I Tell Stories.
I used to tell children’s stories in church and called them children’s sermons. But I tell stories for littler kids too, with pictures; and big kids’ stories, with words; and grown-up stories, short and long and all points in-between; and they’re all stories. One day I tried to call myself a writer and the first question anyone asked me was, of course,
What do you write?
An answer that covers every possible age-group and genre might not be quite what the questioner’s looking for. So I looked at the books I’ve had “properly” published (as opposed to published by myself). I’ve got three ebooks out with Gypsy Shadow, and tried to decide what genre they’d fit into.
It wasn’t easy. My books don’t seem to have an awful lot in common. Refracted’s set in the future, except it’s the past, and the present, and all points in between. Perhaps it’s sci-fi. Time-travel? Something like that. Meanwhile Black Widow’s firmly set in the past—except it’s a slightly altered past where sorceresses can reinvent themselves and Holy Grails can change the world. My new ebook, Flower Child, is set in the present, except… Well, except it’s a present where a mother grieving her miscarriage can develop a relationship with her unborn child. Maybe that word “except” is the common factor.
Actually, my books do have some things in common. They’re all speculative, in that they all tell about things we can’t analyze or hope to understand. They’re all spiritual too, in that they’re linked by Biblical symbols and hints of stories from the Bible. They’re all fiction—well, obviously. And they all involve some element of someone searching for identity.
In fact, I suspect most of my writing, as well as my search for a genre, has identity issues. I’m not quite sure what that says about me. But at least I have an answer to the question now.
What do you write?
I write spiritual speculative fiction and other things too…
You can find the “other things” as well as the Gypsy Shadow books on my websites:
http://sheiladeeth.weebly.com/
http://www.sheiladeeth.com/
Or find links to all my pages at http://about.me/sheiladeeth.
About Flower Child:
When Megan miscarries her first pregnancy it feels like the end of everything; instead it’s the start of a curious relationship between the grieving mother and an unborn child who hovers somewhere between ghost and angel. Angela, Megan’s “little angel,” has character and dreams all her own, friends who may or may not be real angels, and a little brother who brings hope to her mother’s world. But Angela’s dream-world has a secret and one day Angela might learn how to be real.
Where to find Flower Child:
On Gypsy Shadow’s site: http://gypsyshadow.com/SheilaDeeth.html#Flower
On Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Flower-Child-ebook/dp/B005PGMT4O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317398482&sr=8-1
On Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/91467
About the Author:
Sheila Deeth grew up in the UK and has a Bachelors and Masters in mathematics from Cambridge University, England. Now living in the States with her husband and sons, she enjoys reading, writing, drawing, telling stories, running a local writers' group, and meeting her neighbors’ dogs on the green.
Sheila describes herself as a Mongrel Christian Mathematician. Her short stories, book reviews and articles can be found in VoiceCatcher 4, Murder on the Wind, Poetic Monthly, Nights and Weekends, the Shine Journal and Joyful Online. Besides her Gypsy Shadow ebooks, Sheila has several self-published works available from Amazon and Lulu, and a full-length novel under contract to come out next year.
You can find all the stops on her Flower Child Blour Tour Here:
http://sheiladeeth.blogspot.com/2011/09/flower-child-blog-tour.html
8 comments:
Thank you! What a lovely heading you've given me.
I have the same problem when people ask me what I write. And now I'm working on a book that adds yet another genre. Maybe we should start our own publishing company for authors who don't fit any specific genre. I'll bet there are a lot of us.
I'm sure there are. There are probably lots of multiple-genre authors with multiple names too.
Whenever I see her last name I think of it as "Death". I guess I'm pretty morbid.
Ouch! I love your bulldog though so will happily forgive any morbidity in your comment :)
Hi Sheila "spiritual speculative fiction" sounds great to me! I enjoy speculation by writers--dreaming the unimaginable always amazes me, especially since I don't seem to have that imagination, except in my dreams...LOL
Enjoyed your article!
Best, Glenda
Thanks Glenda. I was hoping the phrase might work.
It was very interesting for me to read that blog. Thanks the author for it. I like such topics and everything that is connected to them. I would like to read more soon.
Subaru Impreza Turbo
Post a Comment