Chat With Me Thursday (15): Author Interview with Cherie Coyler

This week for my Chat With Me Thursday interview, I'm bringing you an interview with author Cherie Colyer, author of middle grade and young adult fiction books, including her newest,  Damned When I Didn't, which was released on November 18, 2020.

Connect with Cherie on Goodreads and visit her website, or find her on Twitter and Facebook!

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1. Can you tell me a little about yourself?

I’m a mother of four amazing men, an avid reader, lover of nature and magic and the different wonders of the world who loves to creates new characters and invent ways to get them in trouble. I also work full-time as a senior advanced technical support engineer with people much smarter than myself.

2. When did you realize you wanted to be a writer?

I was in my thirties. My husband and I like to go for long walks, and I was always talking about different story ideas I had. He’d chime in with his thoughts, and before we knew it, we’d have created a mini world hidden within our own. One day he asked me why I don’t write the story I talked about the most down. So I did. And I enjoyed it so much I kept going until I honed my craft and found homes for some of my books.

3. What book of yours was most difficult to write and why?

Right now, I’m going to say the sequel to Damned When I Didn’t. I’m a bit stuck on what I want to happen, which is driving me nuts.

4. Which book was the most fun?

Oh, this is hard. Once I get to know my characters, I have fun with the stories. But if I had to pick, it would be a toss-up between Hold Tight, which is the second book in my Embrace Series, and Entwined, the third book. The characters for that story came easily to me, and I always knew what was going to happen next, which made it fun to write the sequels.

5.  In Damned When I Didn't what came to you first, the plot or the characters?

The plot. I really wanted to write a book about a succubus, but I wanted to have a unique twist. Something I hadn’t read before. And I thought, what if my succubus was a virgin. Everything fell in place from there.

 6. Do you have any writing routines that you do to get yourself in the mood to write?

I write in the morning, so my routine starts with coffee and ends with me on the couch working on my latest work-in-progress. Not too exciting, I know, but it works for me. Now, if I find myself with the house to myself during the day, I gather my things (something to drink, my phone for music, a snack, and laptop) and set up outside in the shade or in the living room where it’s bright and cheery. I find it easiest to write when I’m the only one home, so I find these times blissfully perfect.

7. What do you do to ease writers' block?

Anything away from my laptop: hanging out with friends or family, yard work, cleaning, shopping, reading, watching reruns of my favorite shows. If this doesn’t work, then I open a fresh Word doc and write a day in my character’s life or let my character ramble on, spilling his or her innermost thoughts until I realize what needs to happen next in my story.

8. Are you working on anything new right now?

I’ve been alternating between playing around with a sequel to Damned When I Didn’t and revising a YA paranormal thriller I’d written a while ago.

9. Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

Read as much as you can, and read a little of everything. You can learn a lot about flow, characterization, plot, etc. by reading different books. And don’t give up. Writing is hard at times. First drafts often (maybe even always) suck. But that’s why we revise. So keep going, finish the first draft, and remember to have fun.

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That concludes the interview! Special thanks to Cherie for allowing me to feature her today, as always, it was so much fun!