TopShelf April 2023

Q: WHEN DID YOU FIRST BEGIN TO CRAFT STORIES?

I’ve been creating worlds and characters and bringing them to life in stories all my life. I can remember playing as a child, that imaginative play, where I was one of my characters in a world from my mind. I was the storyteller at campfires, or on rainy days, and if I didn’t have a friend or family member right beside me to share the story with then I would tell it to myself. I don’t think I started committing stories to paper until sometime after grade six and over a decade later I started submitting for publications sporadically. I received my first rejection letter in 2008. It was for a short children’s story full of magic called Princess Grace and the Magic Bubbles. I still have the reject slip.

Q: YOU HAVE TWO BOOKS PUBLISHED. CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR LATEST NOVEL, CHIMERA AND CURSES?

Chimera and Curses is a first-person friendly urban fantasy novel that’s engaging and humorous. It features several of the characters from The Ember Stone and a few new personalities. I had a lot of fun creating Lord Bradig for book two. He’s a shapeshifting mythical creature who’s a bit high-strung with an inflated sense of self. He creates a lot of laughs and a bit of mischief. Chimera and Curses is not all laughter. Kori Ember and friends are assigned a find and fetch mission that if failed will affect the fate of the world in a negative way.

Q: WHO ARE THE MAIN PROTAGONISTS?

The main protagonist is Kori Ember. An ex-police officer learning about her magical heritage after spending most of her life rejecting it. She’s accompanied by her quirky best friend and an ambivalent love interest.

Q: WHAT THEMES CAN READERS FIND IN YOUR LATEST BOOK?

Embrace your magic” is a theme that I associate with the series. In book one I would say that the theme started with me in the sense that my magic is writing and it was time for me to write my first novel. The idea of embracing one’s magic flowed into the main character Kori Ember in a very literal sense and continues in book two as she still works to accept the magical aspects of herself and her life.

Q: HOW DID YOU GET INTO THE FANTASY GENRE?

Escapism, that’s the honest answer for how I got into fantasy. I fell in love with fantasy because of the worlds and magic that can be found there and the diversion it offers from everyday reality. The 1985 Alice in Wonderland two-part American madefor-TV fantasy musical was my favourite world and characters growing up. Alice in Wonderland remains my favourite to this day although there are a number of other titles that I can add to the list including J.R.R Tolkien, Terry Brooks, Robert Jordan, Margaret Atwood, George Martin and so on . . .

Q: HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR WRITING STYLE?

I’m still trying to figure out my writing style. The Ember Files is fast-paced and easy to read so for now that is how I will describe my writing style. I credit finding my writer’s voice with becoming a mother. I had been away from writing for several years while working on a different career path, but once my children were born it rekindled my passion to tell stories. The stories I told at that point were about my children and they were often humorous parenting moments that made me stand back and shake my head (non-fiction). My writing voice continued to grow from there and without realizing it that humour spread into my fiction.

Q: HOW DOES YOUR OTHER CAREER BENEFIT YOUR WRITING?

Law and writing were my two passions growing up. I wanted to work in law and I wanted to write. I never connected the two, there were always separate passions and they still are. Whether being a police officer benefits my writing, I’m not sure. Perhaps I could answer that easier if I wrote crime or mystery. But writing benefits my career as a police officer because writing is part of my self-care program. It allows me to reduce stress, smile, see humour, and create something that I can share with others so that they can reduce stress, smile and laugh too.

Q: WHAT OTHER PROJECTS ARE YOU CURRENTLY WORKING ON AT THE MOMENT?

I have a loose outline for book three in The Ember Files, but I set it aside to write an Ember Files side story that’s novella length. It’s set approximately forty years before The Ember Stone which is book one in The Ember Files. I’m in the early stages of editing with a projected publication date of 2024.

ABOUT SHARI MARSHALL

Shari Marshall isn’t a static snapshot.

Shari is a writer moonlighting as a police officer. She graduated University over a decade ago with an Honour English degree, and she received a diploma in Creative Writing, a Writing Memoirs certificate, as well as psychology, policing, and communication courses/certificates. She is someone who writes because she must.

Links:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sharimarshallauthor/ Twitter: @WritingSparkle

Website: https://brewingcoffeetwistingwordsbreakingpencils.ca/