Guest post: Sherri McDonald

Today’s guest blog belongs to Sherri MacDonald. I met Sherri through Facebook and the two of us hit it off quickly. She’s a naughty, irreverent girl with a flair for horror. She is also a Steve King fan, her favorite quote coming from the master. “Monsters are real and ghost are too... they live inside us and sometimes they win.”

 

People sometimes ask me where I get my ideas from. I always giggling when I’m asked that question, because, to be honest, I never really thought about it much. Ideas often just appear in my head and I just translate them to paper, much the way our brains translate images seen on a TV screen. The thing I love about words is that everyone can see something different in their reading.

For me, writing begins with an initial idea. I can be about love, lust, sex, or questioning if God really exists. I just pick one, and then from there that idea takes me down various routes. It’s much like driving through the shadowy backwoods and dirt roads just to see who’s there, what they’re doing, and to whom.

Those roads can lead to many places: A beach on a sunny day or a home with a beautiful yard with kids playing in it. But many times it leads to dark places and things that are never talked about in the light of day.

A lot depends on the mood I’m in as well, what has happened in my own life that day or week. Those experiences shape the tone of my writing. I have always loved the caption "Not based on anyone in real life", which we all know is pretty much absolute bullshit. The Villain is someone we know, as is the hero. It’s impossible for them not to be.

Writing is often described as a gift and in many cases that’s true. Most writers will never be the next Stephen King or the Jane Austen. We do it for the love of the idea, plain and simple. Most of us will never see print only, except here on the internet. Sadly most of us will never see millions of dollars and only get the love and knowledge that someone, somewhere enjoyed what we had to say.

Personally, I have always been fascinated about the end of the world, how those of us left would handle not only the need for basic things like shelter, warmth, and food, but also how would we handle the need for human love, touch, and compassion. The answer is never as clear cut as the question.

The next time you see an indy writer signing books they probably spent a year’s wages on to get published stop and pick up a copy because much like we enjoy venturing down these roads, it is always fun to share that Journey.

 

Sheri shares a little about herself: Let’s see I’m 26, from Halifax NS, and work full time as a vet assistant for the SPCA. I’ve just been added to the throws of the newly separated and I’m currently working on a book called the Reality of the End. In my spare time I enjoy popping people’s ear drums at karaoke and my dogs.

Thank you so much for sharing your insights with us Sheri, and best of luck with your novel and traveling those backwoods roads in search of new and interesting characters to make into your heroes and villains.