Cheryl Malandrinos Interview

I have the pleasure of interviewing Cheryl Malandrinos, a lady with many talents. Cheryl is a staff member for Writer2Writer and writes articles on time management and organization for writers, as well as on many other subjects. She is a member of Musing Our Children and is also a virtual book tour coordinator for Pump Up Your Book Promotion. Recently, she received some very good news, but I’ll let her tell you about that. Thank you, Cheryl, for taking time out of your busy life to visit with us today.

Bev: When did you discover you wanted to be a writer?

Cheryl: Growing up I knew I wanted to be one of two things: a teacher or a writer. I’ve always been an avid reader and English was a strong subject for me in school, so I enjoyed writing book reports, poetry, and my own stories. I have a manila folder tucked away in my hope chest of stories I wrote as a teenager.

Writing also helped me deal with the loss of my mother when I was fourteen. She had cancer for two years before she passed away. My writings during those times, as expected, dealt with death and loss. I usually write about much happier topics these days, but I know letting my feelings flow onto paper allowed me to move forward after my mother’s death.

Bev: You recently signed a contract for your first book. Tell us about your journey to this exciting moment.

Cheryl: Yes, God has been good to me. I had written off and on since my teenage years, but life got in the way. When I became a stay-at-home mom five years ago, I decided to follow my dreams of becoming a writer.

I entered into Long Ridge Writing Group’s Breaking into Print program and learned a great deal about writing articles. At the time I was reading non-fiction books exclusively and knew this was my strong point.

While I was attending the first Muse Online Writers Conference in 2006, the conversation shifted to whether or not writers should work pro-bono to secure clips. I believe in doing this at the beginning, and I mentioned how I wrote several time management articles for a now defunct eZine. Cheryl Wright from Writer2Writer contacted me and asked to see them and I soon began working for her on a regular basis.

I had written some fiction pieces, but showing instead of telling has never been my strong suit, so I continued to attend the Muse conferences, kept writing fiction, and took advantage of all the critiques I could get. The hard work paid off. Lynda Burch from Guardian Angel Publishing presented at the 2008 Muse Online Writers Conference and offered the attendees of her weekly forum a chance to submit their manuscript. After some additional revisions, Lynda offered me my first book contract. The Little Shepherd Boy should be out sometime in the fall of next year.

[To read the entire interview go to my blog:
http://beverlystowemcclure.blogspot.com

You'll be glad you did.