Featured Interview With Shelly Talcott
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Although I have moved quite a bit during my life we seemed to gravitate toward small towns in Kansas and Colorado. So I don’t really have a “home town” so to say but I feel comfortable in the Midwest. Right now my family and I live in Kansas where the weather is less than desirable but the people are friendly and caring.
You asked if I have pets, well yes you could say that. Right now we share our home with two dogs, Mama a shepherd mix that lived as a stray on a property we moved to years ago. After we moved she came with us because she is family. And our newest furry family member is a 60+ pound six month old Great Pyrenees puppy named Woofy. We also have five cats, Dolly, Spike, Goblin, Tommy, and Ghost. I have always had a soft spot for animals. Truthfully I can’t imagine not having pets in the house, it would seem so empty. My kids have inherited my love for animals and my daughter has told me we need a bigger house so we can get more cats.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I have always loved books and writing. I have piles and piles of partial books and poems all over the house. And to be truthful I always have. But only recently did I decided to publish my books and make a career out of something I love to do. For almost fifteen years before this I worked in an asphalt laboratory. It paid the bills but it was not what I was meant to do with my life. I always knew that but in life sometimes you just get to a place that you think is just temporary. You think you will just stay there for a little while until you get to where you are really suppose to be. But then you blink and you realize you’ve been in the same spot for years. So I guess that’s what happened to me. So I finally ‘woke up’ I guess you could say, and published my first novel this year and started to be true to who I really am.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I have several favorite authors. I’m a sucker for Edgar Allan Poe. I love the dreamy dark quality he has. I also love Mary Stuart, she is so descriptive with her works that you can actually feel what the characters feel. There are some indie’s out there right now (two in particular that haven’t actually published their works yet.) I was lucky enough to read a little of what they are working on and WOW! Absolutely amazing! I am so excited for them to publish so I can read more. (I’m talking to you Basil and Savvy!) 😉
I also am fascinated by real people so I read a lot of biographies and I also read true crime sometimes. (Anne Rule is a great writer.) The list of who inspired me could go on and on. I have unpublished copies of memoirs family members of mine wrote before they passed which inspired me to actually publish my work.
It’s unbelievable how many great writers are out there. It’s also a little sad too because many of them wont follow through with their writing dreams and not only will they lose but we will too if they for whatever reason decided not to follow their dreams. Imagine if Shakespeare had decided to pursue another career.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Fall of the House of Queens is a historical fiction that takes place during the Tudor period in the court of Henry VIII. Originally I planned on writing through the eyes of Bessie Blount but when I put pen to paper it was Henry’s fool William Somers that showed up. So I just went with it. I didn’t have an outline or a plan I just sat and wrote whatever came out. I remember when one of my characters, Luke, showed up. He wasn’t planned but all of a sudden there he was on the page and he just permeated the story. Now I can’t imagine the story without him.
It wasn’t easy to write Fall of the House of Queens because I was working full time and my kids were really little so for a couple of years I would wake up and try to write a little before it was time to get them up and off to daycare then get myself to work so that often meant waking at four in the morning to try to get a little writing in. Or I would try to sneak in writing like when they were taking a bath I would take my notebook in while I kept an eye on them and try to write a few lines. I couldn’t write every day so sometimes I would go weeks or months without writing but eventually persistence paid off and I had it all down in my yellow notebook. THEN I had to get that all copied onto the computer.
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