fuonlyknew

Meet the Author:

Shelley grew up in California’s Central Valley, the daughter of Dust Bowl immigrants who made good on their ambition to get out of the field. She recently retired from teaching writing at Sacramento State University and still consults with writers in the energy industry. She co-directs Stories on Stage Sacramento, where actors perform the stories of established and emerging authors, and serves on the advisory board of 916 Ink, an arts-based creative writing nonprofit for children, as well as on the board of the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies at Claremont McKenna College. Copy Boy is her first Jane Benjamin Novel. Tomboy is her second. The third, Working Girl, will come out in November 2023. Her writing has been a finalist in the Sarton Book Awards, IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards, Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion Award, the American Fiction Awards, and the National Indie Excellence Awards. She and her husband live in Sacramento with many photos of their out-of-town sons and their wonderful partners.

Connect with the author:   website  ~  twitter  ~  facebook  ~ instagram ~ bookbub ~ goodreads

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Interview with Author Shelley Blanton-Stroud

What advice would you give budding writers?

I’ve made so many mistakes. First piece of advice: don’t do what I did. Just kidding.

Here is one real thing I wish I would have done earlier: Grow rhinoceros skin. It’s easy for writers to get their feelings hurt. Critique partners, reviewers, even friends or family, can seem dismissive if they don’t get what you’re trying to do. You need to grow a thick enough skin that you can say, as Lena Dunham does, “Maybe I’m not for everybody.” But still, that thick skin will allow you to ask questions about their response when you think it may be instructive to know the answers. Your thick skin will help you be a student of your own writing and of readers’ response to it.

Do you have another profession besides writing?

For thirty-four years I taught college composition in the CSU system and at a community college. I continue to work as a writing consultant within the independent system operator organizations who control the electric grid.

In both cases, though the writing is very different from fiction writing, of course, I get to linger over reader-oriented strategies. I use lessons I learned from my college students and from my economics and energy writers all the time.

In particular, I learned from my students how sensitive we all are to criticism so I aim as a critique partner to be thoroughly constructive.

How long have you been writing?

I have been a fiction writer since 2010. I have been a fiction reader foreeeeeeever. The reading is really what got me writing. My early obsession came with Little Women. I’m still working on unraveling that story.

Do you ever get writer’s block? What helps you overcome it?

I get it every morning when I’m first drafting. But then I remind myself that my goal is simply to write something fast and terrible. Just words on a page. (Though I do have a plan at my side.)

That’s writer’s block as a kind of minor resistance to a writing session. Have I ever had the big kind of writer’s block? Yes. When I was trying to force myself to write the wrong project for me. When I acknowledged that project wasn’t going to work and pointed myself back at the project I truly was interested in, the block fell away.

What is your next project?

The third book in the Jane Benjamin Trilogy is Flyboy, coming from She Writes press November 2023. It takes place in 1942. Cynical about her missing-in-action former lover’s patriotism, gossip columnist Jane Benjamin aims for a national byline, volunteering to find a picture perfect Winnie-the-Welder propaganda poster girl; but when two perfect girls die, Jane must choose between personal ambition and service, before the murderer kills another girl and America’s best chance of winning the war.

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Tour Schedule:

Oct 3 – Rockin’ Book Reviews – audiobook review / guest post / giveaway
Oct 3 – Literary Flits – book review / giveaway
Oct 4 – Olio By Marilyn – book spotlight / author interview / giveaway
Oct 4 – Olio By Marilyn – book review / giveaway
Oct 5 – Jazzy Book Reviews – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
Oct 6 – Books are a Blessing – book review / giveaway
Oct 7 – Leanne bookstagram – book review
Oct 11 – Amy’s Booket List – audiobook review / giveaway
Oct 11 – FUONLYKNEW – book spotlight / author interview / giveaway
Oct 12 – Cover Lover Book Review – book spotlight / giveaway
Oct 12 – PuzzlePaws Blog – book review / giveaway
Oct 13 – JB’s Bookworms with Brandy Mulder – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
Oct 13 – Stephanie Jane – book review / giveaway
Oct 14 – Splashes of Joy – audiobook review / guest post / giveaway
Oct 17 – StoreyBook Reviews – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
Oct 18 – Book Corner News and Reviews – book review / giveaway
Oct 18 – Sadie’s Spotlight – book spotlight / author interview / giveaway
Oct 19 – Locks, Hooks and Books – book review / giveaway
Oct 19 – Gina Rae Mitchell – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
Oct 20 – Deborah-Zenha Adams – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
Oct 21 – Faith and Books – audiobook review / author interview / giveaway
Oct 21 – Books for Books – audiobook review