Welcome author Sayword Eller

This week I would like to introduce Author Sayword Eller. She is a fellow member of our local Randolph Writer's and an Indy author.   

Sayword please tell the readers about your novel, who or what was your inspiration behind it?


SHADOWS is, much like life, a novel about several different things. At the heart of it is the story about moving on and letting go. Victoria has to do this in her life and the dead girl has to do this in her afterlife. Victoria is, essentially, a woman very much stuck in the past. She is having an affair with her ex-husband (the man who left her for a co-worker). While she knows that she needs to move on and get away from Philip (the ex) the thought of being alone is terrifying. When she meets Marc she wants to settle into the security of what he is offering, but her ex is still very present in her life and very much in control of her. What is different with the dead girl is; she knows she needs to move on and she is trying to get Victoria to help her with that. 

SHADOWS is also about taking chances. Victoria is facing some very big decisions. Does she ignore the dead girl(keep writing her off as a figment of her imagination)? Or does she help her, in the process risking her own life? And what of Marc? Does she nurture this blossoming relationship? Or run back to Philip? 
 
What Victoria has to figure out, and what she eventually does, is that the past is not where she belongs.

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Many main characters are a reflection of the author or somebody the author knows. Are there any tidbits that you've put into you characters that mimic people around you?

My characters are full of people who are close to me and also carry a little bit of what I have observed in others, though I don’t know anyone like Amanda Bradley!

How did you decide on the setting? Did you need to do research?

When I moved to Liberty in 2004 I fell in love with it. This town is still very much small town America. Our mayor lives down the street from me, the speed limit is twenty in downtown, and we shoot off fireworks every year behind the elementary school. It’s just a great little town that I thought would make the perfect setting for my story.

Many authors say the novel has a voice all its own. Did the plot change once your characters started forming the story?

SHADOWS was a markedly different book when I began writing it. It has seen seven different drafts in its time. While the base of the plot never changed the circumstances did. For instance, in the original draft Amanda Bradley was the editor of Lucky Lady magazine and Victoria was hired as her assistant. As the novel evolved so did the story and the players.

How did you choose the names of your characters?

I honestly think they named themselves. It has always been that way for me. I rarely sit and think about what the names of my characters should be. If I am thinking about it then, odds are, that story will never make it to the end. It’s as if there are a line of characters in my head and when their numbers are up they just move forward. Their stories are already written, I just haven’t gotten to them yet. Now serving number…!

How did you come up with the  title?

The title used to be quite long. As the time went by we (myself and my close network of family and friends) began to refer to it as SHADOWS and I found that I liked the simpler title as opposed to the lengthier one. 
 
I am sure many readers are interested in learning more about you. Do you have a homepage where they can do  so?

I can be found at the following locations:

www.facebook.com/saywordbeller
www.twitter.com/prompting365
www.prompting365.com
saybeller.webs.com
www.authorsden.com/saywordbeller
www.goodreads.com/saywordeller
 
My books can be found at the following
locations:
www.amazon.com
www.createspace.com
www.lulu.com- Second Chances; and other tales of
love (only). 

SHADOWS will be released October 2, 2013. Check out
www.amazon.com or www.createspace.com to get your
copy! 

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