Author Kat Sheridan and Richard Castle

I’m delighted to welcome author Kat Sheridan here today. I recently became acquainted with her and her new Victorian gothic romance novel, ECHOES IN STONE. 

Here’s a brief description of the intriguing novel:

A letter from the grave…
       Lily is dead. But a mysterious letter launches her half-sister, Jessa Palmer, on a harrowing journey into the wilds of Cornwall to rescue Lily’s daughter from a tyrant of a father, a man who confessed to murder. Jessa follows in Lily’s footsteps to a forbidding castle on the cliffs, but discovers the past will not stay dead at Tremayne Hall. Someone—or something—wants to ensure Jessa is no more successful at escaping than was Lily.

A heart locked in stone…
       Bitter, brooding, and tragically scarred, Viscount Dashiell Tremayne believes Jessa is just like her manipulative, unfaithful half-sister. He’s not about to let another treacherous woman into his home or into his heart. Particularly not a woman who’s come to steal his daughter. Only one can win in the battle for a child’s life. Then the accidents begin.

A passion that threatens to consume them…
       Jessa wants only to take her niece and escape the grim manor. But Dash, fiercely protective of those he loves, gives up nothing that belongs to him. As the danger escalates, so does the heat between Jessa and Dash. Soon she’ll have to make a choice: surrender the child to a man she cannot trust or surrender her heart to the same fires of passion that destroyed Lily.

Oh, my … now that sounds fascinating! Well, I’ve also learned that Kat is a fan of one of my favorite TV shows, Castle. She’s joining us now to talk about … ‘Richard Castle is (sadly!) not real.

One of my favorite television shows is Castle. For those who haven’t seen it, the premise is that a famous mystery novelist connects with a group of New York police detectives and follows them around gathering plot ideas for his novels while solving crimes. In between, he lives a lavish lifestyle in a scrupulously clean apartment, attends fancy cocktail parties, and smiles charmingly through standing room only book signings.

It’s a nice fantasy (and seriously, who doesn’t just love to look at Nathan Fillion, who plays Richard Castle?). But it’s nothing remotely resembling the real life of any author I know. Sure, there might be a few like that. If you believe everything you read on Facebook, any number of authors are jetting off on research trips to Europe, riding camels in Tibet, or rafting down the Nile River or something. 

But most of us? All we really want is at least one room in the house that doesn’t have a dust bunnies forming a union to protest for better living conditions, one load of laundry that gets washed and dried and folded and put away, and maybe one dinner a week that’s been cooked in an actual pan on an actual stove and made with actual ingredients that don’t come from a can. A shower now and then would be a bonus.

I know lots of heroic writers who hold down full time jobs, manage the entire household, raise kids, entertain friends, coach little league, and still manage to turn out multiple books a year. I don’t know how they do it. I admire them more than I can say. I want to get them into a quiet corner and ferret out their secret. Because I? Am clueless.

When the muse is upon me and the characters are demanding my attention like a two-year-old on a cotton-candy-and-Kool-Aid-sugar-fueled high, I consider myself fortunate to even find a clean coffee cup, much less run out and solve crimes and make a gourmet dinner at the end of the day. At times like this, when I finally back away from the keyboard (which is more like wriggling out of handcuffs), I am grateful for a hubs that likes take-out Chinese food and doesn’t mind that the “cocktail hour” consists of box wine drunk from a souvenir glass that says “Surrender the Booty!” on the side.

It would be nice to be Richard Castle, but here’s the important thing to remember. He’s a figment of somebody’s imagination, a dream of what a writer could be. But I’m the real thing. A writer (albeit a messy, clueless one!), but still, a real writer.

If you’re a writer, did you ever fantasize about what the writing life would be like? And if you’re not a writer, do you ever picture what your favorite author is actually doing all day? (Hint: it’s less likely to include bon-bons and more likely to include litter boxes.)

Kat, thanks so much for joining us today. I have to admit, I’m one of those readers who use to think a writer’s life was much more glamorous than it probably is. Having met writers through blogging, I still put y’all on pedestals, but now it’s for all the hard work y’all do so we readers can live happily in any kind of dream world we’d like. And yes, looking at Castle is fun.

Now if you’re not familiar with Kat, let me tell you a bit about her.

Kat is a former project manager whose very serious exterior hides a secret romantic. She is fond of books, bourbon, big words, coffee, and shiny things. Kat splits her time between the Midwest in the summer and the South in the winter, sharing her home with the love of her life and an exceedingly dignified Shih Tzu. 

She loves to hear from readers, and can be contacted at www.KatSheridan.com.

ECHOES IN STONE can be found at Amazon (print and Kindle), Barnes and Noble (print and Nook), Kobo (e-book only), and Smashwords ( e-book, most popular formats).

Thanks everyone for stopping by today. I’m curious like Kat, did you ever fantasize about what the writing life would be like? (*Thanks Sia )