Rejection and Resilience with Sherrilyn Kenyon – WNP 120

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Hey friends, I’m back again this week and I have with me a special treat for you. I have with me today, author Sherrilyn Kenyon, who is the author of a lot of very, very amazing books. And I’m actually really excited that she’s here to speak with you today. Sherry, welcome to the show.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Thank you so much. It’s so fun to come out and get to visit. Yay.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Yay.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

[inaudible 00:00:22].

Sarah Rhea Werner:

So you are a writer with a capital W that is how I think of you. I grew up working in libraries and shelving your books, and it’s just a really cool experience to get to speak with you. I would love if you would just share a little bit about your writing journey with our audience today, that would, I think kick things off really well.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

God, that takes forever. It was a long journey. Started out across the river and my boat sank a few times I had a tiny tub, I had to sit there and bail and it’s yeah, horrible, horrible. Don’t do this. I got two sons who want to be writers. But are you out of your mind, why would you do this? Go be a doctor why, why would you do this? You’ve seen what it’s like. There’re easier ways to… Go be a door greeter. It’s much easier and people actually like you. Why? Why?

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Well, you must find some fulfillment in it, right?

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

I’m insane. But no I love it. No. Yeah, yeah I do. No and I have so many friends who love it and I get to work in my pajamas you can’t beat that. Of course, I scare FedEx drivers, which is even more fun. And I have to apologize, that I swear I have a job, I’m not homeless. You see, I have a home where you come to the and bring me [inaudible 00:01:47]. So…

Sarah Rhea Werner:

You are here at my home right now.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

I know. Yeah. I know, I look homeless but really I do have a house. Yeah. Yeah. I didn’t have to even wear… People come to the door for Halloween and I’m already in costume, I look like scary person.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

I’m a writer. [crosstalk 00:02:04].

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

They can’t tell the difference, me or Jason, they don’t know. My journey as a writer. Well, it began when I was in the womb. Yeah. I started when I was a little kid with crayons, in all seriousness. I used to write, what do you call them? Comics. When I was very tiny, I would draw them out and then I’d tell my mom’s stories about those people on the paper. My mom would be like, “Okay, my childhoods so strange. I don’t know what to do with her.” When I was in kindergarten, first grade, I would sit in the back of the class and be doodling. And then as I got older, I realized, Hey, I can still do this and make up stories and they thought I was taking notes in class. So it was really cool, I could daydream and my teachers left me alone.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

I love it. That’s really… That’s the goal right there.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Yeah, I know. Yeah. Look how studious she is. It’s like, “Yeah right.”

Sarah Rhea Werner:

So you’ve been writing since a very early age and I love the sense of vibrancy and humor you have about it. That’s so lovely and delightful. Where did it go from there? Where did it take you or where did you take it?

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

It sounds really easy and it should have been in theory, because I’m a writer and in your head you have these grandiose plans. But I was the editor for my school paper. I’ve worked on a yearbook, anything I could, I was a junkie. I made my first professional sell at age 14, in the magazine and I thought, “Hey, I’m going to this.” Then you had saved up on babysitting money and I had subscription for Writer’s Digest Magazine, but I was a freelance writer. But unfortunately you get paid a penny, a word. I think that it’s gone up, I think it’s 10 cents now.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Yep, yep that’s yep.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Yeah, it’s gone up a lot over the years, but and I sold my first book for a whopping $500. But it took a lot of rejections. I think my going rate was for every what 50 stories… No, I don’t even think it was that good. For every 1500 stories I submitted, I sold one. I don’t think it was that bad. It was somewhere between 50 and 1500, I would sell one. Some days just felt like more than that some days, but you always have to keep that cycle going. I submitted from the time I was 14 until now, but yeah, I sold my first novel when I was 24, but I made pretty good income. While I was in high school, I was making $4,000 a year working part-time and writing. Yeah, no, no. Yeah, really.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Wow.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

I was the proleptic little [booger 00:04:40] spot. Yeah. Yeah, no. When I tell people, I actually was a writer as a teenager. I’m not joking. Yeah.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

I love that. I love that. So many people say I need to wait to be a writer or I need permission or I need this thing to happen before I can be a writer. But it sounds like you just kind of went for it.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Well, I didn’t on the novel, which I kicked my… I mean, I wrote the novel, but I really didn’t start… This sounds that I didn’t start really submitting them until I was in my late teens, my early twenties. But I wish somebody had grabbed me and said, S.E. Hinton was 14 with The Outsiders, which is what I do want to talk to school kids. It’s like, she didn’t wait. Because everybody did that to me. And I had my first novel I wrote when I was eight years old and yeah, it sucked, honestly it did suck. But the novel that came out Born Of Night, if you have the one that was published in 1996, it’s sucks I’m just going to say that. But that’s the book I wrote at 18.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Wow.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

So if you’ve actually read the original version of it, you are reading my work at 18.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

So yeah, that’s the wrong material… And it actually, through an accident is the raw version of what I did at 18. That’s what was published in 1996. So yeah, and when you’re reading Night Pleasures, you’re reading what I wrote, gosh what was I 21 when that was [inaudible 00:06:09]? So you’re looking at 21, 22. Yeah. You’re looking at stuff that I wrote very, very early on. So, can I do better now? I like to think I can.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

But when I’m looking at young students it’s like, “Don’t be afraid.” I look at my son, because he does that now, “I need a better voice.” You’re 24 kid. You’re okay. You’re great. Will you be better at 30? Well that’s we all endeavor for, but be fearless. Don’t let anything stop you. I mean, part of being a human being is to always strive for betterment. But don’t let anything hold you back. Keep going, submit. I mean, all they’re going to say, no. It’s not like they’re going to take you take out rocks and start stoning you, I hope.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

I hope yeah.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

That’s my fear. That is my fear, but yeah, it really a rejections a rejection, I’ve got plenty for everybody. I’m living proof a rejection will not kill you, it’s just going to hurt your ego. But what are we also afraid of?

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Gosh, that’s such an excellent question. What’s the worst that can happen, I mean, aside from the stoning.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Well, yeah, [inaudible 00:07:11] the burdens of it… And one is my son, [gosh 00:07:15], my youngest son who was having an existential crisis about writing, and he [inaudible 00:07:20] reject me and I dragged him upstairs and I have a file folder, which I use for one of my speeches and in it is from 1996. And at that point I had two babies and I had had six best sellers. At 96 is in the hiatus between the four and a half years where I could not sell [Alpo 00:07:43] to a dog kennel. And in it, in that one year alone is over 150 rejections in one year. And in it-

Sarah Rhea Werner:

So how do you come back from that? Oh, sorry.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

No, no, no. I mean, like I said, how do you come back that [inaudible 00:08:00]… And it is bar none the worst rejection I ever got, which is hilarious because in it… and I always tell writers, “If you get a worse one dinner’s on me.” “No one at this publishing house will ever be interested in developing this author. Do not submit her work to us again.”

Sarah Rhea Werner:

What?

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Oh yeah. It was sent to my agent and it cost me that agent. Oh yeah. So I looked at my son and said, “If it’s worse than this one kid.”

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Oh my gosh. How do you recover from something like that? So you talked about it doesn’t really damage anything except your ego, but some of us writers have very fragile egos. How do we deal with that? And then how do we bounce back from it?

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

I went on to write for that publisher and that editor.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Are you serious?

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Oh yeah. Yeah I did. Yeah I did. You keep that in mind.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

I love it.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

You play this back every time you think of that. How do you bounce back? I guess I look at it this way. My older brother said it best, “We’re all fat, ain’t nobody dead.” It’s [inaudible 00:09:07]. People bounce back from things that are a whole lot worse than a rejection. Rejection don’t hurt, it hurts, but no, I’m not standing… My mother had to bury her son. I’m not standing over my child’s grave. It’s okay. A rejection is an easy thing to bounce back from. In the grand scheme of things, I was told to pick up funeral clothes twice for my child. I can handle a rejection.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Thank you for saying that. That’s really powerful. Wow.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

But it is the truth. I was [homeless 00:09:42] for the baby. The rejections aren’t so bad, I can handle that.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Oh my gosh. So, all of this… We’re still talking a little bit about your writing journey and there’s just so much here to explore. You were writing from a very young age. You were getting paid to write, you were publishing. What else were you doing during this time? Were you working other jobs as well? Or were you supporting yourself fully? [crosstalk 00:10:09]. Yeah. Yeah. Tell us a little bit about that.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Oh God, what did I not do? I dug ditches, I was a DJ, I was a very bad waitress. To all you people I dropped food on, I’m so sorry, I know I suck. Waitressing was not my gift. And yeah, I respect the heck out of all waitresses because I am not a good one. Yeah, I did a lot of retail, I worked at bookstores, I taught. Yeah, I did all kinds of things. I taught computer, which is its own level of hell.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Yeah. Well you said you were in IT [crosstalk 00:10:50] for 20 years too?

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Yeah. Do computers hate me? They talk back, they’re horrible, computers don’t like me at all. Yeah. If I go to hell, that’s going to be hell, will be me walking into a room full of computers and them going [inaudible 00:11:04] she’s here. No no.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

That’s awesome. Which one of those were maybe best for your writing? I mean, did you find that, I did my best writing while I was here, or here, or in this position or anything like that?

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Probably… Well working the DOD actually… Probably only because they gave me a lot of time to do it. We would work in very concentrated periods and then we’d have a lot of downtime and they were really good to be like, “Yeah, we got nothing to do, go write.” And they were very, very they still [inaudible 00:11:43] and they were fine with that. So that, in terms of that, they were very respectful. And I could do with not have to worry about looking over my shoulder, going, I’m not to get in trouble for this.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

The rest of the jobs is always like, am I going to get in trouble? Where are they? Okay, it’s good. It’s good. [crosstalk 00:12:01].

Sarah Rhea Werner:

I identify with that.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

But DJ was a little harder because it was back in the day before the radio stations were animated, we actually had to queue up the albums and I had a punk show. But you rotten punk people, your songs are only like 30 seconds long and our bathroom was downstairs. So you never could use the bathroom.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Oh my gosh.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Yeah. I’m convinced that is why Stairway To Heaven became famous was you needed a bathroom break. And same thing for Free Bird. It’s you knew when a DJ had to take a bathroom break, that’s when those songs were played.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Oh my gosh, I love that. So I feel like sometimes as writers, we’re looking for something and the writer’s journey is sometimes a journey towards success and sometimes not. But I think along the way, we have an idea of what it is we’re looking for. And for you, what were you looking for along this writing journey?

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Just to tell the character. The character… Well, I started writing… My childhood was, I wish I could say what’s happy, but no. And to me it was a way because… It was how I coped with my childhood. I had no power and when you’re trapped in the situation, you have no way out, it was how I had a voice and it was how I dealt with the things around me because you couldn’t strike out and you couldn’t strike back. And so the things that happened around me, it was my voice that I didn’t have. And it gave me the empowerment that I lacked. And it gave me an outcome because I didn’t feel… I had no guarantee.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

When I was ten years old, it was one of… I actually going to run away from home. And I had this moment of clarity where I had gotten on my bicycle and gosh, I guess I went in a couple of miles and it was hot. Georgia is a hot place to live. I probably about two to three miles away from my house and I’m sweltering heat. And I got up to the magic market of all places and I collapsed, and I had this moment of clarity and it’s kind of… It’s really not funny, but it is. You’re laying there on the side of the road, panting going, “I’m dying, I’m dying.” But luckily it made me stop and think you’re going, “If this is how my family treats me are strangers going to be any kinder?” And yeah you’re like, “Oh no I’m screwed.”

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Oh my gosh.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Oh my God, this is a going to be… Life sucks. And I had this moment of weird, weird clarity where, “Okay, no, this really is. I’m trapped. I’m trapped in a really bad situation here.” Because [THS 00:15:01] came in and didn’t remove me. And for me, there really was no way out. And so I, in that moment, I made myself a promise. If they don’t kill me before I turn 18, if I get out of this and survive it, I’m never going to let be trapped like this. I’m never going to have this again. I’m going to get out. I’m going to stay out. And that’s kind of where I’ve been the rest of my life. It’s just kind of trying to stay away from all those bad triggers of my childhood and the writing is how I coped with all that.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Thank you for sharing that with us. That is… I have the feeling that that’s something that a lot of listeners are going to relate to. I think a lot of us write from that place and I love the way that you put it. That writing gave you a voice and it gave you some autonomy and some a way to act and be empowered. That’s just, I think why a lot of us do, write. That’s just, yeah.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Yeah. I mean, well, one of the things people they either love [Styxx 00:16:00] or they hate Styxx. And I think there was a reason Styxx resonates with them are people who’ve come from backgrounds like mine. And what I tell the people who don’t is, it’s not the fictional part of Styxx that’s terrifying. It’s the part of Styxx that isn’t. And you can tell when you get to those parts, because those are the parts that are truly disturbing and sick, because they resonate. And you know when you get to them, because they’re the parts that leap off the page at you. Yeah. And you when you get to the parts in my book that are really disturbing, you know those are the real parts.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

So did that end up helping you? I mean, even later, as you continued in your writing journey and you continued writing about difficult things and maybe processing some of these childhood events, were you able to find a little bit of healing in that?

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Always. I mean, that’s where my writing comes from, it is extremely cathartic to me. And I think it’s why I’ve been able to… Most of my family’s strong, they did not survive our childhood. And that’s always been very hard for me, because you watch people who don’t get out. And anybody who comes from a traumatic childhood, it’s heartbreaking because you want better and we all did.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

You watch them when we’re were little, we all have the same dream. Nobody grows up wanting to go to jail, nobody grows up wanting to die young. We all have these, “I want to be president and I want to be a beauty queen,” and to watch those dreams die the way they do, it’s harsh. And that’s why especially, “I want to be a writer,” go be a writer, go be whatever you want to be. Don’t let anything stop you, please. Whatever it takes, no well it’s never going to be easy for anybody, but don’t let it stop you. Even if you don’t get started to your 40, don’t let it stop you, don’t be your own worst enemy, but don’t be your own worst critic. Just, I didn’t do it today, but I’ve got tomorrow and I can start tomorrow. Tomorrow is always another fresh start.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Absolutely. Oh, absolutely. This is such a wonderful dose of perspective. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in our own problems and in places of frustration and where we are that we kind of forget that, “Oh yeah, it’s really not that bad, I have tomorrow. I’m not in this situation or this situation that’s preventing me from writing. I can do this.” And maybe even that in itself is a little bit frightening, when we realize that the only person in our way is ourselves.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Well, I mean, it is because life tricks us. I mean, my God, just when you think you’re not even on top, no, usually it’s sucker punches you when you’re down low. I don’t… The one thing I’ve never understood are the people who get such a sick satisfaction out of kicking you when you’re down. And those are the people I really don’t understand the ones who just want to see you suffer. And why life wants to hit you so hard when you’re not on your face. And we’ve all been there and it’s something that we all share. And we try, most of us try not to show it and it is, we all have it. And I don’t understand why people can’t help each other. It just… Life has always baffled me that way.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

What would it look like if we were in a place where… I mean, is that kind of what you see as maybe a brighter future for even the writing community? Is people lifting each other up instead of being competitive? Or what does that look like?

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Yeah, exactly. That’s when I do my booth, I try to staff my booth with other writers. People when they come to the conventions that I do, I usually have two to three other writers, some of us at any given time. Because not only do I want you to come buy my stuff, please come buy my stuff, I’ve got three kids in college and my God they eat like velociraptors. But I always had my friends who were in there with me too. And even if they’re not until usually have their books with me. And that’s it, because I want you to find my friends and we should be supporting each other because one thing I can’t write all the time, I do try, but readers are going to read whether I’m here or not and I can’t supply every breeder out there and I know this. I want my friends to succeed.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

I want… And I know I can’t please every reader out there because not everybody, my stuff’s not for everybody. We need to do that because hell, I used to work at bookstores. It’s like, “Okay, well, you don’t like this. How about this? Well, if you don’t like that, how about this?” Not everybody wants science fiction. Some people just want children’s books or some people just want high fantasy, some people just want dark fantasy. And that’s me when I was at the bookstore, that was the neatest thing was to help somebody find their next really cool thing that they hadn’t discovered yet. And it’s kind of like finding the perfect parent for the perfect orphan.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

I love that.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

And that… Yeah right. It’s like, “I got the baby for you, come here quick.” Well, you said you worked in libraries, right? Yeah. It’s the same thing. It’s like, “Come here, come here come here, I got a treasure for you. Come here come here. And I love doing that.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

I love that too. It’s one of my favorite things. And it’s in a way it’s helping people in a way it’s entertaining people in a way it’s helping them find something maybe they didn’t even know they were looking for. And you’re able to facilitate that, it’s really magical.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

It is right and their face lights up. And then they come back and they’re so excited and it’s like Christmas for them. And they’re like, “You got more?” You’re like, “Oh yeah, do I have more, behold.” [crosstalk 00:22:02] more. And it is, it’s this is great ta-da, yes it is I love it. Yeah, it’s magical. That’s why I’m never, “No don’t read that.” There’s some… Why are you telling them not to read that? No, no read. Read it all.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Read it all. Yes. So what about you? I mean, what do you enjoy reading? What are some of your favorite things I know earlier you talked about, you have a love for characters. What is it that you love to read?

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Everything.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Yes.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

[inaudible 00:22:38]. Yeah, really. No, it doesn’t matter everything. I love the language. So there’s something great in anything I pick up I mean, I’m never without material. One of my favorites, I like really old… So my kids are like, “Mom you’re so old,” but one of my favorite things that I always go back to is usually [Chaucer 00:23:01] or old English I’m a huge fan of Beowulf. But in terms of modern fiction, I’m a big [Noel Gaiman 00:23:12] fan. I liked pretty much any and everything… [Alicia Heider 00:23:17] a friend of mine, so yes I’m going to shamelessly plug her stuff. But, I think she’s hilarious. And same thing with [Quincy 00:23:25] [Allen 00:23:25] I love his stuff. He entertains me endlessly. So, but… I’ll pick up any book anywhere, anytime and just, everything’s great. It’s all magic. Right?

Sarah Rhea Werner:

It is. And it’s all different kinds of magic and that’s a wonderful thing.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Exactly. I’m glad that we’re all different it makes the world wonderful.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Oh my gosh. Do you have time for one or two more questions?

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Sure.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Oh, good. I want to ask a little bit about your writing process. Just because that would be a… It’s very selfish of me to ask that, but I’m just so curious about what a day of writing looks like for you?

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

It basically booty and chair, if I’m up, I’m working. Every day is different, my kids take priority. So, and I’ve got a child in Japan… Oh, I keep saying child, my children are grown, but to me, their little embryos still. Which they… “Mom I’m grown, quit trying to cut my meat,” but I still think of you as a little boy. But I so since I’ve got one child across the world now, and he’s planning a wedding, so he actually is a man.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Oh congrats.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Thank you. I know I got a beautiful daughters coming. And, but he’s planning a wedding. So everyday he calls me usually excited at 2:00 AM, which thank God I never sleep. Because if I did need sleep, I’d be in a lot of trouble. So, and he’ll call and he’ll update me on things that they’re doing, which is wonderful. He’ll be talking about his book until waking up in the middle… Or if I ever dare to go to sleep, he’ll wake me up, “Okay mom I need character help.” So then I’ll plot his book for a little while and it’s like, “Okay, now I’m plotting my book again.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

So yeah. We’re making notes on his, we’re making notes on mine. And it’s weird how that works because as I’m talking to him about his, it’s like, “Oh, wait a minute, I know you called about mine, but now I’ve got ideas on mine, hang on a minute.” Hang on. [crosstalk 00:25:19].

Sarah Rhea Werner:

So it’s reciprocal.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

…about mine.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Yeah.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Yeah. And he’s like, “Mom, wait, we’re talking about mine.” I’m like, “No, no, I got an idea for mine, I’ll get back to you in a minute.” He’s like, “Really?” Yeah, I got to write something down.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

But it’s, but in terms of writing, I lose track of time, which is kind of sad. So my other child will be like, “Mom, mom. Oh, hey, what time is it? You need food don’t you? Yes.” And then I have to go and feed, and then I come back to my chair, but yeah my other son is in here, he works in my office with me on his laptop. So…

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Oh, that’s cool.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Yeah.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

And you don’t distract each other too much?

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Not really every now and again, I’ll look at them and be like… Well he’s actually asleep in here right now.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Oh that’s awesome.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Right. Yeah. And it’s fun because we’ve always been like that, 2:00 AM ramen noodle call or ten o’clock, mom, I need homework. Okay.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

That’s so cool. I love that you have that, I love that you have that writing relationship. What a absolutely cool thing. I want to ask one more question. And then I’d like to do a plug for your new book, also. Is there a piece of writing advice that you’ve received that you love to pass on to other people?

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Personally, or that I’ve read?

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Ooh, either.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Because I have one of each.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Oh, or both. Let’s just go with both.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Okay. The best one that I ever read came from Stephen King, which was, I don’t care what you call me as long as you don’t call me late to dinner. I’d always love to plug that because I’m like, “You know Steve, that’s great.” Because I always felt like that was mine. Because I, being mixed genre, that was one of the hardest things I had in terms of getting published was back in the 80s, some of my favorite rejections, one… Marion Zimmer Bradley used to have a fantasy magazine. And I submitted one of the early Dark Hunters to her. And she, “Just because you got magic in this, it doesn’t make it fantasy. You need to be submitting this to horror.” And then I sent it to horror and they’re like, “Just because you’ve got demons in it, it doesn’t make it horror you need to put it into fantasy.”

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Oh my God.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

You guys got me so confused, I don’t know where to go. And then the best piece of writing advice I got was actually from Cathy Maxwell was one of my first critique group partners. And Cathy Maxwell said always treat every contract and everything that you do like you’re going to be the next biggest writer out there. But this was years before JK Rowling ever published a book. About a decade before JK Rowling published Harry Potter. So…

Sarah Rhea Werner:

So always kind of prepare for unimaginable success.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Yeah. Yeah. Who was a big writer back then, God it was so long ago, Janet Daily, I think. Who was the big, big, big writer? Oh it’s Sidney Sheldon that’s how long ago it was. I was trying… That’s why I couldn’t remember [inaudible 00:28:20] she said. That was a long time ago.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

That’s okay and that’s excellent. That’s very, very excellent advice. I would also just love to ask you have a new book coming out? You have a lot while you have a lot of books out, tell us about what’s exciting, what’s going on right now? What you’re publishing, all of that?

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Well Stygian is the one that just came out. Yay Stygian.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Yay, Stygian.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

I know. I got to play with the dark characters, which is awesome. I like evil, I don’t know, but I got to get deep into the dark side of Dark Hunter. And then the next one that’s coming out is At Death’s Door, which I really got to go play more with the Caribbean folklore than I have been doing in the past book. It was actually a lot of fun to write because you get to find out how a lot of the Dark Hunters got based in New Orleans. And you get to find how the [Malakai 00:29:15] ended up in New Orleans.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

And I’m trying not to give spoilers but its really hard. A lot happened in At Deaths Door and how much is that is a spoiler? Yeah. So yeah, there are a lot of good things happen in it. But the best part was to get to play with… Yeah, one of my mother’s best friends was a Gullah woman, which a lot of people don’t know a about the Gullah culture. It’s very different from… Being from Georgia we have a lot of interesting different kinds of [boo 00:29:50] hags and stuff that people aren’t really exposed to. So yeah. I get to throw a lot of light on things, but weird things I was raised with that people generally don’t know about, which is fun.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Very, very cool. And if people are interested in finding you online, connecting with you, purchasing all of your amazing books, what do they do and where do they go?

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Sherrilyn Kenyon, which thank you mom was kind of hard to spell. I put her through 36 hours of labor Sherrilyn was her curse on me. Queen of all shadows is easier to spell. So queenofallshadows.com is the easy one to get to, but Sherrilyn Kenyon will get you there.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Wonderful. I’ll make sure that I have links to those in the show notes for today’s episode, otherwise Sherrilyn, [Sherri 00:30:37]. This has been… You are just delightful, so thank you for gracing us with your [crosstalk 00:30:43] presence today. You’re just so wonderful, your energy is fantastic. [crosstalk 00:30:47] Thank you, so much.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Well, thank you for letting me come out and play for a little while. It’s a lot of fun. [inaudible 00:30:52] yay.

Sarah Rhea Werner:

Yay. Thank you again and happy writing today and please do take care of yourself.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

You too, you take care.