How do you get to be one of the best selling fantasy authors in the world? Learn all about how Sherrilyn Kenyon has battled her life’s challenges in this exclusive interview. This week we were lucky enough to get an interview with the lovely Sherrilyn Kenyon, best-selling New York Times author. We discussed her trials, tribulations, triumphs and her newest book.
Kenyon has always known she wanted to be a writer. As a third grader, the school paper published one of her pieces, and things took off from there. At age eighteen, she wrote her first novel and was published at twenty-four.
Furthermore, she explains that starting in the business, she had 105 rejections before her six best sellers. All of which occurred in two years. She had her son in 1996 and life took a turn for the worse.
With a newborn and a husband in law school, there wasn’t much time for writing, and unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot of money either. Both of her parents diagnosed with cancer and in-laws were at odds with her, Kenyon felt scared and alone.
However, a light did sparkle in the distance. Kenyon’s very first manager was now an editor for Harbor College Publishing. Sherrilyn knew that she might have the slightest chance. So she wrote what she calls, the most pathetic intro letter possible…“You probably don’t remember me”. The bit was likely not to work, but then I wouldn’t be writing this story now would I?
Sherrilyn says she owes everything to Laura Cifelli. The editor gave her a chance. Laura was amazed and excited to hear from Kenyon after such a long time. She was dying to know where she’d been and what she had in the works.
Lovingly, editor Cifelli gave Kenyon a big break and its brought her down her successful road these last twenty plus years. The author says she loves everything about her work, and wouldn’t give it up for the world — an unknown fact about Ms. Sherrilyn Kenyon, computer programmer. Her career as a Microsoft Trainer could be useful. She hates computers. “Computers frustrate me, and I hated programming.”
Sherrilyn has had a lot of struggle in her life and has fought tooth and nail to continue her work as an author, a storyteller. With her newest novel Stygian from her Dark-Hunters series, becoming an international hit, things are working out for the author. Heres an enticing passage from her latest book Stygian.
“Born before man recorded time, I lived for thousands of years, believing myself to be something I’m not. Someone I’m not. Lied to and betrayed by gods, Daimons, and Dark-Hunters, I’ve struggled to find my way in a world where I’ve been cursed since the moment a vengeful goddess prematurely ripped me from my mother and planted me into the womb of an innocent woman who thought me her son.”
Her next book releases in a few months, and it’s sure to wow her fans as well. She has a bright future, indeed. The last words she left me with were, ” A No won’t kill you”.
An admirable woman in today’s world, accomplished, active, and still striving to be better. You can see all of her books on her website and pre-order At Deaths Door at her website linked here.