Meet the Author – Sheryl Winters #giveaway

Welcome back to Meet the Author. It’s been a while, I know, but I have a goodie for you today. Meet Sheryl Winters, author of Skydreamer. Welcome, Sheryl!

What’s your favorite paragraph from Skydreamer? No spoilers now, just a nice, slow tease if you please.

I dreamed of dragons again and in my dreams, I soared through the sky. It’s almost as if I could feel the wind caressing my skin, weaving around me as I fly on effortless wings.

This is my favorite paragraph and I will give a little teaser. Jaden is not the dragon but she is flying on the dragons back. A mere passenger enjoying the flight. This paragraph was in the original story and throughout all the edits and revisions it stayed. It tells so much about the story, so much about Jaden’s thought process at this point in the book.

Are there any other fantastic novels waiting to burst free from your imagination in the future?

I have so many novels trying to break out of my head I’m amazed I’m not in a mental hospital. I’m working on the sequel to Skydreamer called The Rogue’s daughter. It’s about an artistic protege that falls in love with Draven’s nephew Tholi Winterbourn. It is entirely from the dragon-changer point of view. I’m also working on a nice short historical romance. So you can see my interests are all over the board.

Tell us about your road to publication. Was it short and sweet? Long and winding with many bumps?

The road to publication for Skydreamer was the bumpiest road you could ever imagine. The original idea came in 09. I wrote over a hundred thousand words before I realized I had the story completely wrong.

The spoiled princess became a troubled pauper, the arrogant King had to learn to bend. I re-wrote personalities etc. Even the story plot had to be reworked to fit my vision of the story. I can truly say I learned to write with this novel. More than one editor quit on me. It’s been my baby for so many years that I actually hesitated before I took the plunge and sent it in.

How much of you is in your heroine?

I have to admit, I coldly designed Jaden, then one day I realized she was more than a cold blooded character in my mind. She was alive. She breathed in my subconscious. I could see her hazel eyes, (a trait she shares with me), her long red hair which she keeps in a tight braid. There are things she’s done that completely puzzled me. I would never jump out a window after a wedding ceremony, especially if I was getting married to someone as good looking as Draven Winterbourn.

I think that is what makes Jaden special. She didn’t expect to jump out that window either.

So yes in answer to your question. There is a lot of me in Jaden, but there is also a lot of her in me.

Do you have any phobias, like run-screaming-at-the-mere-mention-of-it, fears?

Cockroaches. I can handle spiders. I save them all the time, rescuing them out of the house and into the woods, placing them on trees so they can live out their short lifespans. Put me in the room with a cockroach and I can (and have) knocked over a bookcase and sprayed them with Oven cleaner to kill them.

Let’s have a look at the pretty, shall we?

Title: Skydreamer

Author: Sheryl Winters

Publisher: Roane Publishing

Release Date: March 30, 2015

Keywords: New Adult, Urban Fantasy, Romance, Dragons, Twins

Blurb:

For fire talent, Jaden Zarie, life is far from a fairy tale. Blisters from any contact with water, check. Sleeping in a shed behind your greedy Uncle’s house, check. Ex-boyfriend scouting the bar where you work for one-night stands every night, double check.

When Jaden sets off to secure a new life with her two sisters, winning a contest with a huge pile of gold on the line seems like a quick fix. Getting hitched to Draven Winterbourne, King of the Dragon-changers, and finding true love, was beyond anything she could have hoped for.

But a friend turned enemy threatens to take it all away. Jaden is thrust into an alternate universe and separated from her new husband and her sisters, she must summon up the courage to start over, alone, knowing she may never see any of them again.