The Life and Times of Sherry Thomas--An Author Interview

posted by Christine Wells

A good friend of mine, Joanne Lockyer, lent me the advance reading copy of Sherry Thomas's Private Arrangements, which Joanne picked up in Dallas last year. I read it, loved it and immediately asked Sherry to visit the lair. Now, Sherry is the best type of guest, because she's done all the work! Here is Sherry's interview...of herself. Let's give her a big bandita welcome!

Q: You don’t look like a Sherry Thomas.
A: Funny, isn’t it?

Q: So Sherry Thomas is your pen name?
A: And mostly my real name. I’ve been Sherry ever since the moment it was decided that I would come to live in the United States. My mom calls me Sherry. My husband calls me Sherry. Thomas is my married name. I’m Mrs. Thomas at my children’s school.
Q: So you weren’t born in the U.S.
A: No, I was born in the lovely coastal city of Qingdao, of Tsingtao beer fame, in China. And I lived there until I was thirteen. That year my grandmother, with whom I’d been living, passed away. My mother, who was a graduate student in the States at the time, brought my grandfather and me here to look after us. And I’ve lived in either Louisiana or Texas ever since, except for a year as an exchange student in France.

Q: I’ve had a look at your excerpt. I couldn’t tell at all that you weren’t a native speaker.
A: Thank you. Once I saw I had no choice but to learn English, I did.

Q: How did you come to write historical romances set in the Edwardian era?
A: You mean, having being born Chinese and all? How did a very prim and proper professor of English decide to write about hobbits and rings of power?

What an answer, eh, comparing myself to Professor Tolkien. Seriously, what happened was that I learned English reading historical romances. During summers, I used to loiter in the university bookstore and check out the—mostly historical—romance books one by one. I knew what dukes and marquesses were long before I knew what “modern” terms like “t&a” meant. So it is natural for me to write what I’m most familiar with and what I love to read.

As for the Edwardian era, I find it to be a fascinating time, and an interesting parallel to our current era. The British Empire was the most powerful force on earth, much as the U.S. is today. Technological advances were coming so fast you could scarcely keep pace. The world was changing rapidly. There was trouble in lots of places in the world, but England itself was at peace and prospering. It was the kind of time and place where it was possible for a significant portion of the population to lead secure, stable lives. That a generation later Europe would turn upside down gives La Belle Epoque, in retrospect, a certain poignancy.

Q: Now this might be a weird question. How come you don’t write the kind of books Amy Tan does?
A: Because I didn’t have a hard enough childhood? (Laughs) Amy Tan is a wonderful writer, and I’m glad she has written some marvelous book on the Chinese American experience. But I’ve never been a big consumer of experience-based novels, so I can’t write them either. I prefer imagination-based fiction.

Q: Is that what you consider romances?
A: Exactly. And the miraculous thing is, the most imagination-based fiction can turn out to be the most inspiring. When I think of poor Frodo struggling up Mount Doom, tears still well up in my eyes. And so it is with romances. Some of the most illuminating and profoundly moving moments I’ve lived through have come from reading romances. Because learning to love another person is one of the most deep-reaching, surprising, and sublime of human experiences. And because the genre boasts some of the best writers working today.

Q: Tell us a bit about your debut book, Private Arrangements, which has received starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Library Journal, a 4½-star review from RT, and a Desert Isle Keeper review from All About Romance.
A: (Cackles in secret delight; it certainly pays to write your own interview questions.) Do you have a couch I can jump on to tell you how much I love this book? No? Darn. Well, it is a rather unusual book, from the turn-of-the-century setting, to the storyline—girl loses boy big time thanks to her own devious machinations. As the story opens, they’ve led separate lives for ten years. She wants to divorce him to marry a lovely younger man, and he demands that she gives him a heir before he’ll grant her a divorce. Which leads to lots of mandatory sex. Woot!

Q: Mandatory sex is always good. And what about your sophomore book--Delicious, due out in August--does it contain mandatory sex too?
A: Alas, no. Which was why Delicious took forever to write and required 3.5 complete drafts before my editor would accept it. But it does contain buckets of voluntary sex, how’s that?

Q: Good enough for us. Tell us, what’s next for you, after two semi back-to-back releases in 2008?
A: Currently I’m taking a tiny sabbatical from historical romance to write a short, contemporary, angst-free romp. But once my next contract is finalized it’s back to historicals, though I do hope to break into science-fiction romances, too. And if I ever find time, I’ll fix my big historical fiction, a martial-arts action adventure with strong romantic elements, an homage to all the Chinese martial arts epics I devoured growing up. I call it Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon meets The Forsyte Saga.

Q: Sounds intriguing. Best of luck with all your future endeavors.
A: Thank you. And thank you for having me. It’s an honor to be breathing the same cyber-air as the Romance Bandits. Hope I didn’t stink up the joint too much. J

Aw, shucks, ma'am! We love having you here. Actually, Sherry, we do have a couch in the lair--made from the tanned hides of aged cabana boys *g* and we'd love you to grab yourself a cup of coffee or your beverage of choice, take a seat and chat with us about your books. Or there's a blue brocade chaise longue in the corner if you'd prefer...

And now I have a question for readers--in Private Arrangements, the heroine Gigi forms a scheme to win Cam and it backfires in a major way. Has that ever happened to you? What's the most outrageous thing you've done to win someone's heart?