Monday, April 30, 2012

Crits for Water Interview with Author Sherry Thomas


(Or, Covering Your Blind Spots)


A charity: water fact Charity: water employs and trains Central Africans to build and maintain the water wells that save lives every day.

Historical romance author Sherry Thomas has charity: water on her radar for the second year in a row (see last year’s interview: If the Old Doesn’t Go, the New Doesn’t Come). Gear up for the bidding on her three-chapter critique donation (available May 1st).

Help me welcome Sherry and congratulate her on her release-day novel.


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Sherry Thomas burst onto the scene with PRIVATE ARRANGEMENTS, a Publisher Weekly Best Book of 2008. Her sophomore book, DELICIOUS, is a Library Journal Best Romance of 2008. Her next two books, NOT QUITE A HUSBAND and HIS AT NIGHT, are back-to-back winners of Romance Writers of America's prestigious RITA® Award for Best Historical Romance in 2010 and 2011.  Lisa Kleypas calls her "the most powerfully original historical romance author working today."

English is Sherry's second language—she has come a long way from the days when she made her laborious way through Rosemary Roger's SWEET SAVAGE LOVE with an English-Chinese dictionary. She enjoys digging down to the emotional core of stories. And when she is not writing, she thinks about the zen and zaniness of her profession, plays computer games with her sons, and reads as many fabulous books as she can find.

Sherry’s latest, BEGUILING THE BEAUTY, book one of the Fitzhugh Trilogy, is available May 1, 2012.

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NAE: What is your favorite thing about writing a critique?

Sherry: When I hit on an issue and I have a pretty good idea on how to fix it.  


NAE: What is your favorite thing about receiving a critique back?

Sherry: When my critiquer not only sees problems, but gives me really good ideas on how to fix it. (Two sides of a coin.)


NAE: Why is critiquing important?

Sherry: For the one doing the critiquing, because it trains your critical thinking. For the one on the receiving end, sometimes there are just blind spots in what we can perceive about our own manuscript. A fresh pair of eyes can prove invaluable.


NAE: Your critique style is like which of the following: Red Pen Editor, Overall Commenter, Supportive Critic, You’ll Know It If I Catch It?

Sherry: I am an overall commenter unless the story doesn't have any major story/character/pacing problems. Then I might comment on scene-level problems. I usually do not pay much attention to grammatical/spelling errors unless they are atrocious. And I generally do not line edit when there are bigger issues.


NAE: Name one of your favorite 2012 books (coming out or already released), and why.

Sherry: I'm always behind so I will probably be 2015 by the time I get to 2012 books. The next book I'm going to read is The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart.



Crits for Water Quickfires—And, go:

1. Oxford comma?   Yes.

2. Should "I like him too" have a comma before "too"?   I don't do it personally, but my copyeditors always do. :-)

3. Italicize or underline?    Italicize.

4. How do you separate scenes: #, ***, line break?   #

5. What's your favorite verb?   Be.


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Take a look at Sherry’s new release, available now. Happy release day, Sherry!



When the Duke of Lexington meets the mysterious Baroness von Seidlitz-Hardenberg aboard a transatlantic ocean liner, he is fascinated. She is exactly what he has been searching for—a beautiful woman who interests and entices him. He falls hard and fast—and soon proposes marriage. 

And then she disappears without a trace…

For in reality, the “baroness” is Venetia Easterbrook—a proper young widow who had her own vengeful reasons for instigating an affair with the duke. But the plan has backfired. Venetia has fallen in love with the man she despised—and there’s no telling what might happen when she is finally unmasked…

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Thanks for the interview, Sherry.

If you would like Sherry Thomas to look for blind spots you might have, consider bidding on her critique here on May 1st.

Thanks to everyone else has donated to the 2012 Crits for Water campaign so far. You guys are the best.



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