Interview with Sherry Harris

What is the title of your newest book? 

Sherry Harris

The Gun Also Rises came out in January 2019. How many books have you published? It’s the sixth book in the Sarah Winston Garage Sale mysteries. By the end of 2019 the seventh – Let’s Fake a Deal and the eighth – Sell Low, Sweet Harriet will be out!

How did you develop your character and choose your location? 

I confess that part of Sarah’s life comes from my own experiences as a lifelong lover of garage sales and I am married to a former Air Force officer. The location was a no brainer for me. We were assigned to Hanscom Air Force Base outside of Boston in 2005. I did not want to move there. But it didn’t take long to fall in love with the charming small towns with their town greens and soaring white churches, the history, the quirky accents, and funny pronunciations. There is so much to do in Massachusetts and all of New England.

What do you enjoy about the author’s lifestyle? What do you not enjoy? 

Being an author is a dream job where you get to spend a good deal of your time with imaginary friends. And then when your book comes out you get to meet and talk to readers. I’m hard pressed to come up with something I don’t enjoy. I guess a review that is inaccurate good or bad.

Do you model your character after yourself or any one you know? 

As I mentioned before Sarah’s love for garage sales is definitely something that comes from me. I went to my first garage sale when I was in second grade and haven’t stopped going since. The whole finding a treasure never stops being a thrill. One of the most rewarding things is hearing from readers who say they didn’t know anything about military life until they read my books.

How do you get yourself out of a writing rut? 

Fortunately, I don’t get in a rut very often. When I get stuck I follow the advice of writer John Dufresne (he has written two terrific books on writing). He says to have your character look around. Write down everything they can see and smell and what they are feeling. It usually gets me going again. If that doesn’t work switching from my computer to pen and paper helps.

If your books were made into a movie, who would you want to play the lead character? 

Amy Adams. She’s so talented and reminds me a bit of Sarah.

Who is your favorite author? 

Oh, that is a hard one. I love to read and there are so many talented authors out there. I’ll go with Sue Grafton and Sara Paretsky. Both of them wrote such strong, independent women and I wanted Sarah to be one too.

If you could invite five people – living or dead – to a dinner party, who would they be? 

Jane Austen, Shakespeare, Trevor Noah, Keith Lockhart, and Octavia Spencer.

If you could not be an author, what would like to do as a career? 

I would love to conduct a symphony orchestra!