Megan Whalen Turner's the Queen's Thief books? You can also try my book The Hidden Blade, which is nothing like the Elemental Trilogy, except it also has young protagonists. :-)
But anyway, thank you for your question and I'm so happy you enjoyed these books!
Sherry Thomas
Apologies, Fareeda. I thought Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ would let me know if there are questions and it did--only when a new one came in just now. My bad!
My favorite might have to be A Scandal in Bohemia. :-)
My favorite might have to be A Scandal in Bohemia. :-)
Sherry Thomas
I'm so sorry, Jin. I thought Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ would let me know if there are questions and it did--only when a new one came in just now. I apologize for having missed your question for so long!
I first had the idea when I watched the BBC Sherlock. Because it did such a fantastic job translating Sherlock Holmes into the modern era, it got my imagination humming as to how a different twist could be put on it. And changing Holmes's gender just seemed the natural next step in the evolution of the character.
I can't speak to the entirety of the culture's fascination but I feel a large part of it is that we actually know very little of the biographical details of Sherlock Holmes. We don't know what kind of family he came from--we can infer but it was never stated--what he used to do before he became a consulting detective, how old he was, where he went to school, etc., etc. And because Watson's observation tends to miss important stuff, you can always say that certain things he noted about Sherlock Holmes isn't quite right--or that they had to change certain stories to avoid hurting the innocent. And THIS is the actual version.
Hope this answers your question!
I first had the idea when I watched the BBC Sherlock. Because it did such a fantastic job translating Sherlock Holmes into the modern era, it got my imagination humming as to how a different twist could be put on it. And changing Holmes's gender just seemed the natural next step in the evolution of the character.
I can't speak to the entirety of the culture's fascination but I feel a large part of it is that we actually know very little of the biographical details of Sherlock Holmes. We don't know what kind of family he came from--we can infer but it was never stated--what he used to do before he became a consulting detective, how old he was, where he went to school, etc., etc. And because Watson's observation tends to miss important stuff, you can always say that certain things he noted about Sherlock Holmes isn't quite right--or that they had to change certain stories to avoid hurting the innocent. And THIS is the actual version.
Hope this answers your question!
Sherry Thomas
I have just this moment finished THE IMMORTAL SEA. It will be published October 13 of this year, iirc.
Sherry Thomas
I will have to go back to school or do ten years of serious reading before my Chinese will be of an adequate level to write anything longer than a postcard. Even for a postcard I have to haul out a dictionary. (Actually, most of my Chinese writing is done with Google Transliterate these days, and boy I usually I have to commit an hour to eke out an email!)
That's a long way of saying most likely no. :-)
That's a long way of saying most likely no. :-)
Sherry Thomas
LOL, rat dude. Are you speaking of Lord Vere from His at Night?
I am intrigued by the kind of romantic relationship that spans multiples books. That's one of the reasons I am undertaking the historical mystery series, so that I can explore such a relationship as it changes over time.
I am intrigued by the kind of romantic relationship that spans multiples books. That's one of the reasons I am undertaking the historical mystery series, so that I can explore such a relationship as it changes over time.
Sherry Thomas
The only one I'm seriously considering is the post-WWI novella, featuring the daughter of Gigi and Camden from PRIVATE ARRANGEMENTS and the son of Verity and Stuart from DELICIOUS. At the moment I'm imagining it as an epistolary romance, done largely in letters.
Sherry Thomas
I am finishing copyedits on THE IMMORTAL SEA, book 3 of my YA fantasy trilogy. After that, it will be back immediately to revisions on THE ONE IN MY HEART, my first--and maybe only--contemporary. When that's done, I will start work on the historical mystery with romantic elements that I have under contract. And of course, I will always have a project or two on the side. For the longest time that side project was THE ONE IN MY HEART. I wonder what it will be, once that's completed. :-)
Sherry Thomas
End of March. If not, beginning of April.
Sherry Thomas
I will, but this doesn't mean I will sign any more contracts writing historicals--my next contract with Berkley is for historical mysteries.
The last eight historical romances I'd written--out of the nine published--had all been kind of under pretty intense time pressure. I'll admit, there were some plots I wasn't proud of--amnesia, anyone?--but used out of desperation because two characters and sexy banter do not a book make, damn it.
So I don't want to commit myself to writing historical romances ahead of time. I want them to come to me organically. There is this WWI novella already brewing in my head and I am kind of chomping at the bits to try it. We'll see how that goes.
The last eight historical romances I'd written--out of the nine published--had all been kind of under pretty intense time pressure. I'll admit, there were some plots I wasn't proud of--amnesia, anyone?--but used out of desperation because two characters and sexy banter do not a book make, damn it.
So I don't want to commit myself to writing historical romances ahead of time. I want them to come to me organically. There is this WWI novella already brewing in my head and I am kind of chomping at the bits to try it. We'll see how that goes.
Sherry Thomas
The first answer that came to mind was no. And then I remembered that it took six drafts before my agent would take the YA fantasy out to shop. The first three drafts to get the world-building right, the last three to nail down the plot of the 2nd half of the book.
And crazily enough, considering that up until that point I'd published only romance, because we spent so much effort on world-building and plotting, my YA editor was the one who went in and pointed out all the places where I should dig deeper into the romance.
So maybe not difficult to switch, but definitely not easy. But because it was so much fun--God bless side projects--I didn't mind any of it.
And crazily enough, considering that up until that point I'd published only romance, because we spent so much effort on world-building and plotting, my YA editor was the one who went in and pointed out all the places where I should dig deeper into the romance.
So maybe not difficult to switch, but definitely not easy. But because it was so much fun--God bless side projects--I didn't mind any of it.
Sherry Thomas
I would like to, but there are no concrete plans at the moment. It depends on my schedule--side projects are slotted into time remaining from contracted books. It also depends on my income--when I have put both of my boys through college, I might feel freer to tackle projects that earn primarily via the long tail. :-)
Sherry Thomas
Long time ago, when I first started writing, one of my wonderful sister-in-laws bought me a book on how to write and publish romances, which I dutifully read from end to end. I vaguely recall an article about characterization inside that listed all the possible personality traits and advised that the aspiring writer pick a few for each character.
I also vaguely remember that after I finished my first manuscript, which would later become PRIVATE ARRANGMENTS, I started on a space opera--heh--and thought to myself, hmm, I can't have this heroine be determined, because my last one already was, and I had better switch it up from character to character.
So I went down that list of personality traits and picked some new ones for this new character. !!!
It took me a while to realize that if I wanted to, I can write about characters with the exact same dominant traits in the exact archetypal conflict--there are only so many plots in fiction--over and over again and still never repeat myself. Not that I do, but it is eminently doable.
The trick is all in the specificity. People who grow up in the same house turn out to be vastly different individuals. Heck, even identical twins do not remain the same. Every body has different stories, when you give them the stories, you give them a history and a reference point that is different from anyone else's.
And my characters are always built around the conflict--they grow organically, but in genre fiction conflict is king and whatever baggage/flaws they bring with them must be what best serve the conflict.
Sorry for being so long-winded! :-)
I also vaguely remember that after I finished my first manuscript, which would later become PRIVATE ARRANGMENTS, I started on a space opera--heh--and thought to myself, hmm, I can't have this heroine be determined, because my last one already was, and I had better switch it up from character to character.
So I went down that list of personality traits and picked some new ones for this new character. !!!
It took me a while to realize that if I wanted to, I can write about characters with the exact same dominant traits in the exact archetypal conflict--there are only so many plots in fiction--over and over again and still never repeat myself. Not that I do, but it is eminently doable.
The trick is all in the specificity. People who grow up in the same house turn out to be vastly different individuals. Heck, even identical twins do not remain the same. Every body has different stories, when you give them the stories, you give them a history and a reference point that is different from anyone else's.
And my characters are always built around the conflict--they grow organically, but in genre fiction conflict is king and whatever baggage/flaws they bring with them must be what best serve the conflict.
Sorry for being so long-winded! :-)
Sherry Thomas
There are two. The first I read it when I was 23, a newer title from an old favorite author, and it was, for me, irredeemably stupid. I was so pissed off that I'd wasted my son's nap time--which was all the free time I had in a day--reading that book that when my husband got home that day, I told him that I was going to write a romance. (Ah, the arrogance of youth.)
The second was WICKED, by Susan Johnson. For some reason, all the historical romances I'd read until that point all had a major war/politics/mystery subplot. And I was convinced I sucked at plotting. WICKED had no such thing--okay, there was a brush with the Napoleonic Wars, but it wasn't central at all--and it was just the H/H going at it hot and heavy from England to Italy and back again. After I read--and hugely enjoyed--the book, I said to myself, now that's a plot I could do. :-)
The second was WICKED, by Susan Johnson. For some reason, all the historical romances I'd read until that point all had a major war/politics/mystery subplot. And I was convinced I sucked at plotting. WICKED had no such thing--okay, there was a brush with the Napoleonic Wars, but it wasn't central at all--and it was just the H/H going at it hot and heavy from England to Italy and back again. After I read--and hugely enjoyed--the book, I said to myself, now that's a plot I could do. :-)
Sherry Thomas
I never can figure out words to a song without looking up the actual lyrics, so for me the most important thing is always the melody. I like emotional, sweeping stuff so I listen to a lot of soundtracks--the one from Lord of the Rings is a perennial standby--and a lot of production music.
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