Mia Sheridan’s last book Kyland became an instant bestseller. The readers love it. Since its publishing month ago the novel gathered almost 500 reviews. It’s very rare for an author to have three books that are averaging 4.9 Amazon stars from hundreds of reviews. To be honest Mia Sheridan is the first one that I notice around the market with such high permanent recognition.
Our next guest is New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. She lives in Cincinnati with her husband and their four kids. Land of Books says welcome to one of the top Romantic writers on the planet.

– Mia, your last book Kyland is averaging amazing 4.9 stars in almost 500 Amazon reviews. What is the special secret of the book?
– I wish I knew! 😀 I’d attempt to duplicate it each time. 😀 But if I’m just going by the things people are saying in reviews, I’d say that there’s a good response to the emotions in the book, and that the characters are real and relatable. They face problems and feel things we’ve all felt, even if under different circumstances. It’s easier to lose yourself in a story if you can relate to the characters and understand their decisions and responses.

– How did you decide to write the story?
– I really wanted to write a story about poverty. I’d read an article several years back about the devastating poverty in Appalachia and began researching it. It really started from there.
– What was the biggest challenge during the write up process?
– For me, the biggest challenge was to balance making the story realistic, but also making it a “fantasy,” and a love story the reader could lose themselves in.
– Tell us something more about your main characters Tenleigh and Kyland? Are they close to someone from your real life?
– Nope! They’re entirely fictional! My husband likes to think each of my heroes is based at least partly on him, so we’ll let him keep thinking that. 😉
– Did you expect that Sign of Love series will make you New York Times and USA Today bestselling author?
– Oh my God, no. Never. When I first published, my big dream was to make the cost of my book back ($180).
– How your life changed after the success of your books?
– Honestly, it hasn’t really changed all that much. We’re able to do things we couldn’t before, but we’re not very fancy or extravagant people. I still clothes shop at Kohl’s and buy household items from Overstock.com. But we’re able to help others more so than we could before, and that’s the best part. (And it makes me feel sort of itchy to say that because I fear it comes off in the wrong way, but that’s the truth).
– How much time did you need to finish the story and to publish it?
– It takes me about two months to write a Sign of Love novel. And then a month to edit it.
– Who are you?
– Shy, a homebody, creative.
– What are your writing habits?
– I don’t know that I have any habits per se, but I do like to be showered and put together before I write. It’s a confidence thing!
– What are you doing to promote your book by the best possible way?
– I don’t do a lot of promoting, honestly, other than sending ARCs out to blogs and hoping they like it enough to help promote! And I talk to my readers a lot.
– When we will see your next novel?
– I’m not sure just yet as I haven’t even started writing anything new!
– What was your occupation before you start writing?
– I was a graphic designer. Which helps a lot now with covers!
– I read that your daughter Darcy Rose inspired you to start writing, but do you remember the exact moment when you decided to start a book project?
– Yes, I was standing up in my kitchen, waiting for toast to pop up and I had a vision of the tattoo in Leo! That’s the first moment I really felt inspired to start putting a story on “paper.”
– With four children around you, would you share your experience how important is for parents to read books and to tell stories to their kids?
– I think reading is so important for several reasons – 1. It helps kids learn grammar, language, etc. with hardly any effort at all. As you read, you not only take in the story, but you take in the rules of language, and so many other things. 2. I encourage my daughter, especially, to read because I think encouraging her to be a romantic will help her make better choices. If you just came away from reading about Edward saying to Bella, “You are my life now,” you’re less likely to find the opposite kind of man attractive. 😀 Or at least that’s my theory – let’s hope it works!!
– If you may ask yourself one question in the interview what it will be?
– Which one of your characters do you identify with the most? Probably Evie – although perhaps she’s a more perfected version. I put most of myself into her, though, mostly because I didn’t expect anyone would ever read it!

Learn more about Mia Sheridan at her Web page
Twitter
Facebook page

Take a look at her books

Leo’s Chance
Finding Eden
Becoming Calder
Stinger
Leo
Kyland
Archer’s Voice