Links Mentioned in This Episode:

When He Returns: a domestic suspense novel

Book Brush

Atticus.io

First Book Finish Program

How to reach 

• Facebook
• Website
• Sherrie Lynn Clarke’s website

The Resilient Writers Radio Show: Interview with Sherrie Lynn Clarke – Full Episode Transcript

Intro:

Well, hey there, Writer. Welcome to The Resilient Writers Radio Show. I'm your host, Rhonda Douglas. And this is the podcast for writers who want to create and sustain a writing life they love. 

Because let's face it, the writing life has its ups and downs, and we want to not just write, but also to be able to enjoy the process so that we'll spend more time with our butt-in-chair getting those words on the page. 

This podcast is for writers who love books and everything that goes into the making of them. For writers who want to learn and grow in their craft and improve their writing skills. Writers who want to finish their books and get them out into the world so their ideal readers can enjoy them. Writers who want to spend more time in that flow state. 

Writers who want to connect with other writers to celebrate and be in community, in this crazy roller coaster ride, we call the writing life. We are resilient writers. We're writing for the rest of our lives and we're having a good time doing it. So welcome, Writer. I'm so glad you're here. Let's jump right into today's show.

Rhonda:

Well, hey there, Writer. Welcome back to another episode of the Resilient Writers Radio Show. Glad to be back with you. And today I have my friend Sherrie Lynn with me. Sherrie Lynn writes under the name SL Clarke. SL Clarke is the award-winning author of multiple short stories featured in various anthologies. She has a creative writing degree from Utah State University, but only because she couldn't major in knitting or sewing.

Her short pieces range from personal memoir to fiction and occasionally poetry. Her women's fiction novel True Strength was published in July 2021, and it won the bronze quill award from the League of Utah Writers. Sherrie Lynn has republished it under the title When He Returns in 2024. And amid mothering four boys in writing, she crochets, reads, goes to the dojo, binges on Netflix, plays computer games, and sometimes picks up her trumpet. I didn't even know you played trumpet. That’s so cool. That’s so great.

Sherrie Lynn:

Yeah. I've been, I've played the trumpet since like middle school. 

Rhonda:

So, great. Awesome. So, we're going to talk about Sherrie Lynn's book When He Returns. So this is your debut novel, right? 

Sherrie Lynn:

Yeah. 

Rhonda:

Your novel was previously, um, published as True Strength. So tell me where the idea for this, like, how did you end up starting this particular novel?

Sherrie Lynn:

Well. So after I graduated from Utah State University, I wanted to keep doing exercise stuff. And I was doing marching bands in college. But I was also very, very intrigued to Japanese culture and stuff like that. And some of my friends had started doing Shorinji Kempoo, which is the martial arts that I do. So after I graduated, I started doing martial arts. And I started doing martial arts.

I feel like I had like the biggest like emotional transformation there in my adult life. And I tried to want, I wanted to try and write that emotional transformation, but like shorter pieces just wouldn't do it justice. And so I created a fictional character, Marissa, and I gave her a lot of my issues and put her in a fictional place. And I wrote her emotional journey, which is essentially mine, but with fictional characters around her.

Rhonda:

Right. And a fictional situation. So this is the story of she has a stable job, a budding romance and abusive acts and her husband abandoned her leaving behind trauma and debt. And she's, but she's fine now. Like she's getting a raise. She's reunited. She's got a possible romance going on and then Vance comes back. So you said you were writing like your own transformation was that. Did you find that emotionally difficult to write or did you find it cathartic to write that? 

Sherrie Lynn:

Mostly cathartic. I always have to preface, like, this is not like a call, like a- 

Rhonda:

It's not autobiographical fiction. 

Sherrie Lynn:

No, no, yeah. And it's not like a call for help. Like I'm not in any kind of bad relationship, but like I wanted to try and show my emotional issues with my past and everything through Marissa and how I was able to heal from them through doing martial arts. 

Rhonda:

So okay and then the novel won the  Bronze Quill Award that's pretty cool. So tell me a little bit about that did you have to submit for that or did they find you? 

Sherrie Lynn:

No, I submitted for that um the League of Utah writers is a fairly smallish um group and not very but, uh, so, and I, and I've been a member of the league of guitar writers since I graduated college as well. And, um, so they just do this published book award every year. And you can only put, you can only submit books that were published in the last, in the previous year. 

Rhonda:

I see. Okay. 

Sherrie Lynn:

So I submitted to it and yeah. 

Rhonda:

Okay. And when you first published it, so it was self-published indie publishing. And so what was your experience that first time publishing it under the title of True Strength? Like, did you find it easy to go through all the different levels of details you had to go through in order to self-publish? Did you have any help? 

Sherrie Lynn:

I think one of the hardest, well, one of the bigger issues of trying to do it was finding a good cover. I liked the title of it, True Strength, because there's this teaching in Shorinji Kempo and my martial arts where the, the question of what is true strength comes up and we're supposed to like consider that and think about that. And so I felt like that was a good title for it at the time. Um, and so once I nailed that title, I tried to make the cover kind of Martial art E and I have like it, like this yin yang kind of design on it. But I was trying to like figure out, I was trying to match what genre I thought it was with the woman's fiction. And I looked at like previous cover and like the popular covers in the genre. Yeah. In the genre. And I tried to kind of mimic what they were doing with that. And I had a friend who's a graphic designer and she helped me. 

Rhonda:

Okay. You did your own cover. 

Sherrie Lynn:

Yeah. 

Rhonda:

Wow.

Sherrie Lynn:

Pretty much. I mean, I kind of worked with my graphic designer friend, but we. 

Rhonda:

Right. Yeah. So, and there's a particular software you use for that. Cause I know you've showed it in First Book Finish. What is it again? Remind me.

Sherrie Lynn:

Um, I didn't, I didn't have Book Brush back then. It was-

Rhonda:

Oh you weren't using Book Brush. 

Sherrie Lynn:

I wasn't using book brush. I was actually drawing. I have-

Rhonda:

Oh my Lord. Oh wow. Okay. Wow. 

Sherrie Lynn:

So the yin yang kind of image is like two faces, two women's faces, kind of like yin yang. Okay. 

Rhonda:

All right. And you chose to republish it. So can you just walk through like your thought process of how you got to the point where you're like, this, I'm gonna redo this. 

Sherrie Lynn:

Well, it started, so after I published it as True Strength, I figured out that I have no idea how to sell things. And I didn't know anything about the publishing, not the publishing, the promoting, and the marketing, and all of that. And so I actually joined...Who is it? Brian Cohen's. I took it, I bought his course thing. And I kind of worked through that a little bit. And the people in there were like. They looked at my sales page and they told me what they thought the genre was from the cover and from the blurb. And they were like, it looks like it's, um, memoir or self-help or-

Rhonda:

Oh because of the cover and the title, true story.

Sherrie Lynn:

Because of the cover in the title and the fact that I was basing a lot of, um, my emotional journey of martial arts with, okay. 

Rhonda:

So it seems like it was memoir or maybe self-help. Okay. 

Sherrie Lynn:

Right. Right. They thought-

Rhonda:

Not a novel, not a domestic. 

Sherrie Lynn:

Even though it said like a novel on it. Yeah. They, right. Yep.

Rhonda:

And this is women's fiction. 

Sherrie Lynn:

Yeah. 

Rhonda:

Right. And it's got a kind of, you classify it as domestic suspense. So it's got that suspense element to it. 

Sherrie Lynn:

Right. Yeah, it's under the umbrella of women's fiction, but it's domestic suspense. 

Rhonda:

Domestic suspense. Yeah. Love that. So OK, so then you were like, all right, there's a reason that this isn't resonating with readers, and it's just wrong cover, maybe wrong title. Yeah. And so where did you go from there? 

Sherrie Lynn:

Well, I tried playing around with keeping the title because I was fighting changing the title because I knew if I changed the title, I'd have to republish it and use up more of my ISBNs that I had bought. Because I bought like a bundle of 10, which you can do. Anyway, and so like, I was like, I don't want to change the title. And so my friend that I said mentioned is a graphic designer. She just like on her own just made like this domestic thriller like looking cover.

And I tried to, and, and, and, but seeing the words, True Strength on a, like dark ominous kind of like-

Rhonda:

So you were like Oh, that's a cool cover. And the title doesn't work. 

Sherrie Lynn:

Yeah. And it, I fought it for a long time though. I, I so didn't want to go through the process of republishing it, but it took three years for me to finally be like, okay, I really have to change this because I felt like I couldn't market it in the, in the proper way because the title was, was wrong. 

Rhonda:

And so that's interesting. So when you first named it True Strength, it was, it's out of the story, right? Like thematically out of the story is where you pulled the title, which like for most of us is totally where we would pull a title, right? That's what you're supposed to do. But the title doesn't really match the genre, right? Like when you go, if you go in and look for, you know, women's domestic suspense fiction, you're not gonna find that kind of title. 

So the current title, When He Returns, how did you end up choosing that one? I mean, obviously it's directly related to the novel as well. Cause he's, he's, he's back, right? Like, yeah. 

Sherrie Lynn:

It was the husband is returned. Yeah. No, I actually came up with that one. Um, I was trying to find something that could be romance, but paired with the right cover tells you it's very much.

Because one thing that women who are in a bad relationship deal with is they fell in love with that person for some reason or other. They're dating that person for some reason or other. And so they struggle a lot with like the fight between, well, he's really, he's doing awful things to me, but I still love him. So like, I wanted to have that kind of paradox or not.

Rhonda:

And the new cover, I love the new cover. Like I love the colors, I love the art. And you did do that yourself in Book Brush, right? 

Sherrie Lynn:

Correct, yep. I looked out really, I looked at a lot to find that. I found that picture and I'm like, this is perfect. 

Rhonda:

And how did you, where did you find the picture? 

Sherrie Lynn:

It was just in book brush. I looked for, I can't remember what I saw. I think I just searched like watercolor woman or something like that and they just have art in there that you can use. 

Rhonda:

It's great because the art, the expression on her face to me is apprehensive, you know? And so it like, and then with the coloring and that you've chosen, like it totally gives off now, domestic suspense with the title and the cover. So what has been, and I'm assuming, did you have to like redo the entire internal layout when you had a new cover?

Sherrie Lynn:

Um, I can't remember. I actually had a friend, um, because I didn't have Atticus at the time. I have Atticus now, but I had a friend who has vellum and she actually did the formatting for it for True Strength in vellum. And then when I was republishing it, I asked her again to to change it. I think, but it was, it was all her and she was using vellum. So I can't remember. 

Rhonda:

So you're just changing the title text, wherever that. 

Sherrie Lynn:

Yeah. We would just say mostly changing the, the, the cover, uh, the front pages and the end pages. I can't remember if we changed, because there are some scene break, like little things in the scene breaks. I can't remember if we changed those, but we might have. But it wasn't very much. Like the inside is exactly the same as it was. 

Rhonda:

Okay. How long, once you decided, okay, I'm gonna republish this, how long did it take you to do it? 

Sherrie Lynn:

Well, I think I made the decision in... I think I made the decision at the last 20 books to 50K, which was last year's 20 book to 50K, the 2003, 2023. I think I decided there, but then I started to really like pursue it in January. So I started really pushing myself to get it republished in January of 2024. And then I think I published it like in the summer. 

Rhonda:

In the summer. Yeah, June-ish, wasn't it? 

Sherrie Lynn:

Something like that. 

Rhonda:

So. And how much time do you think it, what took the most time republishing it? The cover? 

Sherrie Lynn:

I think it was the blurb. I kept getting really hung up on the blurb. 

Rhonda:

Okay. And why were you picking up on the blurb? 

Sherrie Lynn:

I don't know. I just- 

Rhonda:

You had a previous blurb, right? 

Sherrie Lynn:

I know, but it was focusing more. I know. It's so silly that I just kept getting hung up on that. I, yeah. I wanted it to be really suspenseful. And I was working through, who is it? I have someone's blurb, like course. 

Rhonda:

Stacy Juba? Yeah. 

Sherrie Lynn:

I don't, it wasn't Stacy Juba's, it was Jessie, something. 

Rhonda:

Okay. On how to do the back matter. 

Sherrie Lynn:

On how to do the back matter and the blurb. For some reason I just kept like, my brain kept stressing too much about that. 

Rhonda:

All right, cool. So now that the book is republished. Do you, do you feel differently about it? 

Sherrie Lynn:

I do. I really love the cover as well. I, I, and I think it matches better. I feel like I'm more able to push the marketing more, like, like, like to finally set up ads in the proper way and, um, start pushing it. Um, so yeah, I do feel different about it for sure. 

Rhonda:

Okay. So you're, so before you were sort of a little hesitant. And then you're like, Oh, no, this, this is a great book with a great cover. You know, really well positioned for the market and it's an award winning text and everybody should buy it. 

Sherrie Lynn:

Yeah. Except. Because of, because it won their award in a different title. Like now I'm just going to forever be like, Oh, it won this award in this title. Like I feel awkward about that. 

Rhonda:

Do you have to say that? 

Sherrie Lynn:

I don't know. 

Rhonda:

It's the same text.

Sherrie Lynn:

I know. I don't know. 

Rhonda:

It’s the same story. You haven't changed the story since it won the award, right? 

Sherrie Lynn:

Nope, I haven't. 

Rhonda:

Yeah. So I, yeah, I don't know. 

Sherrie Lynn:

I have a trophy and I have like a certificate and it says True Strength on it. So I'm just like, uh, 

Rhonda:

Yeah. Okay. But it's great that, you know, that it has a stamp of approval and you can put an award-winning author in your bio and on your, you know, and on the book, which you have, which is great. So has anything changed for you? As a published author, you know, like what, what are you doing now as a published author that before you weren't, before you finished the book and decided to publish it.

Sherrie Lynn:

I don't know, like I feel like I have more creds and I feel like I have something to push out there, and I've gone to some local fairs and stuff and it's just really nice to sit there and talk about my book and not have to worry too much about saying the cover doesn't really look right, but you know, yeah. Right, okay. But you know. Yeah. But. 

Rhonda:

So you go out to kind of local events promoting the book. 

Sherrie Lynn:

Yeah.

Rhonda:

Like book tables and that kind of thing. 

Sherrie Lynn:

Yeah.

Rhonda:

Okay. And I know you're working on other things because you're in First Book Finish with me. So tell me a little bit about the other things you're working on. 

Sherrie Lynn:

I am working on a memoir about kind of my self discovery journey after my second son died of SIDS. And I am, it's, it's been a journey for sure. It's been 17-

Rhonda:

It’s a tough material, it's hard material to work through, you know. 

Sherrie Lynn:

Yeah, I I'm trying to do my best to just listen to my body and take breaks when I need it because it's tough stuff It's it's not just about the death of my son. It's also kind of about the death of my faith and the death of like the grief of just learning who I am. I don't know if that grief is the right word for that, but. 

Rhonda:

Yeah. But that incredible transformation through something very, very hard. Yeah. Through the non-ending thing that's very, very hard. It's not like grief of a lost child ever ends, right? Yeah. So yeah, and I think a lot of people can relate to that, Sherrie Lynn, who are working on memoirs out of some experience of trauma. It might not be the loss of a child, but it still forces you to go back in and revisit things that you frankly would rather not, you know? 

Sherrie Lynn:

Yeah, I have come up against memories that I had totally forgotten and had to just, I had to work through them again. Yeah. 

Rhonda:

Yeah, it's a thing. So, but you're taking care of yourself as you do it. So, you know, you'll eventually get there with that. And do you feel like the life you have now as someone who, you know, has published a book, working on the next book. Do you feel like that was, like, does it bear any resemblance to the writing life you thought you'd have when you were doing your creative writing degree?

Sherrie Lynn:

Probably, I don't know. I really have a hard time with questions like, what are you gonna be like in five years? You know, like if I were to ask myself that when I was in college, and it's been like over 10 years now. I mean, I think it's maybe about the same. Like I didn't think while I was getting my degree that I was gonna be like a well-known, well-renowned.

Rhonda:

You know, right. You weren't like, Oh, best seller near times. Look at me go. Yeah. 

Sherrie Lynn::

No, I was already a mom at that point too. So I, I, it's, it's, yeah, I mostly, I wasn't getting the degree to get like accolades or anything like that. I had never taken a creative writing course in my life at that point. And I was just taking it for the education to know how to better write. Right. Yeah. 

Rhonda:

Which is the way to do a degree really like releasing it of expectations. I think people that go into, you know, MFAs or creative writing degrees of any kind thinking, oh, now I'm going to make a livelihood after this. It's like, mmm. 

Sherrie Lynn:

I definitely did not think that.

Rhonda:

So good. All right. So if there's someone here thinking they're listening to this and they're working on a book and they're like, I am going to self publish. I'm going to go the indie publishing route. Do you have any advice for them based on your experience? 

Sherrie Lynn:

My advice would be to still do all the steps that you would do if you're traditionally published in that it still needs to be edited. It still needs to be proofread. It still needs to have a badass cover. Sorry for the swear word there, but it still needs to look professional, you know, and I actually have a publishing house, like I registered with a DBA doing business as, as reader books. And I did that so it could look on a shelf like it's traditionally published. It just makes it look more official and more like

Rhonda:

Every other book. 

Sherrie Lynn:

Yeah. You really put the effort. Yeah, like you really put the effort into making it as good as you can. 

Rhonda:

And I feel like also there's a lot of learning here around title and cover must match genre full stop. 

Sherrie Lynn:

100%. Yeah. 

Rhonda:

And so all the, like your emotional attachments to the title, your emotional attachments to the cover, all the ideas behind it and so on, sometimes we have to negotiate those in order to be successful self-publishing.

Sherrie Lynn:

Yes, for sure. One of my friends was, I don't know if the word upset works, but she was like, I don't want it to be When He Returns. I want the title to be about her, not about him, which makes sense. But at the same time, you know, you really have to match the genre. And when I first published it, I didn't really know what the genre was. I wrote this as a NaNoWriMo. It was my first NaNoWriMo novel I ever wrote. And I wasn't writing it a genre. I was writing what I wanted to write and then I had to figure out what it was. 

Rhonda

But then when you went to publish you had to pick a genre. 

Sherrie Lynn:

I had to figure out what it was and it took way too long to do that. Yeah. 

Rhonda:

Okay. So great. Thanks for sharing all of this Sherrie Lynn. It's been really great talking to you today. Thanks for being here. 

Sherrie Lynn:

Yeah. Thank you.

Outro:

Thanks so much for hanging out with me today and for listening all the way to the end. I hope you enjoyed today's episode of The Resilient Writers Radio Show. While you're here, I would really appreciate it if you'd consider leaving a rating and review of the show. You can do that in whatever app you're using to listen to the show right now, and it just takes a few minutes. 

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