Ask the Author: Lydia Sherrer
Answered Questions (22)
Lydia Sherrer
Ni Nicole! Thanks for reading and thanks for asking, I'm glad you've enjoyed the Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus universe. I've always set out to write this world as near-reality, meaning I want it to "feel" very real, and have touchstones from reality that ground people in actual history and locations. The story wrestles with a lot of real-life struggles and questions such as family conflict, friendship, abuse, and good vs. evil, so while there is a side that is wild and magical and foreign, I try to integrate it with the very real and normal that we deal with every day, like most urban fantasy genre stories do.
My magical influences are a hodge-podge of favorite stories I grew up on such as Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and the Enchanted Forest Chronicles. Those combine with my love of languages, ancient history, and mythology, specifically those from that cradle of life, ancient Mesopotamia.
I have absolutely considered making a LLHP Wiki on my site. The only problem is: TIME! Haha! I'm raising a whole passel of kids on top of running my publishing business and there simply isn't time in the day to do all the wonderful expansive things I'd like to do with my universe. Part of the problem is there's no immediate monetary result from spending time making a website wiki, which means I simply cannot take time away from tasks that pay my bills every month to do something that will not earn me any money in the short term. It's a hard but very real aspect of being self-employed and a creative that depends on the wonderful support of readers like you.
If you'd like for a LLHP Wiki to exist one day, you can do a couple things: tell your friends about the LLHP books! Tell your librarian, tell your bookclub, tell everybody. Such grass roots personal recommendation of books is a very helpful way to bring new readers to the series and help widen my monthly sales margins so that I can sit back a little bit, breathe, and take some time to do non-essential creative work.
Another way you can help is by volunteering your own time. I'm not at all against fans creating a fan LLHP Wiki (there are all sorts of sites out there where fans have compiled every scrap of information on their favorite universes for the benefit of all fans everywhere). I don't know how much or how directly I could be involved but I'm always open to considering new adventures and I appreciate the interest and enthusiasm of my readers. It doesn't have to be a solo project at all, I have a LLHP VIP reader group on Facebook where you might connect with fellow LLHP fans and float the idea of a group of you getting together to work on a public LLHP Wiki. You can find that FB group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/Lydia...
If you have some ideas you'd like to run by me, don't hesitate to reach out, I have a contact form on my website that's probably the best way to get in touch with me.
Thanks again for your questions!
My magical influences are a hodge-podge of favorite stories I grew up on such as Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and the Enchanted Forest Chronicles. Those combine with my love of languages, ancient history, and mythology, specifically those from that cradle of life, ancient Mesopotamia.
I have absolutely considered making a LLHP Wiki on my site. The only problem is: TIME! Haha! I'm raising a whole passel of kids on top of running my publishing business and there simply isn't time in the day to do all the wonderful expansive things I'd like to do with my universe. Part of the problem is there's no immediate monetary result from spending time making a website wiki, which means I simply cannot take time away from tasks that pay my bills every month to do something that will not earn me any money in the short term. It's a hard but very real aspect of being self-employed and a creative that depends on the wonderful support of readers like you.
If you'd like for a LLHP Wiki to exist one day, you can do a couple things: tell your friends about the LLHP books! Tell your librarian, tell your bookclub, tell everybody. Such grass roots personal recommendation of books is a very helpful way to bring new readers to the series and help widen my monthly sales margins so that I can sit back a little bit, breathe, and take some time to do non-essential creative work.
Another way you can help is by volunteering your own time. I'm not at all against fans creating a fan LLHP Wiki (there are all sorts of sites out there where fans have compiled every scrap of information on their favorite universes for the benefit of all fans everywhere). I don't know how much or how directly I could be involved but I'm always open to considering new adventures and I appreciate the interest and enthusiasm of my readers. It doesn't have to be a solo project at all, I have a LLHP VIP reader group on Facebook where you might connect with fellow LLHP fans and float the idea of a group of you getting together to work on a public LLHP Wiki. You can find that FB group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/Lydia...
If you have some ideas you'd like to run by me, don't hesitate to reach out, I have a contact form on my website that's probably the best way to get in touch with me.
Thanks again for your questions!
Lydia Sherrer
Hi John! That's a great question, and it's all my husband's fault, haha! I actually wanted to set it in KY originally but my husband rightly pointed out that there were drawbacks to using a less well known location. He is from Atlanta and suggested setting it there since other famous places like Chicago, New York, and New Orleans were already overused in paranormal fiction. For the writing of locations in Atlanta, I use a combination of my husband's experience, online sites talking about local things, and then google maps. I have, of course, visited Atlanta multiple times, and I'm familiar with the culture of the area. It's been a lot of fun to use Atlanta and to feel like I've lived there myself even though I haven't. It's a great city and my husband's love of it has become my own. Thanks for reading the Lily Singer Adventures!
Lydia Sherrer
Yes, I do usually make soundtracks to write. A lot of the LLHP books share the same soundtrack because it's all the same world and "mindset" I need to get into. It's very much atmospheric with a lot of grand orchestral tracks. I have a different soundtrack for writing the TransDimensional Hunter books, much more upbeat, some rock and orchestral rock for that.
One of the songs I listen to A LOT for writing LLHP is this one: https://youtu.be/apeaUsqBkmw
I actually listen to a ton of Thomas Bergersen, his music is not only awesome but very fantasy mood setting.
Thanks, this will be a fun topic for Patreon!
One of the songs I listen to A LOT for writing LLHP is this one: https://youtu.be/apeaUsqBkmw
I actually listen to a ton of Thomas Bergersen, his music is not only awesome but very fantasy mood setting.
Thanks, this will be a fun topic for Patreon!
Lydia Sherrer
What a fascinating question! I have an answer for Lily though I'd have to go dig in my notes to find it. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned Lily's smell from Sebastian's POV, or maybe I just think I have in some short story somewhere? Again I'd have to go looking. For the rest of the characters, I'd have to think about it. It sounds like a great topic for one of my Patreon posts!
Lydia Sherrer
Hi Sandra! Thanks for asking and for reading, I'm so glad you've enjoyed them! Right now I'm working on a trilogy under contract with Baen Books, but hope to have that largely finished by the end of the year, so 2023 will be when I work on the next Lily Singer book. I know waiting for our favorite books is hard—the Harry Potter release years were agonizing for me! But it's so helpful knowing I have plenty of faithful fans who are encouraging and eager during the wait. If you need something else to read while you wait, I highly recommend Robin McKinely's books (Sunshine is my favorite) as well as indie author Annette Marie who has many series but especially fun urban fantasy series in her Guild Codex world. Happy reading!
Lydia Sherrer
I had lots of fun, for sure! The most enjoyable thing was world-building together and developing the plot. John has been in the industry for decades so he has lot of interesting experience and great ideas. There are challenges as well, of course. It's not easy working that closely together over phone calls and emails. But all you can do is your best, and it turned out great!
Lydia Sherrer
That's a great question! Thanks for asking :). It has NOT been discontinued, I know when I'm going to write Book 2 in the series within the order of the Lily Singer Books, because the two series intertwine, but I don't yet have a calendar date of when that will be. When I originally wrote it, it was before the Lily Singer Adventures (the main Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus books) took off, and when that happened the pressure for the next and the next and the next LLHP book has been intense, so for financial and career reasons I haven't gotten back to the Dark Roads Trilogy yet. I have to write what sells. But I'm getting to the point in the LSA series where DRT directly ties in, so I'll be able to take a pause to finish that trilogy and work it into the LSA releases.
I'm so grateful for my patient, patient readers! As a mom and a small business owner, there is a lot on my plate all the time and I do my best to release books as quickly as can be done while keeping them high quality and with a fantastic story. Thank you so much for being a fan!
I'm so grateful for my patient, patient readers! As a mom and a small business owner, there is a lot on my plate all the time and I do my best to release books as quickly as can be done while keeping them high quality and with a fantastic story. Thank you so much for being a fan!
Lydia Sherrer
Well, I'm honored. Being able to make people cry is a great skill to have as a writer ;). I'll be coming out with a co-author project with John Ringo called Into the Real on April 2, 2022, you can already pre-order the hardback. It will be the first in a trilogy. I'm also in a few other upcoming Baen anthologies. And, of course, you can check out Lily Singer Adventure books. They might not be your normal genre, but there are a few tear-worthy moments in them too!
Lydia Sherrer
My sister baked a delicious cake. I didn't get any.
Lydia Sherrer
Yes! Unequivocally yes! The thing with being an independent author is that it is up to me to build my business and provide for my family, so sometimes that means taking a different publishing path than I had planned. A couple opportunities came up this year that had me writing some other books (Accidental Witch, When the Gods Laughed) and there may be one more 1 need to do before I can get back to Lily Singer. But I promise, it is a the Lily Singer Adventures is a 12 book series and I plan on trying to write books 5-8 all in one go, then releasing them over the space of a year. I'm not positive when they will come out, but I promise they are coming :). Thanks so much for reading Sarah!
Lydia Sherrer
Thank you so much Candy! And yes, of course I do, and would love to have you on it. If you are much of a Facebook person you can join my street team group https://www.facebook.com/groups/75741... and my fan page group https://www.facebook.com/groups/10134.... If you don't like to use Facebook much just sign up for my newsletter here www.lydiasherrer.com/subscribe and shoot me an email letting me know you'd like to be added to my street team notice list.
Lydia Sherrer
Okay, so this is cheating slightly since this is a movie and not a book, but it was the first thing to come to mind. You might call me sappy and idealistic, but I watched "Avatar" three times in theaters within the first month it was out. I couldn't get enough of it. The 3D aspect of it, the incredible detail of such a gorgeous yet dangerous world and the richness of the native life there, was captivating. I've always loved watching nature documentaries to get a glimpse of the spectacular beauty of our planet and the rich diversity of life, and the idea of going to a place like Pandora just blows my mind. Obviously as a human I wouldn't do well on the planet, so since this is all a hypothetical situation, let's say I had an avatar and could travel the planet on good terms with the natives. I would love to explore the wildlife and get to know the Na'vi people, maybe work with teams of scientists to study their culture or the flora and fauna of the planet. My "dream" trip would be to visit the Hallelujah mountains and ride a mountain banshee.
Lydia Sherrer
That's a really good question! So I had a bit of difficulty in writing the novella because I wanted to tell the story of how the two main characters met, and yet I still wanted to show the personality they'd developed as a pair since then. So the novella is a story within a story. It actually takes place between books 2 & 3, but the story that is told happens way before book 1. I made sure to not reveal any spoilers pertaining to books 1 & 2 though, so you CAN read it before you read the series (okay, so the only spoiler is that the cat talks, but everybody knows the cat ends up talking because I advertise the series with a talking cat).
No, my books do not end in cliffhangers. At least, not in the sense you are thinking. I don't believe in leaving loose ends. However, each book has an epilogue where, after wrapping up the lose ends of THAT book, I always introduce a bit of what will be addressed in the next book, just to whet your appetite ;) Thanks for the questions, and I hope you enjoy the stories!
No, my books do not end in cliffhangers. At least, not in the sense you are thinking. I don't believe in leaving loose ends. However, each book has an epilogue where, after wrapping up the lose ends of THAT book, I always introduce a bit of what will be addressed in the next book, just to whet your appetite ;) Thanks for the questions, and I hope you enjoy the stories!
Lydia Sherrer
Wow, I thought this would be an easy question, but it turned out to be hard to think of a good answer! I had to wrack my brain, because there aren't any mysteries in my life. I'm very content and surrounded by wonderful people.
But then I remembered someone from my past that I've spent years trying to forget, because they caused me much pain and hardship, though not on purpose, just through the sheer force of their...odd personality. I thought I grew to know them well, but I kept discovering things about them that completely changed my view, and I eventually realized they were a sociopath, and most of the things coming out of their mouth were creative interpretations of the truth.
To this day, I wonder about them (well, actually I try not to, and thankfully they only come to mind every now and then), and wonder who they really were, what their real name was, and what was the truth of their life. How much of what they told me was fact or fiction? I know they were an extraordinary person, there was no denying that. But who were they? In my younger years I was a bit of a poet, and wrote this about them in my private musings:
The wisest fool I ever met
The most selfish saint I won't forget
I will never know the truth, and even now hope to forget them again quickly, because my curiosity is insatiable. But this is the one truth I will never know, because to pursue that truth would drive me to madness. I've thought about writing a book about them, but know I never could, nor would. So they will forever remain a mystery. Maybe one day I'll write a mystery/thriller/crime series with a character based on them and work out my demons that way. Who knows?
But then I remembered someone from my past that I've spent years trying to forget, because they caused me much pain and hardship, though not on purpose, just through the sheer force of their...odd personality. I thought I grew to know them well, but I kept discovering things about them that completely changed my view, and I eventually realized they were a sociopath, and most of the things coming out of their mouth were creative interpretations of the truth.
To this day, I wonder about them (well, actually I try not to, and thankfully they only come to mind every now and then), and wonder who they really were, what their real name was, and what was the truth of their life. How much of what they told me was fact or fiction? I know they were an extraordinary person, there was no denying that. But who were they? In my younger years I was a bit of a poet, and wrote this about them in my private musings:
The wisest fool I ever met
The most selfish saint I won't forget
I will never know the truth, and even now hope to forget them again quickly, because my curiosity is insatiable. But this is the one truth I will never know, because to pursue that truth would drive me to madness. I've thought about writing a book about them, but know I never could, nor would. So they will forever remain a mystery. Maybe one day I'll write a mystery/thriller/crime series with a character based on them and work out my demons that way. Who knows?
Lydia Sherrer
Oooh, that's a hard one. If I'm going for light and fluffy, I love Mr. and Mrs. Smith from, of course, Mr. and Mrs. Smith (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie). But as far as serious literary characters are concerned I adore the story of Beren and Luthien from Tolkien's universe, and of course the mirror story of their descendants, Aragorn and Arwen. It's not the trite, dramatic love of Romeo and Juliet, but a deep abiding love that weathered the long ages and never withered, never faltered, never gave up. It is the most beautiful love story in fiction.
Lydia Sherrer
Yes absolutely! Just please link me the review so I can share it around :).
Lydia Sherrer
My husband. He kept begging me to write a wizards/magic story and he helped me concept brainstorm based on his experience with RPGs (role playing games).
Lydia Sherrer
My first forays into writing was less the result of inspiration as it was of biological imperative. If you read enough, telling your own stories is a natural next step. I'd spent so much time reading, and my imagination was so vivid, there were already dozens of stories running through it by the time I was fourteen or so. I started writing to de-clutter my head and get some of those ideas on paper.
Lydia Sherrer
My newest novel and first epic fantasy "When the Gods Laughed." It is a sort of Game of Thrones meets American Gods. Here's a little description: The gods of Ashlar—petty, selfish, and bored—decide it would be funny to make a worthless drunkard into the god of Ineptitude. But the joke is on them. With help from the mysterious Lady of Shadow, a one-armed warrior, a disgraced mage, a reluctant priest, and a rogue on the run, this newest addition to the pantheon uses his ineptitude to enact revenge on the gods for their millennia of cruelty toward mankind.
Lydia Sherrer
Read Read Read! Write Write Write! Really, those are the two best pieces of advice I could give anyone, because they are the foundation of EVERYTHING you do as a writer. You can't write good stories if you don't read good stories (or read craft books, advice columns, how-to writing blogs, current publishing news, etc), and you can't publish anything if you haven't actually written it! For more detailed advice, check out my becoming a writer series on my blog: http://lydiasherrer.com/becoming-a-wr...
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