Summer of Indie's next guest is author Sheila Deeth, who
began writing after receiving a Masters in mathematics from Cambridge
University. Sheila Deeth is here with Summer of Indie to talk about Flower Child, which she describes as a
"spiritual speculative fiction" novel.
After hearing about it's interesting genre, we asked
author Sheila Deeth to tell us what exactly spiritual speculative fiction is:
"What is
spiritual speculative fiction? It's fiction first--the telling of stories. It's
speculative because it's written about things where we don't know all the right
answers (science fiction, fantasy, etc). And it's spiritual because it includes
spiritual elements (about which, much though we'd love to, none of us know
everything)."
Author Sheila
Deeth then gave us a closer look at her novel:
Flower Child
When Megan miscarries her
first pregnancy it feels like the end of everything; instead it’s the start of
a curious relationship between the grieving mother and an unborn child who
hovers somewhere between ghost and angel. Angela, Megan’s “little angel,” has
character and dreams all her own, friends who may or may not be real angels,
and a little brother who brings hope to her mother’s world. But Angela’s
dream-world has a secret and one day Angela might learn how to be real.
Summer of Indie
talked with Sheila Deeth to learn more about her, as well as her work.
Q: Can you tell us
how you got started writing?
A: How did an
English mathematician end up writing fiction in America? I actually started out
writing in England, but it was easier to get the right (as opposed to write)
answers in math, and I love patterns and symbols and manipulating ideas. I
ended up studying mathematics at Cambridge. Then I worked for a computer firm.
Then my husband worked for a computer firm. Then our jobs moved to the States.
Then our jobs moved from the States and, jobless, I returned to getting things
written instead of getting them right. It's much more fun.
I've written a lot
of books that are still looking for publishers, several ebooks with Gypsy
Shadow, and a contemporary literary novel coming out soon with Stonegarden. And
I've self-published some children's Bible stories. I'm not sure if they're
spiritual speculative fiction, but they're about what real people might have
seen and felt in the days of Genesis, Exodus, Joshua etc. (I'm still working on
Judges). Oh, and I draw pictures too, so I have some self-published Christmas,
Easter, Pentecost and Thanksgiving gift books on Lulu.
Q: What inspired
you to write Flower Child?
A: Flower Child
grew from a writing prompt in our local writers' group. We were asked to write
something based on a piece of music and the first song that came to mind was
John Denver's Rhymes and Reasons, in particular the line "The children and
the flowers." I wrote the first paragraph using a childhood memory where I
imagined children grow from seeds planted in a farmer's field somewhere. Of
course, not all seeds grow, and I found myself remembering the loss of my first
pregnancy to miscarriage. Megan and Angela took over the tale at that point and
turned it into their story of a mother and her child who might be a ghost or an
angel or both.
Q: Can you tell us
about some of the characters in your book?
A: The main
characters in Flower Child are Megan and Angela. Megan's first pregnancy ended
in miscarriage. Now she's wondering how to love her newborn son without being
somehow unfaithful to the memory of the child she lost. I guess that makes her
my favorite character because I felt the same way after losing my first
pregnancy, though Megan's unborn daughter Angela becomes very real as the story
progresses, so I'm pretty fond of her too.
Q: What is your
favorite indie book?
A: I read and
review a lot of indie books. My favorite recently is Kathleen Flanagan Rollins'
Misfits and Heroes: West from Africa. It felt like a cross between Jean Auel's
books and Life of Pi, and I love it!
Q: What is your
favorite book of all time?
A: I don't have a
favorite all-time book. I just love books. Likewise I don't have favorite
authors. But Jane Kirkpatrick has certainly influenced me a lot, simply because
she's a wonderful lady as well as a wonderful writer. I "won" an hour
of her time shortly after moving to Oregon and she has been amazingly
encouraging and kind ever since. Minnette Meador is another Oregon author who's
been incredibly kind and encouraging to me.
Q: Do you have any advice for new writers?
A: The only advice
I could give new writers would be keep writing and keep trying. It's what Jane
Kirkpatrick and Minnette Meador both told me. And give yourself permission to
say you're a writer.
Q: What's next for you?
A: What's next for
me is my first full-length novel which comes out with Stonegarden in summer
2012.
Q: Is there anything else you'd like to tell us?
A: I'm a mongrel Christian mathematician (Catholic, Methodist, Church of England, free evangelical, Presbyterian, Christian Reformed... and I studied mathematics, undergraduate and postgraduate, at Cambridge University, England).
I now live in the States with my husband and sons, and enjoy reading, writing,
drawing, telling stories, running a local writers' group, and meeting my neighbors’
dogs on the green.
I have three spiritual speculative ebooks out with Gypsy Shadow, and a
contemporary literary novel due to be released in summer 2012 from Stonegarden.
I've also self-published some children's Bible stories, bringing faith, science
and history to bear on imagining what real people might have seen and felt in
the days of Genesis, Exodus, Joshua etc. (I'm still working on Judges). I draw
pictures too, so I have some self-published Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and
Thanksgiving gift books on Lulu.And I have whole folders full of other stories
in search of publishers.
I don't make any money writing, but I wish I did. I'm still dreaming (spiritually and speculatively I suppose).
I don't make any money writing, but I wish I did. I'm still dreaming (spiritually and speculatively I suppose).
You can find author Sheila Deeth online at:
https://twitter.com/#!/sheiladeeth
http://www.facebook.com/sheila.deeth
http://sheiladeeth.blogspot.com/
http://about.me/sheiladeeth
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