Author Interview with Cheryl King author of Under the PawPaw Trees
Welcome Readers toanother installment of our author interview series. Today we have the pleasureof chatting with Cheryl King, author of two YA historical fiction books.
JMR-Welcome to theBooks Delight, Cheryl. Tell our readers where you live, what you do for fun andwhat does the perfect day look like?
CK- I live inMansfield, Texas, in a log home in the woods, so the perfect day to me isstaying home, reading and writing, and enjoying the view. For fun, I enterwriting contests. My favorites are Writing Battle and NYCMidnight, and theyoffer everything from 100-word microfiction to 3,000-word short storychallenges. I prefer flash fiction – 1,000 words or less – which is weird,given that I also write novels. But I guess a novel is a series of shortervignettes sewn together with a common theme, isn’t it?
And, because I’m a realperson, I’ll admit that I also spend way too much time scrolling social mediaand playing games on my phone, like Monopoly Go and Phase 10.
JMR-What’s yourfavorite historical time period? Why?
CK- I’m fascinated bythe early-to-mid 1900s, probably because it’s historical enough to be differentbut near enough to be relatable, if that makes any sense.
Down the street from meis a museum in an old house that was built in the late 1800s and occupied byone of the founders of my city through at least the 1930s. Touring the housewas magical to me, learning about the way they lived. It was like … nostalgiafor the simpler times, yet their life was in no way simple. I certainly don’tthink I could spend hours churning butter, scrubbing clothes on a washboard,and hauling water in buckets up from the well. But for some reason, that life,climbing onto the large porch, wooden floors creaking beneath my feet,conversing in the parlor, a breeze flowing through the open windows, feedingthe fire in the woodstove for supper later, hanging clothes to dry in thespring sun – it feels like home.
JMR-Who is yourfavorite historical figure? Why? If you could ask them one question, what wouldit be?
CK- Honestly, I don’thave a favorite historical figure. I’m drawn to stories of regular people,slice of life stories of folks who wouldn’t be in the history books. One of myfavorite parts about writing my books was researching and learning about howpeople lived during the Great Depression. It was the little things thatintrigued me the most: how they put cardboard inside their shoes when the shoeswere falling apart; how they made clothes from flour sacks; how they barteredwith their neighbors when they couldn’t afford to shop for necessities.
If I could meet one ofthose people, the everyday people, I would ask them for their best piece ofadvice on living a full and satisfying life.
JMR- How did you cometo be a writer of historical fiction?
CK- Well, that was ahappy accident. I was participating in a flash fiction contest, NYCMidnight.And before the prompts dropped, I thought about which genre would be the mostdifficult for me to write in 1,000 words. I wanted to have a plan in case I wasassigned that genre. I decided historical fiction would be the hardest for me,so I spent some time thinking about which time period I’d write and what storyI would tell.
When the flash fictionprompts arrived, I was not assigned historical fiction, but the story I hadbegun writing in my head stayed there and grew and grew until I had to actuallystart typing. And it became my first novel. I loved researching and writing thestory, and went on to write a sequel, but my next book idea is not historical –it’s actually a futuristic dystopian with some time travel laced in.
JMR- You worked as ajournalist and then became a middle school teacher and now a dyslexiatherapist; how has each of these careers impacted or formed your writing style?
CK- This is a fantasticquestion, because each of these things has impacted my writing in big ways.When I worked for newspapers, I was a copy editor and designer, so every day, Iread so many stories – and revised and edited them. Because my undergraddegree was in journalism, I’d learned a great deal about what makes a storyinteresting, how to hook the reader, and how to trim a long story down to barebones. I also learned the AP Stylebook backward and forward.
Fast-forward to mysecond career – teaching – and there I was, reading middle grade and youngadult books and short stories, and really enjoying them! And of course as areading teacher, you don’t just read the stories – you analyze the heck out ofthem, find the figurative language, create character sketches, compare andcontrast them with others, etc., etc. to the moon and back.
Not only did theseexposures and exercises make me a better writer, but they formed my writingphilosophy. (This is where I sometimes get hate, but that’s okay.) I believethat not everyone wants to read cursing, sex, and gore when they read forpleasure – and especially in books for teens. So I write clean. I write for thestudents I taught, as well as adults who appreciate good, wholesome stories.
JMR- Did you visitanyone of the places in your book? Where did you feel closest to yourcharacters?
CK- I so much wanted togo to Maynardville, Tennessee, where my books are mainly set, and travel toKnoxville, then up to Lafayette and Roanoke, Virginia. But while I was writingthe first book of the series (Sitting on Top of the World), Covidlockdowns happened. And then … life happened. So, the best I could do wasGoogle Maps street views.
But I can picture theBaker family’s small farm in Maynardville so clearly in my head, the route maincharacter June takes to downtown and to her best friend’s house, theMaynardville farmer’s market – all of it. I feel like I have lived there for awhile.
JMR- Cheryl, tell usabout your new book, Under the Pawpaw Trees.
CK- Under the PawpawTrees is the sequel to Sitting on Top of the World. While in thefirst book, young June went train hopping to find work to help her familyduring the Great Depression, in the second book, she goes back out on the railsto find the railroad bull she believes killed her brother – and get revenge.Her plan is complicated by the fact that she loves this railroad bull. Now shemust decide where she belongs – at home in Maynardville with her dear friendand love interest, Jimmy, or in Lafayette, Virginia, with a young man and hisfamily, who have given June stability during a much too turbulent time in herlife.
It’s about a teen girlwho has faced unimaginable tragedies trying to find her place in the world.
JMR-What projects doyou have in the pipeline?
CK- I have just begunwriting a young adult dystopian time travel book, and after that, I have amiddle grade magical realism to write. I do have a third book idea for Sittingon Top of the World to make it a trilogy, but I’m not sure if that willcome to fruition.
JMR- Tell our readershow to find you on social media and the web.
CK- Readers can find meon my website and subscribe to my author newsletter at https://cherylkingwritesthings.com.I’m also on
Twitter: @CKing_Author
Facebook: Cheryl KingWrites Things
Tiktok:@Cherylking_author
Instagram: Cherylking
JMR- What question wereyou hoping I’d ask but didn’t?
CK- I would like toshare my indie publisher disaster story turned success story. My first book wassigned by a new small publisher, and it published in June of 2021. But in July,the publisher closed (and ghosted all of his authors without paying them theirearned royalties). We all picked ourselves up off the floor and republished,some with other indies, and some (like me) through IngramSpark and KDP. Sincerepublishing on my own, Sitting on Top of the World has won first placein the YA category of the Eric Hoffer Book Awards, plus a First Horizon Awardfor debut authors. The sequel, Under the Pawpaw Trees, has won a 5-starMust Read Award from the Historical Fiction Company and is in the running fortheir Book of the Year Award. Next spring, I’ll know if it has placed in anyother contests.
JMR- Thank you, Cheryl,for stopping by. Your books look really great! Readers, I’ve included a link toCheryl’s books below. Please be sure to check them out.
