Today we welcome talented author, Sheila Deeth, as she stops by on her blog tour for her new book, Divide by Zero. She chats about her writing, her book and...
I love to write but, more importantly, I
love telling stories. I’ve been telling stories since long before I learned to
put pen to paper or finger to keyboard. In elementary school the teachers of
older classes would send students to “borrow” me, so I could keep the class
quiet with a story while the teacher stepped out of the room. I imagined all
sorts of exciting lives for an every-changing cast of characters ranging from
cats and dogs to superheroes and angels and saints. Then in high school a
teacher asked for an essay on whether I’d prefer a short exciting life or a
long boring one. Which one would you choose?
Being a Storyteller
I love to write but, more importantly, I
love telling stories. I’ve been telling stories since long before I learned to
put pen to paper or finger to keyboard. In elementary school the teachers of
older classes would send students to “borrow” me, so I could keep the class
quiet with a story while the teacher stepped out of the room. I imagined all
sorts of exciting lives for an every-changing cast of characters ranging from
cats and dogs to superheroes and angels and saints. Then in high school a
teacher asked for an essay on whether I’d prefer a short exciting life or a
long boring one. Which one would you choose?
Short and exciting seemed like the obvious
answer. After all, if I didn’t want a short exciting life, why did I keep
telling short exciting stories? But I’d learned the joy of making people cry
somewhere along the line. (My teacher said it’s much harder to make them laugh,
but I was working on that.) Class-mates cry when heroes and heroines die. And
short exciting lives do tend to end in haunting tears.
I’d already started my essay but I turned
it around. No, I thought, I don’t want a short exciting life. I want a really
long and boring one in which I can write a million books and live and die
vicariously through the characters I create.
Of course, in school I had a captive
audience for those tales. I still remember the faces of elementary students as
I perched precariously on the teacher’s chair. I still remember high-school
friends sitting silent while the teacher read out one of my stories. But real
life, long and boring, was soon joyously filled with the excitement of growing
children. My new captive audience was my kids and I told them exciting stories
while delighting in their lives. Now they’re grown. I’ve started writing those
“million books” and I wonder if anyone will read them. My precious needling
words hide in a haystack as big as the world or, at least, as big as the
internet. My teacher’s chair sits in front of a blank computer screen. And I
can’t see my audience.
Will you read my book? If you do, I just
might make you cry, like I did in school. I hope I’ll make you laugh a bit as
well. And I hope you’ll feel the time spent with my characters was
well-employed. For the most part, they’re just living their everyday lives,
joyously filled with the excitement of growing children, and haunting
overshadowed by the past. But even some relatively boring lives get cut short.
And excitement might be less important than knowing how to move on.
Divide by Zero creeps into the heart of
community, then watches a small boy’s innocence and wisdom set that heart
beating again after trauma intervenes. I hope you’ll read it but, more
importantly, I hope you’ll like it.
Divide by Zero
It takes a subdivision to raise a child, and a wealth of threads to weave a tapestry, until one breaks.
Troy, the garage mechanic’s son, loves Lydia, the rich man’s daughter.
Amethyst has a remarkable cat and Andrea a curious accent. Old Abigail knows
more than anyone else but doesn’t speak. And in Paradise Park a middle-aged man
keeps watch while autistic Amelia keeps getting lost.
Pastor Bill, at the church of Paradise, tries to mend people. Peter mends cars. But when that fraying thread gives way it might take a child to
raise the subdivision—or to mend it.
Divide by Zero is available from:
Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Divide-Zero-Sheila-Deeth/dp/1600763405/
http://www.amazon.com/Divide-by-Zero-ebook/dp/B0090NFH56/
http://www.amazon.com/Divide-by-Zero-ebook/dp/B0090NFH56/
Amazon.co.uk http://www.amazon.co.uk/Divide-Zero-Sheila-Deeth/dp/1600763405/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Divide-by-Zero-ebook/dp/B0090NFH56/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Divide-by-Zero-ebook/dp/B0090NFH56/
And more.
Author Bio:
Author Bio:
Sheila Deeth grew up in the UK and has a
Bachelors and Masters in mathematics from Cambridge University, England. Now
living in the States near Portland Oregon, she enjoys reading, writing,
drawing, telling stories and meeting her neighbors' dogs on the green.
Find her books at http://www.sheiladeethbooks.com
Or connect with her on:
Gather: http://smd.gather.com/
Blogger: http://sheiladeeth.blogspot.com
3 comments:
Thank you for inviting me to your blog Anita, and for being such an encouraging fellow "storyteller."
Yes, you're one of my favorite storytellers, Sheila. Best wishes with the success of "Divide by Zero".
Thank you John!
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