Featured Interview With Cheryl St.John
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I grew up in Nebraska, where I still live. When my kids were young and at home, we had dogs, cats, rabbits, birds, hamsters and gerbils. When my youngest daughter and her kids lived with us, we had dogs and cats, but now that we’re empty nesters, we enjoy our kids’ pets.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I have always loved the exciting and diverse worlds available between the covers of books. As a child I wrote stories and drew covers, then stapled them into little books. I cut all the tiny book images from the book club advertisements in the Sunday newspaper and glued them to bits of cardboard so Barbie® had a full library. I submitted my first story to Redbook Magazine at age 15. It was a romance! I still have the half-page form rejection.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
As a young adult I read Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Louis L’Amour, Victoria Holt, Catherine Cookson and true crime. Once day by chance I picked up LaVyrle Spencer’s Hummingbird, read it and went back for Lisa Gregory’s The Rainbow Season. I was hooked on romance from that day forward. After that I read Jude Devereaux, Alexis Harrington, Megan Chance, Jill Marie Landis, Lorraine Heath and many more. I still love American-set westerns and Americana, but I enjoy a lot of contemporary romance as well.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
I wrote more than 50 books for Harlequin lines in 25 years. Years ago, my critique group was helping me with a particularly difficult thread in a continuity series contrived by my editors—and we got the grandiose idea to create a continuity series of our own.
We threw ourselves wholeheartedly into developing characters, fashioning families, family dynamics, and a setting, which evolved from one member’s love of all things Colorado. We created family trees, character profiles, detailed maps, brainstormed titles and themes. We collected photos and researched and even started the stories. We proposed our idea to a few publishers and got no traction. So, after a time the contracted books came first, two members dropped out of the group, a couple new ones came and went. But the core group remained.
In a tragic turn of events we lost a beloved friend and co-writer. Grief took the remaining wind from our sails. We recovered slowly, welcomed a new friend to our critique group. Then came a day when we got together and said, “We’re going to get serious and do this!” Energy built, and the series took on new life. A previous co-creator joined us again. Now, years after the initial idea, we’re publishing the finished stories and hoping readers will feel the same intensity and appreciation for this project as we do.
Dancing in the Dark is an idea I developed a long time ago, but then I took over a year off from writing to recover from burnout and regroup. During that time, I promised myself I would only write stories I love from now on, and so Dancing in the Dark came to life. I loved every minute of writing it. I’m now writing my next book in the series, titled Whisper My Name.
ABOUT DANCING IN THE DARK:
He’d had his own baby. Without her.
Dusty Cavanaugh has loved Kendra Price since she walked into the school cafeteria and captured a dozen boyish hearts with the sweep of her stormy gray-green gaze and the lift of her chin. College, marriage, and children had been the plan. But then Dusty made a mistake.
Kendra Price had never wanted to be rich, but she’d wanted to be comfortable, which she was. She’d never wanted to be famous, but to live her passion to the fullest and dance, which she did. She’d wanted to marry Dusty, have babies and live happily ever after. It would never happen.
She’d wanted to dance, get married and have babies…all she had left was dance.
He had everything a man could want–except her forgiveness…
There had been no road map for life apart. Will love be enough to guide them back?
You can follow the Aspen Gold Series page here: https://www.facebook.com/AspenGoldSeries/
Thanks for letting me share about this special experience!
Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles
Great interview. I love Cheryl’s books and I promise you won’t be able to put down “Dancing in the Dark” once you start reading.