Smashwords interview with Sheri Kirkendall

Interview with Sheri Kirkendall

What is your writing process?

I write by the seat of my pants. I don't do outlines and have the characters all figured out before I start
 writing. A concept pops into my head and I go from there. A lot of people I talk to can't understand
when I tell them I am as excited to see where a character goes as they are. The ending always surprises
 me

Do you remember the first story you ever read, and the impact it had on you?

The earliest I remember was when I was pretty young and my cousin bought me a set of Ding Dong
School books in a cool little carrying case. Miss Francis reminded me of my kindergarten teacher so
even back then I was finding people I knew in the pages of the books I read. That was the greatest
impact; finding friends among the strangers.

How do you approach cover design?

Being my first book I knew I wanted something dark and so I went thru all the photos I had and my
daughter had and ended up using a path to the beach taken at night time. I thought it looked pretty
 awesome until various places moved it around and it stopped looking like my vision. Some one
suggested a reasonably priced firm that does professional covers so I went that route with the
current version. The first photo I chose was a no go; you didn't get what I want to imply in that photo,
so I went back and looked again and found the perfect shot. My pro went one better and combined the
two for a very unique cover and it really speaks to me.

What are your five favorite books, and why?

Well the Bible for obvious reasons is number one.
Gone with the Wind because I was able to get lost in it. I don't normally like epic novels but I loved
this one
The Shining - because it scared me as much as Carrie and I didn't think that was possible
This Present Darkness because it was my first venture into Christian supernatural thriller / horror
And for the 5th .. ALL the other books I read whether to escape or just learn something.

Do you remember the first thing you ever wrote?

I used to jot things down all the time but the one I remember the most was called The Ring. It was a
senior English assignment. There were a list of objects on the board and we were to choose one and
write a short essay about it. I had a tendency to write dark stories with sad endings and this was no
exception. A gumball machine ring was given in a moment of love as a wedding ring .. it was
loved and cherished; but it was only supposed to be temporary. The years and work began to interfere
and the husband forgot about the ring. In anger as he was going out the door one morning she threw it
at him and told him not to bother coming home. Later a knock on the door brought the worst news
possible ... the husband had been killed. It ended with the wife feeling around in the snow looking
for what became her most prized possession

What is your e-reading device of choice?

I have two and like them both. I own a Kindle Fire and a Nook. I also sometimes download Ibooks on
my Ipad. I don't have a preference with the device but I think I find more to read on Amazon.
However I recently downloaded some books from Barnes and Noble and was pleased with them

Describe your desk

A cluttered mess with drink stains and notes all over the place

Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?

I moved around a lot. I was born in Alliance, Ohio ... at age 7 we moved to Columbus Ohio. For
the next 10 years I moved around between the two cities more than I care to remember. Example: I
did my freshman year in Columbus, Sophomore year in Alliance, Junior year in Columbus and Senior
 year in Alliance. I have class rings from both high schools. How did it influence my writing ... all
I had that was constant was my imagination. I was constantly manufacturing dream lives that could
 last a minute, a day, a week or months depending on how involved I became with the imaginary people.

What's the story behind your latest book?

As a Christian I grew up going to church and my first memories was of a hell fire and brimstone preach
er who used to prance around and pound the pulpit in fervor. Sometimes it scared me and
sometimes it made me feel like I could conquer the world. It did make the battle between good and evil
a part of my life and can be found in many of my short stories and novellas. Devils Dump I wrote over a
 period of years adding to it when I had time. I was faced during that time with some awesome
 preachers and some who weren't all they claimed to be. This book is about that .. . things not
necessarily being as they appear ... good can be bad and what appears at first to be bad could be the
 best thing you could ask for.

What motivated you to become an indie author?

Friends ... I have written for many years. I have filled tons of church newsletters with vast amounts of
 my articles, stories and essays .. fiction and non fiction. For a long time my former English teacher
 told me I should publish my work. From time to time I let friends read some of my things and they sad
the same thing. This time I bit the bullet and did it because a long time friend ASKED to read my
stored away book and after a few chapters said she loved it and I should publish it. It's been a lot of
trial and error and about 4 different covers but it's done and out there for others to read and I hope t
hey like it as much as I like writing it...and for the record ... the ending surprised me.

How has Smashwords contributed to your success?

I just started here but from the exposure they offer and the long reach of Smashwords I look to have
 a successful relationship with them. I let you know when I finish Josiah, the sequel to Devils Dump

Published 2017-11-29.

Books by This Author

Devils Dump by Sheri Kirkendall

Price: $9.99 $7.49 USD. (25% off!) Words: 80,810. Language: English.
 Published: November 29, 2017. Categories: Fiction » Horror » General,
Fiction » Thriller & suspense » Supernatural

Satan and his demons decide to drop in on a small Texas town and wreak
as much havoc as possible. They face off against the towns people and the
 warriors sent by God. Blessed, TX. a small gulf coast town becomes known
as Devils Dump. Things are falling from the sky, seven women are pregnant
with twins, and the devil drops in for a cup of coffee ... and so the battle
begins.

This is the newest cover and version of Devils Dump. It is available at Barnes and Noble (Nook e-book only) and also here on Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/762375

It appears you will have to copy and past the Smashwords location .. it will be worth it.

I hope everyone is enjoying this book and if you have time a review on facebook on any where you purchased it would be great.

Thank you

It has taken awhile but my final proof arrived today. I am going to check it out and make sure everything is formatted and entered correctly. If it is this is the version that will be in paperback on various sites. It SHOULD replace the current version on Amazon also

The nice thing about this one, though the printing cost more because of it the print is larger inside the book. I was urged to add an authors photo so there is one of those too.

I am excited about this version ... just a brief flip through and I see some things I wish were different like where the chapters end and begin but after weeks of reformatting over and over this appears to be as good as it gets unless I want to hire someone to do it and at this point that isn't an option

I hope everyone is enjoying the book .. .the story hasn't changed no matter what cover you have. I do hope you will leave reviews / comments here, on Lulu, Amazon, Facebook and where ever else you can think of putting it. Thanks again for choosing to read it.

By the way if you search Devils Dump on Google I am happy to say for most people it is coming up on the first page. :)

Photo by Heather and another excerpt from Devils Dump 11-14-17

(Photo by Heather Trent and I do believe that is Ryan Trent looking out at the water ... I almost edited and used this one for the cover of the book but didn't think it was sinister enough ... then I noticed Ryan ... LOVE YOU :)

Here is another excerpt from Devils Dump to peak your interest.

Mark whisked his son into his arms and carried him into the house calling out to Angela. Josiah immediately clamped his hand over Mark’s mouth … startled Mark looked at his son … he was surprised to see tears glistening in Josiah’s eyes.

“Hey there buddy, what’s wrong?”

“Mama sleepy daddy. We whisper okay?”

Josiah’s favorite time of the day was when daddy came home and today he didn’t want to wake mama, he just wanted to be alone with his daddy. He loved his mama very much but sometimes she made him feel scared. It wasn’t always like that … they used to play and have fun while Daddy was at work, but they didn’t play anymore and there were times when his mama didn’t seem like his mama anymore.

Mark couldn’t quite figure out the expression on his son’s face…was it fear, sadness, a mixture of both?  He decided to talk to Angela about their son later. He remembered the groceries he’d picked up before leaving town and asked Josiah if he wanted to go out and help carry them into the house.

Josiah nodded yes and headed outside with Mark but he was still thinking about his mama; she was different now. She was always looking out at something Josiah couldn’t see. When he tried to talk to her she acted like she didn’t hear him and recently there were times he went looking for her and couldn’t find her anywhere. Other times she just went to bed and slept until just before daddy got home. He was looking forward to next year when he could go to school and play with the other kids but for now he was happy helping his daddy.,

When the groceries were put away Mark picked up Josiah and asked him if he’d like to hear a story. Josiah loved when his daddy read to him so he squirmed to get down and ran to get his favorite story book. It was all about the Bible which Josiah sometimes found boring but he really loved the story of Jonah and the Whale, and never tired of hearing it. It made him giggle to think about somebody living inside of a big fish. His daddy always said a whale isn’t a fish, but it sure looked like a fish to him.

After finishing the story, Mark picked up his sleeping son and carried him to his room, kissed him on the forehead and tucked him in for what would probably be a short nap. Then he went looking for Angela. He was surprised to discover she was not in their room sleeping, as Josiah obviously believed she was. He went down to the family room and she was not there either. He didn’t want to call out to her because he didn’t want to wake his son, so he searched the house which finally led to a note propped up on his desk …

Mark didn’t often get angry … he was even tempered and tried to think of calm peaceful solutions to every situation. Right now he was angry … not just angry he was furious. Angela had gone for a walk leaving Josiah alone. The note said she was just going to go walking around the gardens and woods close to the house, but he searched those areas and she was nowhere to be found.

He was so angry he wanted to go looking for her but unlike,   Angela, he was not going to leave Josiah. He just couldn’t comprehend how his wife could have left their son alone like this. They were isolated out here with no close neighbors and nowhere close for Josiah to go if there had been an emergency.

It was three hours before Angela finally walked through the door. Josiah was already up from his nap and Mark had prepared dinner. When he heard the door open and close he was ready to let loose on her but when she walked in the kitchen, all smiles and breathless, Mark stopped short … she was beaming. For the first time in longer than he could remember Angela looked like her old self. (Josiah didn’t know that Mark had been noticing the changes in Angela too) She ran over and hugged and kissed him and bent down to do the same with Josiah.  Mark decided to wait until their son was in bed for the night before confronting his wife.

After dinner and some playtime with his mama and daddy, Josiah went to bed happy. His mama was back!

Before Mark had a chance to say anything, Angela told him she had found something wonderful and couldn’t wait to tell him about it. She was actually bursting with excitement. She was also oblivious to the fact Mark was upset.

“Mark, you won’t believe what I found on my walk. I really hadn’t meant to go so far but something kept pulling me deeper and deeper into the woods. I had been walking about twenty minutes when I found … something … I can’t really put it into words. I think it must be one of those meteorite things everyone in town has been talking about.”

“Angela, what are you talking about? Are you saying we have one of those craters on our property? If that’s the case we have to call the authorities, it might be radioactive.”

Explosively Angela yelled, “NO! You can’t tell anyone; this belongs to me … to us alone. It’s beautiful, it isn’t some ugly thing that fell from space and yet it has to be. At least it must be, but I know, I promise you I know, it isn’t harmful. Please Mark, come and see it before you decide.”

She had stood and reached to pull him from the couch but he refused to budge.

“You may think it is fine to go wandering all over the place and leave our son here alone, but it is not okay and you can’t let this happen again. I don’t know what you were thinking. Josiah is four; you can’t just abandon him to take care of himself. He thought you were upstairs asleep … how do you think he would have felt if he knew you weren’t even here?

At least Angela had the good sense to hang her head in shame.

link to and excerpt from Devils Dump

link to DevilsDump page on Facebook

Here is an excerpt from Devils Dump ... hope it peaks your interest:

Over at the Koffee Kup, Janet was in the back cleaning up. She was thinking about all the pregnant women in town. She was not thinking happy thoughts about them either. At least one of her pals had always hung around while she cleaned up for the day but now they’d all deserted her to be with the mothers to be. She missed the gossip sessions and being able to pig out on the day’s left over pastries … when she was stuffing her face with friends it didn’t seem so bad, but filling up on pastries in private filled her with guilt.
She’d been on a diet for over 20 years but just kept gaining weight. It didn’t make sense. She had 3 cups of coffee a day; a sandwich for lunch and nothing for dinner. She should be down to a size 0 instead of a size 44. She faithfully counted every calorie she ate … except of course for the pastries at the end of the day … they were throw-a-ways and you don’t count the calories in trash.
Janet was trying to decide if she should wipe down the counters with disinfectant or go home for the day and finish in the morning. As she was considering the ramifications of her two choices she felt a chill run through her whole body. She turned around to see if maybe she had left the freezer door open but it was shut tight just as she knew it would be.
Being in the Koffee Kup always made her feel warm and cozy, but over the past few days, whenever she was alone here she felt ill at ease. Nothing she could put her finger on, just the feeling something was not quite as it should be.
She grabbed her coat deciding the counters could wait till morning. She was half way across the kitchen to the dining area when she heard the front door open. The little bell that always made her feel nostalgic jingled when it should not be jingling. She knew she had locked the door. There was no doubts, no maybes no nothing … with the way she’d been feeling she knew she would not have left the door unlocked.
Nobody else had a key. She liked her employees well enough, but when it came to her livelihood she didn’t trust anyone enough to give them total access to what belonged to her. As much as she fantasized about a relationship with Pete, she wouldn’t give him a key either.
She sucked air deep into her chest, picked up a broom for what little protection it might provide and boldly strode through the dining room door…and came to a complete stop. The room was empty. The Koffee Kup was actually a café so it wasn’t large with lots of hiding places. The only possible place for someone to hide would be behind the counter, but from where she was standing she could see no one was lurking there to jump out at her.
Janet hadn’t realized she was holding her breath until she heard it leaving her lungs with a sense of relief. She tried to further encourage herself with a chuckle as she scurried towards the door, because suddenly she wanted more than anything to be out of the Koffee Kup. She almost made it too….but what is it they say about ‘almost’ … oh yeah, ‘almost’ only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades.

Well as things worked out Jerry and I got married. May 4, 1974. Things took sort of an unexpected turn after everyone had relocated from the old facility on the corner of Chestnut and Cherry and moved into the new location on Market and Mechanic.

To celebrate the move we all decorated and had a Halloween party. We had a lot of fun but very few actually dressed up. The BOSS came and brought his wife. I have to interject here that once I found out he was married all interest evaporated and I never considered trying to see him.

The party was a success so when one of the foreman invited my roommate and I out to the College Plaza a couple of weeks later to watch the company teams bowl we decided to go. This was just before Thanksgiving. When the bowling was over THE BOSS and several of the employees on the teams went into the lounge and my friend and I went in also. We ended up sitting with Jerry (THE BOSS) one of the foremen and the vice - president.

As the evening went on Jerry asked me out. I told him "I do not date married men." He told me that he would soon be single ... his wife had filed for divorce. I of course did not believe him but both of the other men at the table vouched for him and said it was true. Nobody, not even Jerry knew why she did it, just that she did. He had never even thought about cheating on her but he didn't know if she had cheated or if there was someone else in her life. (We never found out the reason except it had something to do with her trying to scare him into not investing more money into the company???)

So as things turned out we were engaged by Christmas. We both just knew it's what we wanted. We were both goal oriented, had the same dreams for the future and just wanted to be together. Everyone said it wouldn't last ... I was told I was his rebound girl and he was told I just wanted his money (the ex got all of that) We didn't listen, we got married and 11 months later had the most beautiful daughter anyone could possibly dream about. Heather was her daddy's girl from day one.

We had a good life, moved around some to Texas and back and started several businesses before going out totally on our own with K&K Electronics and Alliance Sports Card Shop. Jerry died suddenly in 1994 and my life was never the same again. I kept the business open as long as I could but eventually due to the ever changing technology I had to close the door in Jan. 2001.

One part of my life ended  - the part I wish I'd been able to hold onto forever.

As I mentioned in previous blog I took private photography lessons and this is one of the ones "Whit" as he was called took of me. I love it and always have and it is sort of an appropriate setting to go along with the location of my book Devils Dump ... this is a link to my book page on Facebook.     Devils Dump page on Facebook

So back on subject ... I hated the china company and I quit. I was without a job for awhile so I spent some time dating and writing short stories ... I actually wrote a book I called "Where Have All the Warriors Gone" but with all my moves I lost it and attempts to recreate it have proven futile; though I do have another short story by that name.

Lucky for me I didn't go too long without a job. I became employed by Electronic Circuits and Design in the photography department ... which is a misconception because it was nothing of the sort. I made negatives or positive negatives with images of printed circuit boards. I worked the afternoon shift which I didn't much care for because it seemed I never had time for anything but sleeping and working. I did make some great friends here and met the man who eventually became my husband.

I used to see this handsome dark haired man coming out of the front part of the building when I was arriving for my shift. I once commented to another worker that I thought this man was handsome but his pants were kind of short. She told me that was the boss and he was married ..... oh well a person can dream for a moment or two.

After I'd been there a year or so the business bought a new building downtown and during the remodel the printing department of which I was part was the first to move in. It was an old organ works building where they made organ pipes. It was sort of spooky especially late at night (I was now working the midnight shift) and it seemed no matter what radio station either of us (in the printing department) were listening to it turned to organ music ... EVERY NIGHT!!!  It also didn't help that we learned bones had been found in the basement big enough to be human (but that is part of another blog to come) nor that every night right around 2 AM there was a banging sound that seemed to come from everywhere at once and no matter where we went in the building it followed us.

Two women alone in a 3 story building ... well it was not a fun experience. We both prayed for the day when the other departments started moving in and we went to day shift.  However after enduring the banging noises every night for several weeks we discovered what it was. One of the foremen was coming in as we were leaving one morning and we told him about the banging and the fear and the urge to call the police. He had a good laugh .. it was the boiler coming on for the day and because of it's location as we moved from the back to the front of the building it seemed to be following us.

One mystery solved but there were many in that building that weren't.

BTW if you are reading this on my authors page and didn't see the first blog go to my google blog address to catch up. devilsdumpbysheri.blogger.com

Sheri Kirkendall's Devils Dump

For as long as I can remember I have enjoyed writing. Well actually it started out I loved reading and that inspired me to want to be a writer.

Some of my favorite subjects in school were Literature, English and Journalism all involving writing. I also loved photography and once entered a contest to win a camera by selling subscriptions to one of the area newspapers. I think I was in 5th grade at the time.  For me taking pictures and writing went hand in hand to tell a story nobody else might ever see.

So there is little wonder that when I graduated I tried getting a job at the local newspaper immediately. Unfortunately that didn't happen. I took a job making rubber bands and hated it but at the same time I took private photography lessons and learned how to do shadow pictures and multiple exposures before they became main stream.

Lucky for me the man who taught me photography, Leland Whitaker was also friends with the editor of the local newspaper so suddenly I had my foot in the door and was able to leave my job making rubber bands and run copy at the paper instead. Happily for me my grandfather, Royle Baum Sr. retired from his job with the city water department and they let me go cover the dinner, take the photos and write the story ... I love being able to say the first thing I ever had published was about my grandpa.

I didn't stay at the newspaper too long ... maybe 3 years in the early 70s because it was too restrictive. I loved the work I just didn't like being on call 24/7 or having to drive 30 miles in the snow in the dark to cover a school board meeting ... I wanted to write and take pictures that's all. My last year at the paper I was the default publicity director for the Carnation City Festival. (Alliance, home of the red carnation worn by President McKinley)  I got to go to Washington D.C. with all the other committee members to meet then President Richard Nixon ... we didn't meet him. We met his personal assistant Rosemary Woods (from Sebring, OH) instead. I also got to ride in the parade and THAT was my final act as an employee of the Alliance Review.

Just for the fun of it I decided to drive a taxi cab for the summer. A good friend of mine owned the company and was good with knowing I'd never drive once the first snow fell. So from there I went to a china company and though I really loved the freedom of driving a taxi I hated the confinement of the china company so I didn't stay there long.

Where did I go from there? Check back later to discover what happened next .. or read on my authors page @ Amazon.com/author/sherikirkendall